Milford chronicle., 1944-09-29

| The following is a letter froi
Sergeant Frank Hall, received r.
Gently by his wife, Mrs. Helen Ha
of Milford:
Dear Helen:
Nov that can write more
will tell you all 1 can about tn
Guam campaign. OF course Their
are things l can't write about an
other things that l don't care t
relate.
when we sailed from Oahu w
didn't know just where we wer
going but we all had a good idea
The trip on the boat was unevent
full. as we didn't do any thing bu
eat and sleep. A few days befor,
we hit Guam we were told JUS
what part we would play in the in
vasion. The night before we hit tht
island we could hear the distant
sounds of gun fire from the battle.
ships that were Smelling the island
and also see the flashes from the
guns. The next morning we got ouI
first glimpse of Guam. The battle.
ships were still giving it a terrific
bombardment and airplanes were
bombing and straffing the beaches
Soon it was our turn to leave
the ship and head for land. We
climbed down the rope ladders and
into the smaller landing crafts. We
circled around for a while and fin
ally headed for shore. The landing
crafts were not able to get all the
way to land as there was a coral
reef about a quarter of a mile from
land. We were finally dumped out
on the reef and from there we had
to wade to shore. The water was
from the knees up to the chest.
This would have been tough going
without any equipment to carry,
but all of us were really loaded
down, believe we were all carrying
over fifty pounds, so you can i'm
agine how 1t was.
when we finally came to dry
land our first impression was that
a cyclone had hit the place, trees
were uprooted-in other words the
place was a mess.
There was Jap airplane
wrecked, which had been shot
down days before. This was one
of the few planes that We saw that
were Japanese and all We did see
were wrecked.
ION the beach we saw our first
Japs and they were dead. We did
see one that was alive, but he was
a prisoner.
Shortly after arriving on the
beach We moved inland and dug
Dur fox holes for the night. The
night proved very exciting and
exciting as a few Japs
tried to penetrate our lines and
because it rained. The
next morning we counted six Japs
killed near our fox holes. All night
ong machine guns were chatter
ing, hand grenades exploding, just
like a Fourth of July. On a few
occasions during the night the Japs
would yell at us and tell us we had
better go home. A lot of them could
speak perfect English.
Our medical company really
lid a good job and l know we saw
ID a lot of mems lives. The blood
Dlasma is a real life saver. Some
# the wounded would come into
me station in bad shape and the
,lasma would really bring them
Jack.
IL haven't mentioned anything
bout the natives, in fact / don't
now much. Before we landed on
he island the Japs had most of
hem in a concentration camp. af-
err about two weeks of the cam
'aign they were set free. Seeing
hem going back towards their
ZONES by the thousands and carry
ng everything they owned was one
# the most heart raising scenes
hat one would want to see. This
made us feel that we were doing
ONE good. About five of the native
oys Joined up with our company
nd stayed with us until the battle
yas over Some of the stories they
Did were not very nice to talk 4,
bout. All the natives that | talked
} were glad that we had taken
YER the island again.
There are loads of coconuts
ere and we certainly had our fill ,
them. On one occasion we {
idn't have water for a day and
e drank the milk from them.
There are lots of cattle and wa
II buffalo on the island and the
ltives use them to pull wagons
'ound just like we use horses at
1me. Haven't seen too many
)rses.
THE country is really billy and
and it sure was
ugh walking up and down the
lis. Sometimes l thought my
art would jump out of my chest.
I'm sure glad that it is all over
wv and we can take it easy for c
w bilo ~ 4