"October 9 1945
My dearest Ellen,
It is now approximately one month since I have had a piece of mail from any source and as a result my morale is slightly low. I don't know what the reason might be but it had better be cleared up soon or I shall be forced to take matters into my own hands. I am writing this letter to you while a typhoon rages outside. Our only protection against the fierce elements as I've told you before is a canvas tent supported by a framework of two by fours. If during the course of this letter you see gaps of eccentric scribbling it's only the effect of the wind shaking our tent quite violently. Our electricity is out and the roof just blew off our chow hall so we are now sitting patiently and prayerfully awaiting the effects on our own little abode. This one is not as violent as the last one we had as the heavy rainfall is missing. It rained terrific-like last night but today only the wind is blowing in terribly strong gusts of 60-70 miles an hour. I hope we can hold out. Here's hoping anyway. Once again we have no work as all flying has ceased so I sit around the tent and read technical books all day. I shall in the near future get back once again to fiction especially detective stories. I read so many Perry Mason and Ellery Queen mysteries aboard ship that I felt qualified to be a full fledged criminal investigator or perhaps a rough tough detective. If you like my stories try 'Farewell my lovely' the author I don't know. It was a movie under the title of 'Murder my Sweet' starring Dick Powell. It's really good and fast moving. Typhoon or no typhoon we are getting a re-broadcast of the World Series out here but radios are scarce. We managed to succeed though even though obstacles do exist. While I was waiting for the wind to blow over our tent this morning I was thinking of the fact that I have known you now for five years and we are still not married for some unexplainable reason. But in the other, four years of that have been here and there so I've added it all up to sum about two years and a half or maybe three years. Entirely too long to wait so I know absolutely that something will have to be done definitely as soon as possible. In other words I'm still thinking seriously and longingly about you and us and someway or other trying to figure a way to get back home again so I can or we can complete the plans we made prior to my departure. Well honey I'll close out for now with lotions of love and stuff and with a firm hope that I will get home soon and get me mail a hell of a lot sooner. So again I remain with all my love
Always
John"
The following information is lengthy but it describes the typhoon that was passing over Okinawa as my father was writing the above letter. There are two sections to it. I wish I had know about the typhoon before my father died - I would have asked if his tent was destroyed, did he have to seek shelter, how scared was he?
The website - https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/p/pacific-typhoon-october-1945.html - had the following information:
"On 4 October 1945, a typhoon was spotted developing in the Caroline Islands and tracked as it moved on a predictable course to the northwest. Although expected to pass into the East China Sea north of Formosa on 8 October, the storm unexpectedly veered north toward Okinawa. That evening the storm slowed down and, just as it approached Okinawa, began to greatly increase in intensity. The sudden shift of the storm caught many ships and small craft in the constricted waters of Buckner Bay (Nakagusuku Wan) and they were unable to escape to sea. On 9 October, when the storm passed over the island, winds of 80 knots (92 miles per hour) and 30-35 foot waves battered the ships and craft in the bay and tore into the quonset huts and buildings ashore. A total of 12 ships and craft were sunk, 222 grounded, and 32 severely damaged ... Personnel casualties were 36 killed, 47 missing, and 100 seriously injured. Almost all the food, medical supplies and other stores were destroyed, over 80% of all housing and buildings knocked down, and all the military installations on the island were temporarily out of action. Over 60 planes were damaged as well, though most were repairable. Although new supplies had been brought to the island by this time, and emergency mess halls and sleeping quarters built for all hands, the scale of the damage was still very large. If the war had not ended on 2 September, this damage, especially the grounding and damage to 107 amphibious craft (including the wrecking of four tank landing ships, two medium landing ships, a gunboat, and two infantry landing craft) would likely have seriously impacted the planned invasion of Japan (Operation Olympic) ...
"Typhoon "Louise" The 9 October 1945 Storm at Okinawa.
On 4 October a typhoon developed just north of Rota as a result of a barometric depression and the convergent flow of equatorial air and tropical air. Guam Weather Central called the storm of apparently weak intensity "Louise" and put out the first weather advisory on it at 041200Z, with further advisories following at intervals of six hours. Up to that time of the 16th advisory (080600Z), the storm was following a fairly predictable path to the NW, and was expected to pass between Formosa and Okinawa and on into the East China Sea. At this time, however, the storm began to veer sharply to the right and head north for Okinawa. The 17th advisory at 081200Z (081100I) showed this clearly, and units began to be alerted for the storm late in the evening of the 8th. The forecast for Okinawa was for winds of 60 knots, with 90 knot gusts in the early morning of 9 October, and passage of the center at 1030(I).
"Louise", however, failed to conform to pattern, and that evening, as it reached 25º N (directly south of Okinawa) it slowed to six knots and greatly increased in intensity. As a result, the storm which struck in the afternoon of the 9th has seldom been paralleled in fury and violence; the worst storm at Okinawa since our landings in April.
The sudden shift of the storm 12 hours before its expected maximum, from a predicted path 150 miles west of Okinawa to an actual path that brought the center of the storm less than 15 miles east of Okinawa's southeast coast, caught many craft in the supposedly safe shelter of Buckner Bay without time to put to sea far enough to clear the storm. The ninth of October found the Bay jammed with ships ranging in size from Victory ships to LCV(P)s. All units, both afloat and ashore, were hurriedly battening down and securing for the storm.
By 1000 the wind had risen to 40 knots, and the barometer was down to 989 millibars, visibility was less than 800 yards, the seas were rising, and the rain was coming down in torrents, liberally mixed with salt spray. By 1200, visibility was zero, and the wind was 60 knots from the east and northeast, with tremendous seas breaking over the ships. Small craft were already being torn loose from their anchors, and larger ships were, with difficulty, holding by liberal use of their engines. At 1400 the wind had risen to 80 knots, with gusts of far greater intensity, the rain that drove in horizontally was more salt than fresh, and even the large ships were dragging anchor under the pounding of 30 to 35-foot seas. The bay was now in almost total darkness, and was a scene of utter confusion as ships suddenly loomed in the darkness, collided, or barely escaped colliding by skillful use of engines, and were as quickly separated by the heavy seas. Not all ships were lucky; hundreds were blown ashore, and frequently several were cast on the beach in one general mass of wreckage, while the crews worked desperately to maintain watertight integrity and to fasten a line to anything at hand in order to stop pounding. Many ships had to be abandoned. Sometimes the crews were taken aboard by other ships; more often they made their way ashore, where they spent a miserable night huddled in caves and fields. A few were lost.
By 1600 the typhoon reached its peak, with steady winds of 100 knots and frequent gusts of 120 knots. At this time the barometer dipped to 968.5 millibars. This was the lowest reading that the barometers recorded, and was probably the point of passage of the center of the typhoon, but the maximum winds continued unabated for another two hours, the gusts becoming more fierce, if anything. During this period, the wind shifted to the north, and then to the northwest, and began to blow ships back off the west and north reefs of the Bay and across to the south, sometimes dragging anchor the entire way. These wild voyages by damaged ships caused a nightmare series of collisions and near escapes with other drifting ships and shattered hulks.
A typical experience was that of FLAGLER (AK). Her anchors dragged at 1200, and despite the use of both engines she was blown ashore a mile north of Baten Ko by 1315, colliding with LST 826 on the way. Grounded, she began to pound, and all power was lost. At 1710, as the wind changed, FLAGLER was blown off the reef and back across the bay, grazing a capsized YF and continuing on, with a 13º port list, no power, and the lower spaces and after engine room beginning to flood. One anchor was lost, the other dragged across the bay. By 1800 she had moved two miles across the bay and had grounded on the east side of Baten Ko, alongside a DE hulk. Lines were made fast to the DE, but flooding continued, and AT 0545 ship was abandoned. A small party remained on board, however, and successfully stopped flooding as the typhoon subsided. FLAGLER was later salvaged.
Many other ships had similar stories ...
Conditions on shore were no better. Twenty hours of torrential rain soaked everything, made quagmires of roads, and ruined virtually all stores. The hurricane winds destroyed from 50% to 95% of all tent camps, and flooded the remainder. Damage to Quonset huts ran from 40% to 99% total destruction. Some of these Quonsets were lifted bodily and moved hundreds of feet; others were torn apart, galvanized iron sheets ripped off, wallboarding shredded, and curved supports torn apart. Driven from their housing, officers and men alike were compelled to take shelter in caves, old tombs, trenches, and ditches in the open fields, and even behind heavy road-building machinery, as the wind swept tents, planks, and sections of galvanized iron through the air.
At the Naval Air Bases some 60 planes of all types were damaged, some of which had been tossed about unmercifully, but most of which were reparable. Installations suffered far more severely. The seas worked under many of the concrete ramps and broke them up into large and small pieces of rubble. All repair installations were either swept away or severely damaged. At Yonobaru, all 40' by 100' buildings were demolished, the same being true at the NATS terminal. Communication and meteorological services were blown out at most bases by 1900.
The storm center of typhoon "Louise" passed Buckner Bay at about 1600, from which time until 2000 it raged at peak strength. The storm was advancing at the rapid rate of 15 knots in a northerly, then northeasterly, direction, and by 2000 the center was 60 miles away. The winds gradually began to subside. Conditions in Buckner Bay were at this time somewhat improved by the wind's having veered to the northwest across the land mass of Okinawa, which reduced the size of the seas, and probably saved many more damaged ships from being driven off the reefs and sunk in deep water. Nevertheless, the subsidence at 2000 was a relative one, from "super-typhoon" to typhoon conditions, with steady winds of 80 and 60 knots throughout the night, and some gusts of higher velocity. A wild, wet, and dangerous night was spent by all hands, afloat or ashore. It was not until 1000 on the 10th that the winds fell to a steady 40 knots and rains slackened ...
This ended typhoon "Louise", but the damage it left behind on Okinawa was tremendous. Approximately 80% of all housing and buildings were destroyed or made unusable. Very little tentage was salvageable, and little was on hand as a result of previous storms. Food stocks were left for only 10 days. Medical facilities were so destroyed that an immediate request had to be made for a hospital ship to support the shore activities on the island.
Casualties were low, considering the great numbers of people concerned and the extreme violence of the storm. This was very largely due to the active and well directed efforts of all hands in assisting one another, particularly in evacuation of grounded and sinking ships. By 18 October, reports had been sifted and it was found that there were 36 dead and 47 missing, with approximately 100 receiving fairly serious injuries.
The casualty list of ships was far greater ... A total of 12 ships were sunk, 222 grounded, and 32 damaged beyond the ability of ships' companies to repair. ComServDiv 104 under Commodore T.J. Keliher, was assigned to the salvage work. By 19 November, 79 ships had been refloated, and 132 were under repair. The remaining 53 badly damaged vessels still afloat had been, or were being, decommissioned, stripped, and abandoned. On 14 November, ComServPac, (Vice Admiral W. W. Smith) inspected the damage, and decided that only 10 ships were worth complete salvage, out of some 90 ships with major work to be done on them. This decision was made chiefly because similar types of ships were rapidly being decommissioned in the United States, and the cost of salvage would have been excessive for unneeded ships.
Repair work went on rapidly ashore. As a result of the experience in the earlier typhoon in September, extra stocks of food and tentage were to be stored on Okinawa. These were enroute on 9 October, and in less than a week after the storm, supplies were fairly well built up; emergency mess halls and sleeping quarters had been erected for all hands, and 7500 men had been processed for return to the United States."
The following article on the typhoon was published in the New South Wales paper on October 12, 1945.
This article was published in the North Western Tasmanian daily newspaper.
"October 1945
My dearest Ellen,
Well here I am again safe and as sound as possible under these conditions. It seems to me that every time I write to you a typhoon is due or is in full swing. The last time I wrote we were in the middle of one and about now we are waiting for another one to break. This new one will only be a mild one in comparison to the last one which really tore the hell out of us but our tent, like Gibraltar, is still standing, how or why I really don't know. I haven't written to you for so long that my arm is fluttering around as I try to write. I guess I'm out of practice.
The past storm really flattened this place and we aren't still back to normal. It knocked out our planes except one and that needs some repairs. It took about 48 hours before we could get any planes into the air and I am very thankful that the war is over otherwise I guess we would've been dead ducks. Most of the tents were blown away and most of those that weren't were pretty well banged up from flying debris. The small boats in the bay were smashed to smithereens and lots of them lost all hands. I think seriously that we have suffered more casualties from these storms than the Japs inflicted on us. There has been some talk of abandoning this island because of the storms and I think it would be a very good deal. Everything we build out here is ruined in a week or two by these storms so we build all over again. It gets very very monotonous. We have a staging area here for guys going back to the states on discharge and some fool monkeying with dynamite in one of the caves set it off and killed about 150 of them in one whack. I tell you kid that this island is jinxed no end.
It is been over a month now since I have received any mail from any source and my poor morale is getting lower and lower all of the time. I guess the post office blew down in the gale and no mail is coming or going. It had better pick up pretty soon or else --. Outside of these winds things are still the same with no changes good or bad. We still haven't any fresh meat and are still surviving on K rations and C rations. Boy are they lousy. When we get married and you ever serve me canned meat or food for chow I'll -- well I won't eat it. Boy what slop! Enough griping for a while let's cease. Well honey I only hope that we get off this area soon so I can return to civilization of some sort. I still love you I'll have you understand and miss you dearly. I'm still waiting and waiting but no soap. I guess I'll get home to marry you sometime and I hope it will be soon. Well I'll close for now and will write again in a day or two. Take it easy and take care. All my love to you
Always
John"
"18 October 1945
My dearest Ellen,
At long last, or I should say at very long last uncle Sam has finally delivered me a few letters from you. I got four letters last night three from you and one from my mother. They were your most recent as they were dated the 3rd and 5th of this month. I was so glad to receive them, I read them over about umpteen times. It was my first mail in over five weeks and it built up my morale considerably but the work is tearing it down again. We are repairing the planes that were damaged in the storm and it really is strenuous toil, take my word for it. We have no tools to work with and an A-1 job is necessary. I guess I'l survive it all right but not unless I do a lot of cussing now and then. We have three or four sections that are interchangeable but when we put them on they don't fit, then does yours truly cuss these female war workers. Some operations would drive an engineer to drink or insanity but not me – laugh for a while and cuss for a while then to hell with it. Our unit is in charge of all aviation on the island including Supply but even with that fact in mind we can't even procure for ourselves neither nuts nor bolts nor tools. It's all messed up or should I say snafued. Enough of my complaints. It was really swell to hear from you again and I hope at long last my mail will finally come at a steady rate. I can't imagine what has happened to the mail of September but maybe by the first of the year it will catch up with me. I am thanking you for your compliments in the letters but don't do it too often. I'm liable to get a big head. About my coming home sooner than expected, well I guess I missed the ship so to speak as now I really don't know what is to become of me after this unit breaks up. From here I'm liable to hit Japan China Korea Guam or points anywhere in the Pacific. The four mentioned are most likely. As for Theresa taking her second honeymoon, well honey when we get married we'll take two at a time so that when we reach our second honeymoon we'll have had a couple of them already. In your letter you said Jim was out here please send me his address and maybe I'll be able to look him up. They have more outfits out here than they have nails in your house. Sometimes I wonder where they get all the numbers and initials for them all. I'll close for now honey and will write again in a day or two. Take it easy and take good care of yourself. I miss you a lot and still love you with all my heart. All my love to you
Always
John"
"October 24, 1945
My dearest Ellen,
This paper although not really air mail stationary will suffice I believe as a means of corresponding. You see in order to get any paper at all I was forced to raid the paper locker in the Supply Office and managed with the help of a store keeper friend of mine to get enough to last me for a while. As things stand around here now we are coming to a slow but certain halt as far as operations are concerned. The various commands have received dispatches cancelling all construction on the island except for roads and necessities for maintenance of the places that are already established. The army as I may have told you before is evacuating the island and our unit is due for the ax the first of the month. I and the rest of us here are slated to be transferred but from present information it will be to some other unit on the island. I don't really believe that this island will be kept as an advanced base. Dispatches are going to and fro to the fact that it is to be a ship or fleet anchorage. I really hope so anyway and that would get us off here all the quicker. Don't jump to conclusions over my beliefs as I fear I'm to be out here for a stretch and for how long a stretch I can't venture to guess. Our transfer is due about the first of the month but until further notice you can still address me the same way. I guess I never will really settle down to one spot around here for any length of time and I'm afraid if this constant moving keeps up I'll turn into an Arab and will spend my future years wandering about the earth with my bag of clothes in one hand and my tent and bedding in the other. Such is the life that I lead.
Well honey here I am back again same day same letter and the same old me. The beginning of this letter was written this noon and it is now about 6 PM. We got our beer ration tonight for the third night in a row (two cans a man) and I just finished one. I should really say it just almost finished me. It's good beer (Pabst Blue Ribbon) and I don't like to waste it. When I opened it, it squirted all over the place including my eye and by the time I could get to drink it I had it all over me hair and all. I did finally manage to finish about half a can that didn't escape. I hope I have better luck with the next one.
We have a softball league out here now and of course yours truly is playing as usual. Never too old I guess will always be my motto. We played the officers tonite just before supper and managed to beat them 2–0. It was really a good game. The officer's team has been playing steady out here and figured to beat the league but I guess we dumped their apples for them. I'm afraid that by the time we get going the transfers will be in and the series will be over. Nevertheless we'll last as long as possible. Our planes are flying again at last altho we have a few repairs to fix up but we must wait for spare parts. Nobody seems to give a hell out here so when we catch a little hell we take it and then -- phooey.
I wrote a letter to Japan inquiring about Weber and the boys and I hope to get an answer soon. I'm really impatient. This would be a hell of a time to lose out with the war over and all. They lower the points incidentally Nov 1 so a new batch of guys are getting set to go home. The lucky stiffs. In my mothers letter I learned that my brother Tom is almost berserk. He even threatens to swim home from Iwo Jima if they don't send him home. He certainly is knocking the married men, claiming that they get all the breaks. Joe I figure should be getting home soon at long last I hope so as it would really ease my mothers mind to have him home again. As for me honey I'd really like to hit Japan or China to see what it's really like and again to say that I was there. The army can have Berlin I'll conquer Tokyo and vicinity. I'd like to get there also to see what I can get for you in the way of silken gowns etc. to make you realize that I intend for you to have the finer things in life. I'll see what I can do. We took some pictures here today and if possible I'll try to get one and send it to you. It's a good thing these pictures aren't published or people would get the erroneous impression that my bunkmates and myself won the war alone. We have a guy here from Fall River who really gets the cake. They had an air raid one night, before my time, and he climbed up on the table to put out the light just as the bomb hit outside his tent. He jumped off the table as since the alert was a long time in coming he fell asleep. In the morning he found one guy dead and another pretty well beat up. When he looked at his pants legs and saw the holes that flying shrapnel made he fainted.
Well honey I'll close now and say again I love you
Love always
John
Keep the twinkle in your eye"
"October ? 1945
My dearest Ellen,
I'm all out of air mail paper so I must resort to this stuff but nevertheless it will convey my joy and stuff. I have finally got your letters together, the ones that were forwarded to me from Japan. It really made me feel good to have finally received them all. There must've been a zillion of them. It is now noon chow time so I'll make this note of medium length as I haven't eaten as yet. Again I repeat I am really happy over it but my heart and mind are slightly befuddled and confused due to some grief and some worry on my part over the whereabouts of my buddy Weber and a few of other buddies I had aboard LST 1060 that went to Japan. As you may or may not recall two days after I hit this rock a typhoon of over normal intensity hit this area. The Acorn 54 convoy was at sea at the time enroute to Japan. These LST's are not to ruggedly constructed so they must have had a pretty rugged trip. I've written to Weber but have had no answer. A couple of days ago I met a couple of guys in a unit here that were in Acorn 54 with me and they told me the 1060 went down with all hands on board. I can't dispute it nor can I quite believe it and there doesn't seem to be any way to check on it. One of the crew, a kid from Atlantic City used to be with Weber and I at Willow Grove so I have two buddies from long-standing now missing plus a couple of more new ones that I made in the outfit. I'll have to write to a couple of them up in Japan for verification. I only hope that it isn't true. Well honey I have to make it short or starve and I'm so hungry now that I can't afford that. I'll close for now and tonight I'll write you a long letter. For the present please take care and stuff. I still love you
Always
John"
