CIRCA 1943 HANDWRITTEN DIARY PHOTO ALBUM US NAVY SEABEE HEBRIDES ISLANDS
Item History & Price
Up for auction is a fascinating diary and archive of WWII material that belonged to US Navy Seabee Douglas L. Rodgers 57th U.S. Naval Construction Battalion, New Hebrides Islands. Rodgers keep one of the most detailed WW II diaries I have offered in some time. The work of the US Navy Seabees in the New Hebrides is still relatively unknown. His diary begins February 1, 1943 during training in the U.S. at Jackson Mississippi with a final entry Dec 31st 1943 in the New Hebride...s Islands. The diary contains 125 double sided pages of very detailed content. Midway through the diary he receives his coxswain rating. In October he trains with a machine gun platoon this occurs in the last three months of his diary.
Expect reveling entries about life on the islands, US Navy operations, from the mundane to aspects of great tragedy. For example : Japanese air raid bombings , numerous accidental deaths, one well known incident the death of 60 Negro soldiers and crew of a motor launch that capsized at sea. He is a witness to a plane crash and it subsequent fireball in the jungle.
He mentions numerous torpedoed ships coming in for repair. There is also a good bit of drinking taking place on the island plus a very detailed entry regarding Liberty Ships packed with a cargo of 1000 mines coming to the island. He frequently writes about the never ending battle with elements rain, sun, insects. He writes a fascinating entry about a visit to a negro anti aircraft battalion deep in the jungle on a fairly remote section of the island Other entries mention depression, and despair, issues with officers, insubordination, primitive facilities, some brief mention of the native population and Frenchman living on the islands plus much more.
Condition : Overall very good the diary has no major issues to report is bound in a black folio sized journal measuring "5 x 5". The photo album measures approx '11 x 6" and contains 60 photos with hand drawn maps, and original military orders he received while on duty in the New Hebrides. The photos depict natives soldiers, and scenery from the island. The majority of the photos are glued to the pages. In addition is a University scrapbook he kept as a young man in the 1930’s filled with newspaper clippings, plus extra ephemera. As always any questions feel free to ask.
Diary excerpts :
March 9, 1943- Leaving the US
Well today we boarded ships. In the morning they gave us all one clip of ammunition ( 15 rounds) at 11:00 we mustered with full sacks and our ditty bag. Our brown logs with mattress and blankets were taken aboard about 9:00 this morning. We went to ship in busse's ad finally got aboard at about 12:30 We got assigned to our places aboard and than left to ourselves. The ship pulled out between 6:00 and 6:30 in the evening. Good bye United States !!!
March 12, 1943- At Sea
The ship were on is the “ Del Brazil” she was built in 1940 and Sia fast modern freight and passenger ship. It was used between New Orleans and Brazil. It’s about a 14, 000 ton ship single screw with steam turbine power fed by oil burners. Its speed is about 16-1/2 knots with the present load. It can do about 19knots top speed or around 26 with no load. We aren’t traveling in a convoy as I thought we would. It will be a quicker trip without a convoy but not quite so safe.
March 21, 1943- Sighted the island
In the morning about 8:00 we saw just the mountains outlined of the island. The first sight of land since we left the states !!! I went to church services in the morning. They held them on the boar deck. I think ( & hope) that the fellows are turning to God in this time of danger. In the evening that had the 30 min practice again. Tonight made the third night for the full moon. It is beautiful on deck but it’s ? From the sub menace I stayed on deck until almost midnight.
March 25, 1943.
We picked up a destroyer escort at 9:30 this morn some ways off the island; than proceeded slowly into the harbor raining off and on but nobody seemed to mind it. What do you know !!! There is no blackout here !!! The ships are all lit up and so is the land. There can’t be much danger from air raids here or else they feel they can take care of them.
March 27, 1943 - Espiritu Santos
Well i've figured out where we are. The name of the island is “ “Espiritu Santos” and it is one of the New Hebrides group. It is to be a very large and important base. There are no piers up yet so the ships have to lay at anchor and send everything ashore by lighter. I stood fire watch all day otherwise I didn’t do anything all day. It rained most of the day It is the rainy season here and I guess we can expect plenty of rain. The 7th, 35th, & 44th Seabee battalions are here and maybe more ( also 15th *& 40th)
April 4, 1943
We had a hard rain last night and everything soaked. During the day we had what amounted to a couple of cloudbursts. There was water 5” deep in the tent once. Two of our helmets floated out of the tent and were caught just in time. We did manage to keep most of our stuff dry
April 7, 1943
I worked on the dock gong again today toward the later part of the afternoon we made up another raft of 10 piles Tommy and I waded around in the water up to our waists getting them together the water was rather rough making it difficult to handle the logs. The way
May 5, 1943
I felt pretty miserable most of the day and spent all afternoon sleeping. I did my messenger duty again from 0800-1200 and rom 2000-2400 I went to pier one in the morning on an errand and the harbor is almost deserted of naval vessels. I saw only one Cruiser and the hospital ship. There’s a number of freighters here yet, though sometimes I wonder if this is the lull before a storm, since we’ve been here, there's been no Jap- planes over at all and from what we hear there not much doing anywhere in the Pacific.
May 24, 1943 - First Japanese air raid
Early this morning about 0030, I was in my first air raid. The alert sounded at 2400 and the stitch of bombs fell about half an hour later they hit on the branch across our island doing little damage. Some of the shrapnel went through a Frenchman’s water tank !! I saw a piece of it and it was surly wicked looking hunk of iron. The fellows over here about went wild, when the bomb hit running in all directions and not knowing what the hell they were doing
June 24, 1943 Survivors of torpedoed ships.
The survivors of two torpedoed ships were brought in here today on the island. The ships headed this way were sunk between here and Guadalcanal.
July 17, 1943 battle damaged ships loss of the “ Helena “
On the board tonight was a news bulletin telling of a Naval battle going on up around New Georgia island in the Solomons. I imagine that's where all the ships from here have gone. There’s not a Cruiser or tin can in the harbor. Two Cruisers and 4 tin cans came in today. One of the tin cans has a gun turret gone and some other damage.
They put her in the smaller dry dock right away. So far as I Could see the other ships looked all right. They all began refueling and loading up with ammunition and supplies. I saw a good number of empty shells cases come off so guess they have had some action. I head tonight that we lost the Cruiser “ Helena “ and 3 or 4 tin cans. They say about 9 Jap ships were sunk and their fleet driven off.
Aug 7, 1943 -hand grenades washed up on beach
I had a rather close call tonight, though nothing might have happened anyway. There was a box full of hand grenades washed up on the beach and I just missed them by a few feet with the ramp. It gave me quite a start when I opened up the box and saw what was in it.
Aug 15, 1943- Negro AA battery
Nothing to do today saw a little of the island. Another fellow and I took off. We went all the way to the tip of the island there a Negro battery there ( 18 men & 2 3” guns) from there you can see out where the ships come in and other islands in the distance. It was worth going out there but what a road !! Just a pair of tracks going thou the jungle and about 10 miles of it. We had dinner out there but it wasn’t anything to brag about. The soldiers treated us fine and seemed glad to have us come out.
Sept 2, 1943
I saw a man die about 1600 and it was spectacular. A fighter plane so high up I could hardly see it went into a power dive when it went to pull out part of the wing tore off. The plane went into a very tight spin at tremendous speed and crashed eastward. It straightened out once for several hundred feet but with more pieces gone the pilot couldn’t hold it under control and back into a spin it went. It crashed close by the river and immediately there was an explosion of fire as the entire plane was enveloped in roaring flames.
Expect reveling entries about life on the islands, US Navy operations, from the mundane to aspects of great tragedy. For example : Japanese air raid bombings , numerous accidental deaths, one well known incident the death of 60 Negro soldiers and crew of a motor launch that capsized at sea. He is a witness to a plane crash and it subsequent fireball in the jungle.
He mentions numerous torpedoed ships coming in for repair. There is also a good bit of drinking taking place on the island plus a very detailed entry regarding Liberty Ships packed with a cargo of 1000 mines coming to the island. He frequently writes about the never ending battle with elements rain, sun, insects. He writes a fascinating entry about a visit to a negro anti aircraft battalion deep in the jungle on a fairly remote section of the island Other entries mention depression, and despair, issues with officers, insubordination, primitive facilities, some brief mention of the native population and Frenchman living on the islands plus much more.
Condition : Overall very good the diary has no major issues to report is bound in a black folio sized journal measuring "5 x 5". The photo album measures approx '11 x 6" and contains 60 photos with hand drawn maps, and original military orders he received while on duty in the New Hebrides. The photos depict natives soldiers, and scenery from the island. The majority of the photos are glued to the pages. In addition is a University scrapbook he kept as a young man in the 1930’s filled with newspaper clippings, plus extra ephemera. As always any questions feel free to ask.
Diary excerpts :
March 9, 1943- Leaving the US
Well today we boarded ships. In the morning they gave us all one clip of ammunition ( 15 rounds) at 11:00 we mustered with full sacks and our ditty bag. Our brown logs with mattress and blankets were taken aboard about 9:00 this morning. We went to ship in busse's ad finally got aboard at about 12:30 We got assigned to our places aboard and than left to ourselves. The ship pulled out between 6:00 and 6:30 in the evening. Good bye United States !!!
March 12, 1943- At Sea
The ship were on is the “ Del Brazil” she was built in 1940 and Sia fast modern freight and passenger ship. It was used between New Orleans and Brazil. It’s about a 14, 000 ton ship single screw with steam turbine power fed by oil burners. Its speed is about 16-1/2 knots with the present load. It can do about 19knots top speed or around 26 with no load. We aren’t traveling in a convoy as I thought we would. It will be a quicker trip without a convoy but not quite so safe.
March 21, 1943- Sighted the island
In the morning about 8:00 we saw just the mountains outlined of the island. The first sight of land since we left the states !!! I went to church services in the morning. They held them on the boar deck. I think ( & hope) that the fellows are turning to God in this time of danger. In the evening that had the 30 min practice again. Tonight made the third night for the full moon. It is beautiful on deck but it’s ? From the sub menace I stayed on deck until almost midnight.
March 25, 1943.
We picked up a destroyer escort at 9:30 this morn some ways off the island; than proceeded slowly into the harbor raining off and on but nobody seemed to mind it. What do you know !!! There is no blackout here !!! The ships are all lit up and so is the land. There can’t be much danger from air raids here or else they feel they can take care of them.
March 27, 1943 - Espiritu Santos
Well i've figured out where we are. The name of the island is “ “Espiritu Santos” and it is one of the New Hebrides group. It is to be a very large and important base. There are no piers up yet so the ships have to lay at anchor and send everything ashore by lighter. I stood fire watch all day otherwise I didn’t do anything all day. It rained most of the day It is the rainy season here and I guess we can expect plenty of rain. The 7th, 35th, & 44th Seabee battalions are here and maybe more ( also 15th *& 40th)
April 4, 1943
We had a hard rain last night and everything soaked. During the day we had what amounted to a couple of cloudbursts. There was water 5” deep in the tent once. Two of our helmets floated out of the tent and were caught just in time. We did manage to keep most of our stuff dry
April 7, 1943
I worked on the dock gong again today toward the later part of the afternoon we made up another raft of 10 piles Tommy and I waded around in the water up to our waists getting them together the water was rather rough making it difficult to handle the logs. The way
May 5, 1943
I felt pretty miserable most of the day and spent all afternoon sleeping. I did my messenger duty again from 0800-1200 and rom 2000-2400 I went to pier one in the morning on an errand and the harbor is almost deserted of naval vessels. I saw only one Cruiser and the hospital ship. There’s a number of freighters here yet, though sometimes I wonder if this is the lull before a storm, since we’ve been here, there's been no Jap- planes over at all and from what we hear there not much doing anywhere in the Pacific.
May 24, 1943 - First Japanese air raid
Early this morning about 0030, I was in my first air raid. The alert sounded at 2400 and the stitch of bombs fell about half an hour later they hit on the branch across our island doing little damage. Some of the shrapnel went through a Frenchman’s water tank !! I saw a piece of it and it was surly wicked looking hunk of iron. The fellows over here about went wild, when the bomb hit running in all directions and not knowing what the hell they were doing
June 24, 1943 Survivors of torpedoed ships.
The survivors of two torpedoed ships were brought in here today on the island. The ships headed this way were sunk between here and Guadalcanal.
July 17, 1943 battle damaged ships loss of the “ Helena “
On the board tonight was a news bulletin telling of a Naval battle going on up around New Georgia island in the Solomons. I imagine that's where all the ships from here have gone. There’s not a Cruiser or tin can in the harbor. Two Cruisers and 4 tin cans came in today. One of the tin cans has a gun turret gone and some other damage.
They put her in the smaller dry dock right away. So far as I Could see the other ships looked all right. They all began refueling and loading up with ammunition and supplies. I saw a good number of empty shells cases come off so guess they have had some action. I head tonight that we lost the Cruiser “ Helena “ and 3 or 4 tin cans. They say about 9 Jap ships were sunk and their fleet driven off.
Aug 7, 1943 -hand grenades washed up on beach
I had a rather close call tonight, though nothing might have happened anyway. There was a box full of hand grenades washed up on the beach and I just missed them by a few feet with the ramp. It gave me quite a start when I opened up the box and saw what was in it.
Aug 15, 1943- Negro AA battery
Nothing to do today saw a little of the island. Another fellow and I took off. We went all the way to the tip of the island there a Negro battery there ( 18 men & 2 3” guns) from there you can see out where the ships come in and other islands in the distance. It was worth going out there but what a road !! Just a pair of tracks going thou the jungle and about 10 miles of it. We had dinner out there but it wasn’t anything to brag about. The soldiers treated us fine and seemed glad to have us come out.
Sept 2, 1943
I saw a man die about 1600 and it was spectacular. A fighter plane so high up I could hardly see it went into a power dive when it went to pull out part of the wing tore off. The plane went into a very tight spin at tremendous speed and crashed eastward. It straightened out once for several hundred feet but with more pieces gone the pilot couldn’t hold it under control and back into a spin it went. It crashed close by the river and immediately there was an explosion of fire as the entire plane was enveloped in roaring flames.
