The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1944-10-05
Fought In
Three Bitter
Campaigns
Libby Marine Was
In Guadalcanal, Tarawa
and Saipan Fighting.
TARAWA WAS SIMPLY
A MESS, HE SAYS

TARAWA WAS SIMPLY
A MESS, HE SAYS
THE taking Of Tarawa was SIM
ply an awful mess" said Cpl. Har-
~ Grambauer while talking to the
Western News reporter this week,
and the only good thing about it
was that the job only required from
five to six days. We had it cleaned
up by that time Grambauer re-
Gently returned to the States after
having spent about two years in
the Southwest Pacific and as
member Of the u. S. Marines was IN
most Of the heavy fighting in that
area. He was in one of the first
Marines detachments to land on
Guadalcanal and saw plenty Of bit
ter fighting there. As indicated
above he had hand in one of the
bloodiest battles of the war at Ia
raWa. Later he was also in on the
taking Of Saipan. "Saipan was
slow, hard fighting he said. I'VE
were bothered considerably there by
the number OF civilians Many OF
the civilians would not surrender;
others were kept from doing SO by
the Japs."
Joined After Pearl Harbor
Grambauer had made preparation
to join the Marines even before
Pearl Harbor, having passed his
physicals. On December 18, 1941, he
decided it was time to sign up and
did SO in Spokane After his re-
CURED training he left the States
for the center of hostilities in the
Southwest Pacific on July |, 1912.
Before long he was in that first
bitter campaign on small island
in the Guadalcanal group. Later he
was on the main island in time to
help drive the Japs back northWard.
Those were hard bitter days, he
says, some of the time most dis
couraging. After having driven the
Japs back across river about six
miles. the Marines were ordered to
retreat to join other American
fighters at their original base. I'VE,
did not know why we were ordered
to give up the territory we had
gained and we were pretty badly
discouraged for a time. Later we
learned it was good strategy. At
that time our navy was not sure of
having control of the sea and our
officers feared a Jap force would be
landed back of US and the two
American forces would be caught
with Japs in between them and ex-.
terminated. However, that condition
n Ia I'll
member, just about that time the
American navy surprised the Japs
in an attempt to land a force and
one Of the big naval battles of the
war took place in the narrow waters
between Guadalcanal and an adj
joining island We Marines had
ringside seats for that battle and
saw much Of it. | saw destroyers--
both Japanese and our oWn-struck
squarely by large shells and in
stantly blown to nothingness. There
would be a tremendous flash, ter
rifle explosion followed by frap-
ments of the ship falling back into
the water The ship was gone"
Snakes Not Too Bad
Poisonous snakes were not too
bad on the islands, Grambauer said.
There were lot of coral snakes,
he said. One day coral snake,
which are very poisonous, jumped
for my shoulder from a tree saw
it out of the corner of my eye in
time to dodge and it missed me. The
boys standing by instantly killed it,
(Note-A few years ago when we
were in Florida we were shown
dead coral snake and were told that
death followed within 20 minute;
when bitten by one)
The flies and mosquitoes were the
worst bother" the corporal con-
tinued. II have seen the ground
black with flies on Saipan and
hordes of mosquitoes at night The
flies worked on us by day, the
mosquitoes by night. They didn't give
us much rest.
Countless Lizards
ION Guadalcanal there were
countless lizards. They were about
eight inches long and got into ev-
erything-into our beds, our cloth
ing, our tents, everywhere. We
didn't pay much attention to them.
There was also larger lizard, about
three feet long, and others still
larger. One day I was standing on
the bank Of a river and heard
noise across the stream. Looking
that way saw an abnormally large
lizard making off into the brush.
1t was fully seven feet long and
stood on legs from "a to 80 inches
tall. That was the only one ever
saw that large. Lizards are no.
poisonous"
After the hard fighting on Qua
dalcanal his detachment was sent
to New Zealand for recuperating.
Most Of the men had malaria and
were in poor condition. But they
soon regained their health in New
Zealand.
That's fine country" remarked
Gramhauer. 'The people were more
than cordial and kind. They invited