Biographie

1942 · 0002089 — SOUTH PACIFIC PHILIPPINES. Good. 1942. On offer is an interesting original group of five 5 handwritten diaries detailing the service and experiences of WWII field hospital pharmacist Robert J. Schrieber of Tell City Indiana who served in the Pacific with the 3rd Field Hospital as well as other stations throughout the Pacific during the War. T-4 Schrieber recounts faithfully almost daily many of the things he sees and hears while in the Pacific moving from island to island with the infantry and support personal. While Schrieber is in a critical and important technical and medical position he finds himself with a lot of spare time during his service. When called to perform his medical duties we realize much of it was hard and often distasteful but in his down time he was able to become a good bridge player see all the movies read books and play more bridge. Robert also reports that they had taken care of 25000 patients at his 3rd Field Hospital in or near Guadalcanal before them being relieved of duty in late 1945. Here are some snippets: July 21 1942. Inducted into US Army at 6:00 o'clock in the evening at Camp Livingston near Alexandria Louisiana. Next several months are entries while in states and training. Log from April 14 1943 - Passed under the Golden Gate Bridge at about 10:30 a.m. The sky was overcast and the sea was moderately rough. I became sea sick about 3:00 p.m. after we hit the open sea. There are approximately 2800 on board. The passengers include enlisted men officers nurses Red Cross personal.men and women and USO entertainers. There is also quite a bit of freight aboard. In addition to our outfit there are aboard air corps men malaria control outfits Signal corps and engineer outfit. Friday April 23- Quite a few on board have diarrhoea. However I escaped that. We are in Hold 9 deck D. We drink 2 bottles of Pepsi-cola a day warm and we like it. Thurs 29th - The sea has been very rough all day and is getting worse. It has been raining most of the day. We are 300 miles off New Zealand today. Expect to arrive at Brisbane Sunday." On Sunday May 2nd we sighted Australia and we disembarked around 3 o'clock. We marched to camp Doomben in Brisbane. It was a race course and very nice. Then began one of the most pleasant periods in my Army career." He recounts more personal outings and people he meets shows and dinner theater all kinds of interesting entries while he is in Brisbane Australia. "I went to shingle Inn. A very nice Australian lady shared a table with us. We were very much interested in everything and at first had difficulty understanding the Aussies." After a few more days "finally we were ordered North. On Aug. 14 we got on a Norwegian ship The Toorin. There were Aussie commandos aboard too. We were on it a week." 'On Sat. Aug. 21st we came to K.B. Mission Milne Bay New Guinea. One night on the boat we all had to sleep on deck because we were passing through dangerous waters. The Toorin was loaded with gasoline block busters and ammunition I didn't enjoy that ship at all." Wed. Sept. 15-Heard quite a bit of gunfire last night. Had gas mask inspection this morning. Now our platoon has reported to 174th station for detail duty. Got 10 letters one had been mailed on July 8th. Saw "Hillbilly Blitzkrieg" at jungle theater. It was lousy. Allies took Solomons today. Sat. Sept. 18 1943- Today marks the end of the first month that we have been in N.G. Rumor has it we are to be prepared to move the 20th- two days from now to Lae or Solomon. Solomon has been taken but there is still bitter fighting at Lae. This day I am taking care of the dispensary. "Valley of The Sun" at the show tonight. Sun. Sept 19th-Another beautiful day I am beginning to think N.G. weather isn't so bad. Went to church this morning.much of these diaries you hear of military things but for Schrieber he is just doing a job during the day and goofing off and then going to shows and playing cards. Washed clothes went swimming. Saw "It happened in Flatbush" tonight. Found out officially that Lae was taken Sept 16th at 11:00 o'clock. Lae here we come! Sat. Oct. 2- We landed at Lae about 10:00 p.m. We sure have been lucky. We have never been torpedoed or bombed after all out time on the ocean. We are now the closest large hospital to the front line. There is small scale fighting about 25 miles from here.As we drove along we could see scenes of utter devastation in the darkness. Sunday Oct3.- Today we had a chance to view the wreckage. Many of the fellows have found dead Japs guns grenades flags etc at the airfield there is the wreckage of about 50 Jap zeroes strung over the field. We landed after Lae had been captured only 2 weeks. Along the road there is wreckage of Chevrolets and Fords which the Japs had. Thurs. Oct. 7- Started work in dispensary today .worked very hard all day until 10:o'clock p.m. There are two Jap horses grazing in our area everyday. Sunday Oct 10-Our first experience at actual air raid. Playing cards in dispensary 8:45 suddenly we hear an airplane motor that was higher pitched than ours. Our hospital is out in the open and would provide a very good target from the air. Some of the fellows stayed behind and carried litter patients to the bomb craters. The poor patients were scared to death even though some of them had been through 50 or 60 of them. Its something you never get use to it. The ones that could walk ran for the jungle and most of them being half naked were eaten by mosquitoes. The whole thing showed poor preparation for an air attack. The bomber started to drop his eggs. It seemed as though all Hell broke loose. I was so scared I just kept running through the seemingly impenetrable jungle until I reached the creek where I stayed until the attack was over. My heart was pounding like 60 and I was scared to death. Monday Oct 11- No one in Lae was killed last night but a few had minor injuries. running scared in the jungle can do that to a guy At Orel Bay Friday night 36 Yanks were killed and 200 wounded. The 36 were killed when a daisy cutter hit a mess hall. Very few smiling faces today. Everyone admitted fright. Everyone is digging fox holes. I have one beside my bed-everyone expects the Japs again tonight. We had a show tonight "The ice capades of 1943" Oct 12- We have a Jap prisoner in the hospital. He was captured very close to here by an American officer. He was too weak to run. He says there were seven more with him but they are all dead. He will not tell us where they are buried. It is probably a lie. He is about 4 feet tall young and well built. He looks like a chink to me. Thurs. Oct. 14- Heard they really plastered Rabaul last night but we would not be able to see fire 400 miles away. They damaged 100 Jap planes on the ground and 12 in the air. Hit two cruisers and a destroyer. Maybe they're too busy there to come here---I hope. Sat. Nov. 6- My second bombing. The Japs struck at 8:30 in the morning. They hit the no. 1 air field about two miles from here. There were two killed one plane destroyed and two damaged. One of the fellows was under a P-38 a bomb made a direct hit on it killing him and demolishing the plane. The other fellow had shrapnel in the abdomen and leg and died this afternoon. There were 10 Jap zeroes and all of them didn't drop their bombs. After part of them dropped their eggs about 15 they dived to within 150 ft. of the strip and strafed it. We could see it and we could also see them darting in and out of the clouds. It seems to me they always catch us napping. I didn't have time to get scared. Monday Dec. 13- Haven't been bombed since Nov 7 altho we have heard several Jap planes flying over at different times Jan 1-1944- Nadzab New Guinea Received a quart of Old Grandad through the mail from Charles last night. It helped to forget my disappointment of my rating. T-4 rating not getting it Mon. Jan 3-Nazdab is quite a historic spot! The parachutists landed here to take Lae. It is the first time our paratroopers had been used in this War. Sat. Jan 15- I am 27 years old today. While we were eating breakfast six Japanese planes came over for the first time since Nov 7. They were plenty low and we sent up a stream of tracers bullets. None were hit. One of them attacked one of our transports six times strafing him right before our eyes. He made an emergency landing at the RAF field and was not hurt but had about 40 bullet in his plane. He was brought here and x-rayed. Feb 6- Saw "Fallen Sparrow" tonight Feb. 7- A fellow was brought in stabbed to death another cut up and another shot fatally. Feb 8- Fellow died from Ludwig's angina mouth disease Very rare disease. Saw "Fired Wife". Feb 11- I saw "True to Life" last night with Pete. It rained all during the show. I was soaking wet when I got home.this part of the diary is stained from getting wet etc. from that rain The rumors today are that Gusap has been invaded or will be invaded by Jap parachutists Transports were sighted at Wianwok giving rise to the rumor of Jap parachutists striking someplace perhaps. Sat. Mar.4- Saw "Your a Lucky Fellow Mr Smith". It was fair. They have not been able to reach the wreckage of the plane crash of Tues. night because of dense jungle. 10 men perished. The light of the fire lit up our tents. Sun March 5- Much excitement this morning a B-24 crashed this morning on the strip with a full bomb load. Six died two are expected to momentarily and one will survive. Mon Mar 6- The 2nd field nurses have left here to join their outfit at Wiewok. Natives are coming in pharmacy frequently for peroxide to dye their hair. men Must stop it. Tues. Mar7- All the plane crash victims died. March 9- Reconnaissance planes spotted 100 Jap bombers tonight. 8 of our planes went over but the Japs were ready for them and shot them all up. None were shot down though. Saw Olivia DeHavilland in "Government Girl" It was swell."; Manuscript; 16mo - over 5¾" - 6¾" tall; KEYWORDS: HISTORY OF ROBERT J. SCHRIEBER TELL CITY INDIANA ARMY PHARMACIST PACIFIC THEATRE MEDICAL MEDICINE GUADALCANAL SOUTH PACIFIC K.B. MISSION MILNE BAY NEW GUINEA INFANTRY WWII WW2 WORLD WAR II MEN'S STUDIES AMERICANA HANDWRITTEN MANUSCRIPT AUTOGRAPHED AUTHORS AMERICANA MANUSCRIPT DOCUMENT LETTER AUTOGRAPH KEEPSAKE WRITER HAND WRITTEN DOCUMENTS SIGNED LETTERS MANUSCRIPTS HISTORICAL HOLOGRAPH WRITERS AUTOGRAPHS PERSONAL MEMOIR MEMORIAL PERSONAL HISTORY ARCHIVE DIARY DIARIES ANTIQUITÉ CONTRAT VÉLIN DOCUMENT MANUSCRIT PAPIER ANTIKE BRIEF PERGAMENT DOKUMENT MANUSKRIPT PAPIER OGGETTO D'ANTIQUARIATO ATTO VELINA DOCUMENTO MANOSCRITTO CARTA ANTIGÜEDAD HECHO VITELA DOCUMENTO MANUSCRITO PAPEL . hardcover