| Below is the diary of Cpl. Benjamin Wood during his military service during World War II. Spelling has been transcribed exactly as originally written. White font indicates comments from the web author. Associated images come from items belonging to Benjamin Wood and are also taken from various Internet sources to show the particular place visited or otherwise referenced by him. Click the image to see a larger version and additional images. | |||
| Date | Diary Entry (verbatim) | Location |
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January 10, 1942 |
Entered the Army January 10, 1942. | Jefferson Barracks, Missouri |
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| January 16, 1942 | Left Jefferson Barracks (Mo) Jan 16, 1942. | Jefferson Barracks, Missouri |  |
| January 18, 1942 | Arrived at Ft. Francis E Warren Wyoming Jan 18, 1942. | Ft. Warren, Wyoming |  |
| March 16, 1942 | Left there March 16, 1942 | Ft. Warren, Wyoming | |
| March 22, 1942 | Arrived at Camp Cooke Calif. on March 22, 1942. Spent nineteen months there. | Camp Cooke, California |  |
| August 30, 1943 | Left Cooke in Sept. of 43 (Aug 30) for Bend Oregon for maneuvers. Spent a month & a half in the desert in Oregon. | Camp Cooke, California Bend, Oregon |
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| November 13, 1943 | Left Bend for Fort Lewis the 13th of Nov. 43. Spent almost two days driving to Washington in convoy. | Bend, Oregon | |
| December 16, 1943 | Went to hospital on Dec. 16th for Scarlet Fever. Spent 23 days in the isolation ward. Missed my furlough because of it & spent Christmas & New Years there. | Ft. Lewis, Washington |  |
| January 7, 1944 | Left Fort Lewis for my furlough on Jan. 7, 1944. It was my third furlough. | Ft. Lewis, Washington |  |
| January 23, 1944 |
Arrived back in camp on the 23rd of Jan. |
Ft. Lewis, Washington |  |
| February 17, 1944 |
Left Fort Lewis for staging area at Vancouver Barracks Washington on the 17th of Feb. |
Ft. Lewis, Washington Vancouver Barracks, Washington |
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| February 27, 1944 |
Left Vancouver on the 27th of Feb. for Portland where we boarded a ship (the Pennant) for over seas. Sailed along the coast for five days & arrived at the post at San Pedro Calif. for oil & shipping order. Stayed there twenty four hours. |
Vancouver Barracks, Washington Portland, Oregon San Pedro, California |
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| March 3, 1944 |
Left there on the 3rd of March (secondary diary says morning of March 4). Passed the Catalina Islands on the way out. |
San Pedro, California |  |
| March 11, 1944 |
We passed of the Equator on March 11th. Was then made a Shellback. |
at sea - equator |  |
| March 17, 1944 | The international date line was crossed on the 17th of March & we lost one day. | at sea - International Date Line | |
| March 23/24, 1944 | No land sighted until the 23rd of March 44. It was the Corral Reefs. Sailed along the reefs all day & part of the 24th. The eve of the 24th we sailed into the harbor at Townsville Australia. We saw two or three ships & one aeroplane after leaving the states. | at sea Townsville, Australia |
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| March 24, 1944 | We docked at Townsville the night of the 24th thinking it was a stop over for supplies. Later in the night (midnight) we got off the Pennent. They took us to a camp called Armstrong Paddock by truck. It was a staging area for troops going to the front. Spent 6 months & 18 days at Armstrong doing detail work for outfits getting ready to move north. Among the detail jobs were: | Townsville, Queensland, Australia Camp Armstrong's Paddock, Australia |
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| September 3, 1944 (Sunday) | loaded timber | Camp Armstrong's Paddock, Townsville, Australia | |
| September 4, 1944 (Monday) | Motor Pool | Camp Armstrong's Paddock, Townsville, Australia | |
| September 5, 1944 (Tuesday) | off | Camp Armstrong's Paddock, Townsville, Australia | |
| September 6, 1944 (Wednesday) | Kangaroo AMO(?) - (Kangaroo Ordnance (Ammunition) Depot at Kurukan, Australia, north of Townsville - Benjamin Wood may have helped load/unload or work on construction of buildings at this site - thanks to Peter Dunn, Australia At War) | Camp Armstrong's Paddock, Townsville, Australia | |
| September 15, 1944 | Day Off. Malaria lecture at Red Cross. Had work done on one tooth - go to work. | Camp Armstrong's Paddock, Townsville, Australia | |
| September 18, 1944 | Have been ready to move for a few days now. We seem to think we will go to Atabie (Aitape) New Guinea. | Camp Armstrong's Paddock, Townsville, Australia | |
| October 3, 1944 | Left Armstrong Paddock at 8:00 PM in busses for jetty at Townsville, got on ship J. Murrice (Maurice) Thompson a Liberty ship that night. Stayed in harbor all night & left the next morning. | Camp Armstrong's Paddock, Townsville, Australia |  |
| October 4, 1944 | headed north destination unknown | at sea | |
| October 4, 1944 (night) | The ship had to lay over all night off the coast of Cairens (Cairns) Australia because they couldn’t go thru the Great Barrier Reefs in the dark. | at sea near Cairns, Australia | |
| October 5, 1944 | Started again at 6:15 A.M. Saw the last of Australia. The sea is rough. | at sea | |
| October 6, 1944 | Had two four hour shifts of guard last night. The boat rocked badly & the wind was very strong. One wave drenched all of us in this section. Had to stay on the bed all day to keep from getting seasick. | at sea | |
| October 7, 1944 | First sight of New Guinea this morning. Cloudy with very rough sea. | at sea near New Guinea | |
| October 7, 1944 | Sailed thru the China Straight into Milna (Milne) Bay. Anchored for one hour for shipping orders. Left at 1:15 P.M. | Milne Bay, New Guinea | |
| October 8, 1944 (Sunday) | Sailed with in sight of coast of New Guinea all day. Passed several reefs & small islands yesterday evening. | at sea near New Guinea | |
| October 9, 1944 (Monday) | Sailed into harbor at Fincheven (Finschhafen) New Guinea last night about midnight. Left the next morn at 10:00 A.M. | Finschhafen, New Guinea | |
| October 9, 1944 (afternoon) | First sight of New Briton (Britain) Island on the starboard side. The mountains can be seen in the haze. | at sea near New Britain, Papua, New Guinea | |
| October 9, 1944 (evening) | came in sight of a huge mountain off starboard. It looks like a volcano. The high mountain turned out to be part of Long Island at the tip of New Brition (Britain) Island. | at sea near New Britain, Papua, New Guinea | |
| October 11, 1944 (morning) | Sailed into harbor at Aitopa (Aitape) N. G. All ready to leave boat. 5:00 P.M. still waiting to go ashore in landing barges. | Aitape, New Guinea | |
| October 12, 1944 | Starting our new company area among a grove of coconut trees. Building shower & latrine. Very Hot. Ate a coconut this evening - saw my first native climb a tree - evening. Starting to bring our company supplies & tents into camp from the boat. Eating the best chow since leaving the states. Writing my first letter in New Guinea to Barbara (future wife) tonight. Had plenty of mail waiting for us here. I got 13 so far. | Aitape, New Guinea |  |
| October 13, 1944 to October 26, 1944 |
Spent this time fixing up the company area. Tents are up. Mess hall finished & our new day room opened on the 26th my birthday. We called the day room “The Hut”, the home of the tailess monkies. Have been working in the shipping & receiving dept. for over a week. The work is interesting but hard. Have seen a lot of Jap equipment that is being sent south & then to the states. The food is very good, pastries almost every meal. | Aitape, New Guinea |  |
| October 28, 1944 | Several of the boys almost drowned when a large wave knocked them off a Bujflo (?). Four were hurt very bad. Shortie was the worse hurt. Now we can’t go any where near the beach. | Aitape, New Guinea | |
| October 29, 1944 |
I spent my first day off sleeping & reading. Went to the show tonight & saw The Lady in Dark. We slipped down to the beach & watched the surf for a while before the show started. |
Aitape, New Guinea | |
| November 4, 1944 (Saturday) | Cut the back of my left hand and went to the hospital. | Aitape, New Guinea | |
| November 8, 1944 (Wednesday) | Left Atape (Aitape)
by plane to go to a general hospital at Lienchhaven (Finschhafen).
Ended up in Nabzob (Nadzab) N.G. in a hospital. Went to the show & heard
that Roosevelt had won the election. 247 General Hospital |
Nadzab, New Guinea | |
| November 9, 1944 (Thursday) |
Had the cast taken off. Wrist is sore & stiff. Wrote to Capt. Worthington. |
Nadzab, New Guinea | |
| November 10, 1944 |
They took the stitches out this morning. Been laying around doing nothing but writing a few letters. |
Nadzab, New Guinea | |
| November 14, 1944 | Had my first treatment at the Physical Therapy this morning. The Capt. took off the bandage for good - I hope. Hand is very stiff & dead. | Nadzab, New Guinea | |
| November 29, 1944 | Left Nabzob (Nadzab) N.G. at 12:05 noon in ambulance for Lae. Thirty mile trip here. Staying at a staging area in Lae. They expect to ship me out for Atope (Aitape) in a day or two. | Nadzab, New Guinea Lae, New Guinea |
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| December 1, 1944 |
Left Base E. staging area at 7:30 for airport. Ended up at Nabzob (Nadzab) again. Came here in an army bus from Lae. Spent all day at a transit company waiting for a plane ride. Was told to be at A.T.C. office at 2:30 in the morning. |
Lae, New Guinea, New Guinea Nadzab, New Guinea |
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| December 2, 1944 | Got up at 2:00 & went to strip to get plane. No soap. Waited all day. No soap. | Nadzab, New Guinea | |
| December 3, 1944 | Finally got a ride. Started at 5:00 from Nabzob (Nadzab) . Arrived at Atapi (Aitape) at 8:10 A.M. | Nadzab, New Guinea Aitape, New Guinea |
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| December 24, 1944 | Christmas Eve. The temperature is over a hundred. Nothing looks like Christmas here. We are almost ready to move to the Philippines. Will leave here Tuesday morning at 3:00 they say for the ship. Christmas set ahead one day so today is our Xmas. | Aitape, New Guinea | |
| December 25, 1944 | The real Xmas day today. We took our tents down this morning. Am all ready to leave in the morning at 3:00 A.M. for the landing ship. Went swimming at the beach this after noon. | Aitape, New Guinea | |
| December 26, 1944 | Got up at 1:30. Had chow at 2:00 A.M. Left about 3:30 in trucks for landing strip where the troops assembled. Marched at 5:30 from landing strip to Ship No. 1. Waited several hours. Rode to ship in small barges. The ship we are on is the “Cape Johnson” a good troop ship. The best ship of the three I have been on. | Aitape, New Guinea | |
| December 27, 1944 |
Still in harbor in convoy. Many ships. |
Aitape, New Guinea | |
| December 29, 1944 | Sailing. | at sea | |
| December 30, 1944 | Sailing. | at sea | |
| December 31, 1944 | Sailing. | at sea | |
| January 1, 1945 | Still sailing. Starting the new year out in the water. Hot as hell. | at sea | |
| January 2, 1945 | First Jap plane sighted. | at sea | |
| January 3, 1945 | Another Jap plane showed up. | at sea | |
| January 3, 1945 to January 8, 1945 |
Several General Quarters sounded during this time. In all at least eight Jap planes were shot down. One Jap destroyer sank, at least two subs sank. |
at sea | |
| January 9, 1945 - 4:00 (AM) | S-Day (“Sugar Day”) - Got up at 4:00 AM for chow. The invasion of Linguyen (Lingayen) Gulf, Philippines. | Lingayen Gulf, Philippines | |
| January 9, 1945 - 9:30 | The first of our troops landed on the beach. | Lingayen Gulf, Philippines | |
| January 9, 1945 - 9:45 | No opposition at 9:45. No Jap planes. Battleships have been shelling the beach for three days & nights. The cannon fire is deafening on top deck. We are several miles from land & the air is heavy with smoke. | Lingayen Gulf, Philippines | |
| January 9, 1945 - 9:50 | The report came in just now that the first seven waves have landed with out opposition. | Lingayen Gulf, Philippines | |
| January 9, 1945 - 12:00 noon | We landed with good luck (on White Beach). We left the boat at 12:00 & landed at 1:00 P.M. Just as we landed 2 Jap Zeros came through. They shot one down & they think they got the other. We worked on the beach until after dark. Just left before it got real dark the Japs came over. The ack ack was thick but beautiful in the darkness. Several raids during the night. The gunfire from the ships lasted all night. A mortar outfit (heavy) set up 100 yds. in back of us during the night. The gunfire kept us awake all night. | San Fabian, Lingayen Gulf, Philippines | |
| January 10, 1945 | Worked all day at the beach. It is now almost dark. The Japs were over once already. After dark the report came in that the Japs had broken through & were 1 ˝ miles from us. We entrenched around the beach and spent the night there. Cold night. | San Fabian, Lingayen Gulf, Philippines | |
| January 11, 1945 |
One Jap air raid this morning. Was to work on the beach but so far have been sitting around. |
San Fabian, Lingayen Gulf, Philippines | |
| January 12, 1945 | Worked on beach. A few air raids morn & night. | San Fabian, Lingayen Gulf, Philippines | |
| January 13, 1945 |
off all day. Another division took over the work at the beach. We are to move in a few days. A few Jap heavy artillery pieces have been firing at us from the hill that hasn’t been taken. Our 155’s opened up on them for a while. none of the shells landed near us but several men were killed near here. |
San Fabian, Lingayen Gulf, Philippines | |
| January 14, 1945 | The Japs are getting hell on the hill. Our dive bombers are hitting it & at the same time the heavy pieces are hitting it from here. So far have had day off. May go to work later. | San Fabian, Lingayen Gulf, Philippines | |
| January 16, 1945 | Worked to day on the Victory ship Navajo Victory unloading rations. Wakajama |
San Fabian, Lingayen Gulf, Philippines | |
| February | Sometime ago we moved to a town called San Jacinto. Left there in a week. | San Jacinto, Philippines | |
| February 6, 1945 | We are now in a town called Bulongao. | Bulongao, Philippines | |
| May 18, 1945 |
Still in Balongoa. Working on Motor Pool building. |
Bulongao, Philippines | |
| July, 1945 | Left Balungao for Bauang - La Union prov. | Bulongao, Philippines Bauang, Philippines |
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| July, 1945 |
Left Bauang for Balungao |
Bauang, Philippines Bulongao, Philippines |
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| July/August, 1945 |
Left Balungao for Baijon?bong (Barongobong) north of Babtie(?) Pass. |
Bulongao, Philippines Barongobong, Philippines |
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| July, 1945 |
Left Bauang for Balungao |
Bauang, Philippines Bulongao, Philippines |
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| August 6, 1945 |
(first atomic bomb dropped by United States on Hiroshima) |
assumed Bulongao, Philippines | |
| August 9, 1945 |
(second atomic bomb dropped by United States on Nagasaki) |
assumed Bulongao, Philippines | |
| August 11, 1945 | still unconfirmed | assumed Bulongao, Philippines | |
| August 15, 1945 | (Japan announces surrender to Allied forces on this date) | assumed Bulongao, Philippines | |
| September 10, 1945 | getting ready to pull out. | assumed in Lingayen Gulf, Philippines | |
| September 13, 1945 | Left company area this evening & boarded L.S.M. | assumed in Lingayen Gulf, Philippines | |
| September 17, 1945 | pulled out with large convoy for Japan. | assumed in Lingayen Gulf, Philippines | |
| September 25, 1945 |
First sight of Japan this morning. Still in harbor. |
at sea off coast of Japan | |
| September 25, 1945 - night |
beached L.S.M. at high tide. |
assumed Wakayama, Japan | |
| September 26, 1945 - 2 P.M. | Went to work unloading vans(?) | assumed Wakayama, Japan | |
| September 26, 1945 - 5:00 A.M. | Went back to bed. Unloaded L.S.M. all day. | assumed Wakayama, Japan | |
| September 26, 1945 - 7:00 P.M. | left beach for temporary housing in Jap steel plant where bombs were made. | assumed Wakayama, Japan | |
| November 13, 1945 - 8:00 A.M. | Left Barracks at Company area for train Depot at Wakajama Japan. Boarded train at 9:45. Went north to Nagoya at Disposition Center. Arrived at 8:00 P.M. Spent all night getting papers in order & finding barracks. Cold. | Wakayama, Japan near Nagoya, Japan |
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| November 14, 1945 |
Raining all day. Waiting. |
near Nagoya, Japan | |
| November 20, 1945 | Received my shipping number to day - at last. #105 R.K. 1209-34(V). Tonight ends one week here hoping to get going soon. Chow poor. | near Nagoya, Japan | |
| November 22, 1945 | Had Thanksgiving dinner here in the 11th replacement center. Very poor turkey. | near Nagoya, Japan | |
| November 23, 1945 | Still here at replacement center. Hope I get out shortly. | near Nagoya, Japan | |
| November 27, 1945 |
Received shipping orders at last. Left center at 12:05 for area. It took a couple of hours to get going. left center in trucks for train station at Okazaki. Boarded train there. |
near Nagoya, Japan Okazaki, Japan |
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| November 27, 1945 | Arrived in Nagoya at 8:00 P.M. Boarded ship U.S.S. General W. G. Haan. | Nagoya, Japan |  |
| November 28, 1945 | Sailed at 1:00 P.M. | at sea near Nagoya, Japan | |
| December 3/4, 1945 | Crossed the international date line. Half way mark this eve. | at sea - International Date Line | |
| December 5, 1945 | We are 1576 miles from Seattle at 8:00 A.M. this morning - getting closer. | at sea | |
| December 10, 1945 | Sailed into Puget Sound this morning. Sailed along sound all day. Pulled into dock at Tacoma Wash about 8:00 P.M. Went to Fort Lewis from there. Red Cross gave us milk & candy & donuts when we got off. Our living quarters is in the North east Fort. | at sea in Puget Sound, near Seattle, Washington Ft. Lewis, Tacoma, Washington |
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| December 13, 1945 | We are to board train to night at nine oclock & then we will be on the way to J. B. (Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis, Missouri) | Ft. Lewis, Tacoma, Washington | |
| December 13, 1945 | We boarded train at 1:30 at Fort Lewis. | Ft. Lewis, Tacoma, Washington | |
| December 18, 1945 |
Arrived in Jefferson - 12:30 noon. started our processing. First: Our clothing was checked and they took away everything we didn’t need. Next: Cloth issue. I got an over coat. Then, we filled out a few forms & had a dental check. Next was bedding issue & a place to sleep. |
Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis, Missouri |
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| December 19, 1945 | had Physical exam today. Went through several other Depts. Saw Kitty (sister) & Joe (cousin) this evening. | Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis, Missouri | |
| December 20, 1945 |
Last day in the army. Almost four years in. We get out about 12 noon. Joe & Kitty will come & get me. |
Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis, Missouri | |
| The End Finee | |||
If you have any questions or information about Benjamin Wood or the 341st Ordnance Depot Company, please email me at 341st@mkwe.com