VII. THE SECOND BATTLE OF BOUGAINVILLE
In March 1944, the Japs made an assault to drive us off the island, which they almost accomplished. They over-ran the two outer defense lines in places but were stopped by the third line, with the exception of a few that managed to slip through. Previously the marines had secured the beachhead area and had already moved on, and the area had been turned over to the army.
A call was made for re-enforcement and in a few days the harbor was full of troop, cargo and combat ships. As it turned out the troops were not used at that time, but we did unload the badly needed ammo, bombs, and gasoline. We were put on an 18-hour day - 6 on and 12 off. We had to go to work 6 hours earlier each day when you think in terms of a 24 hour day. It was impossible to get your system adjusted to this, (18 hour day), but we lived through it with very little complaining at a time like this.
On one occasion at the height of the push we were unloading 500 pound bombs onto Ducks (a 2 1/2 ton amphibious truck nicknamed "DUCK"), which would take their loads to the beach and right on to the fighter strip. The planes (Douglas dive bombers) would load up and head for the enemy line. The enemy was so close we could see the planes from the ship dive to drop their bombs. The planes would come out over the harbor from the air strip and one plane accidently dropped her bombs not far from the ship we were working on. The pilot immediately turned around and went back for another load.
With the use of these Ducks we were able to save time since we did not have to transfer the cargo onto a truck at the beach. Still it was difficult to load these ducks by the ship, as the water there was never very calm. They
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