World War II Survivors - Loose Creek

Posted 11/11/22

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a firsthand account of Mr. Haslag’s experience during World War II.

Bonnots Mill- Albert started out at Great Lakes for his basic training and then to San Bruno, …

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World War II Survivors - Loose Creek

Posted

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a firsthand account of Mr. Haslag’s experience during World War II.

Bonnots Mill- Albert started out at Great Lakes for his basic training and then to San Bruno, California for two months of specialized training in rifle - machine gun - flame-throwing before being shipped out for duty. He got to the Marshall Islands for further training to drive landing craft - LCM and LCVP. The LCVP was plywood - “we called them the one way craft” with a three-man crew. The LCM was a metal 68-foot long craft with a five-man crew. This was “my main craft.” This is the one I lived on - never had a mattress to sleep on - just a folding cot. There was no dining room - no toiletries!

Here I was given a carbine and the officer said to “keep that with you 24 hours a day - where you’re going, you’ll need it as a lifeguard.”

This is where I started with General MacArthur on his “Island Hopping Campaign.” We headed for the island of Biak, New Guinea. When we landed on Biak with a load of troops of the 186th Regimental Combat Team, we came under small-arms fire. Fred Otto from Linn was in that unit. The Army wanted this small island as an airbase. After 10 days or so the island was secured and we loaded up the 3rd Marine Division and headed for Peliliu. This island was Japanese-owned with 25,000 or so troops on it. MacArthur felt that he could take this island in 4-5 days. Here’s where hell broke out. We got pinned down on the beach for four or five days. My landing craft got one motor knocked out, so I moved out into the jungle with the Marines for 13 days. The stench from the decaying bodies was unbearable due to the 110-120 degree temperature. Finally got my craft repaired and was back to hauling supplies or whatever was needed back to the beach from the supply ship. The island was finally secured after 47 days. (Sept. 15, 1944 to Nov. 27, 1944)

Then we loaded up for the invasion of Leyte Island in the Philippines. This turned out to be a long, hard struggle. (I hauled Gibby Hilkemeyer onto Leyte.) While there we had food poisoning twice! Turkey! Several days after the invasion, when MacArthur returned, he spoke his famous words, “I have returned!” 

After several weeks on Leyte, we loaded up again - this time for the island of Mindora. On our way, several kamikaze planes attacked our convoy - severely hitting two troop ships - one loaded with Navy SEALs, the other with Army troops. They blew them all over the place. We unloaded 10 or so landing craft to pick up the living, wounded, or dead troops. My craft picked up 37 such men - 450 men died in this attack. 

Several weeks later, we invaded Lingayen Gulf on Luzon. On the first load in, I hauled Herb Vossen from Loose Creek and Joe Schwartz from Westphalia (both in the 20th Infantry Division). The second trip, I hauled a two-ton Jeep and about 50 men. We got within two miles of land and got hit by shell fire or a mine at water level. Ten minutes later everything was on the bottom of the sea. All I had left was the clothes on my back and my bodyguard - the carbine! Eight or nine men on board were killed. 

After several weeks, we got organized again and found out that the Japanese were holding 150 POWs at Palawan Island - we were assigned to the 186th Regimental Team for the rescue of these POWs. The Japanese somehow knew that we were coming so they put the prisoners in a trench and poured fuel over them and set them on fire. What a sight. (There are 123 of these service men buried in a mass grave at Jefferson Barracks cemetery near St. Louis.) While landing, we came under intense gunfire and two men of my unit were wounded and one killed. While loading these men, I took a bullet in my left calf. Coming back to the cockpit on my landing craft, there was one of my gunners shot - bleeding badly. I unstrapped him and laid him down on deck, giving him my life jacket for a pillow. When we got to the hospital ship, he was dead. John Ross from Minnesota - my best friend - went through basic training with him. At the hospital, the medic told me to come aboard since I was wounded. I asked him how bad my wound was -just a flesh wound - so I had him just patch me up, so back to work I went. He said that if I had gone aboard, I’d never gotten back with my unit. That was my answer! Plenty of morphine and antibiotics and I was on my way again!

After a little time, we loaded up again - this time for the island of Mindanao. We hauled in troops and supplies there - the war was winding down. A lot of rifle fire going on here - artillery at night. After 10 days or so we loaded up again - on our way to Guiuan Samar - the war came to an end! 

On Samar, which was a gathering point for the invasion of Japan, I was declared “essential” for what I did during the war. I hauled men back to gathering points and ship to return home. This was six more months of duty. The “Island Hopping” Campaign was 14 months for me. I was shell-shocked and half-nuts when I came back. The day that I came back, my mom was home by herself and she had a bowl of strawberries on the kitchen table. I got me a bowl and some sugar and “lit into them!” She sat across the table from me and I noticed tears running down her cheeks and she said “What did they do to you?” 

That is when I locked up and never talked about the war. I weighed 185 pounds when I went into the service and only 135 pounds when I came home. 

“Kill and conquer” was what changed our brains over there! We came home to loving and kindness - that’s why I was half-nuts when I came home. 

I did not meet the men that I mentioned in here until back from the war - found all that out later on.

Albert W. Haslag, Bonnots Mill, Mo.