Hollandia

[Mike K]

Originally Posted by Lang

I have question about the blokes in camouflage uniforms. Says on the clip Engineers.

I have never seen pictures of US Army in New Guinea wearing such uniforms. No Marines were anywhere near these operations.

Anyone with a clue?

PS Found some info saying they were issued as early as 1942 but still have to find any photos of them being worn by the US Army in New Guinea. They were issued in Europe but after a number of friendly fire incidents confusing them with German camouflage they were withdrawn.

Lang

I had the same thoughts - Marines .

Maybe they got hold of some marine uniforms but that is unlikely . Or it might have been a small Marine detachment on special duties .

[Lang]

Mike

The caption says an Army Engineer battalion. The pattern is different to Marines and there were no Marines anywhere near here. The engineers could well have arrived direct from USA (or Australia) for the landing whereas the bulk of the troops had been working their way up the coast for the past two years.

Apparently Macarthur ordered 150,000 sets of uniforms but these do not appear to have been sent or issued.

The Marines did not have good experience with the early camouflage as it stood out, when troops were moving, much more than the plain green and they went back to the old uniforms. The second style received better reception but right to the end you see Marines in combat with camo shirts and green pants and vice versa.

Lang

[Mike K]

The primitive forklift lifting up the Dodge is interesting , and the large buildings .

One of the few stories my father told us: he was in Port Moresby with his sailor mates , they were up to no good and all kinds of mischief happened . They wanted to get inside a large store building but there was an American soldier on guard out the front . They gave the guard a bottle of whisky , after half an hour the guard was blotto and they walked straight in . Opening heaps of boxes all they found were US army officers dress uniforms .

[Lang]

Mike

Hollandia became a huge base to consolidate the move of American forces up the New Guinea coast. It marked the end of the major American involvement leaving the Australians to continue to fight the Japanese on the north coast and Bougainville.

As you can see from these photos, not only did they use the old Dutch buildings but built a huge complex on top.

Just as they were getting established it was decided to move the whole shooting match to Morotai to form the launch platform for the American assault on the Philippines and the Australian assault on Borneo. That move cost millions of dollars in transport and wasted resources.

[Lang]

Here are photos of the troops at Hollandia. Not a camouflage uniform among them. Note the blokes with the heavy machine guns with the shoulder pads.

[Lang]

This is really interesting. The American landings at Aitape - pronounced eye-ta-pee - (500 miles to the east) on the same day as the Hollandia landings.

No camouflage uniforms but what looks like camouflage packs! Or are they just camouflage ponchos wrapped around their packs to keep them dry?

The anti-aircraft trailer is at Hollandia.

[Mike K]

The LIFE pics are another great source , some of these are in colour including the S.W.P.A.

Morotai , I believe only a small area of the island was actually cleared of the enemy and the Japs were left occupying most of the island.

Some of the AWM documents relating to vehicle procurements are interesting. MacArthur at one point informed the Aust. minister responsible , " if you want anything come directly to me "

[Tony Smith]

Originally Posted by Mike Kelly

I had the same thoughts - Marines .

Maybe they got hold of some marine uniforms but that is unlikely . Or it might have been a small Marine detachment on special duties .

Could they be SeaBees? Although they had military training from the USMC, they were technically speaking USN and could be expected to have slightly different uniforms.

[Lang]

There was a large contingent of Seabees in Hollandia (and everywhere else). I have looked at dozens of photos and find no camouflage except for Marine issue helmet covers.

They distinguish themselves as the scruffiest bunch of blokes in the islands with everyone wearing different clothing. It is interesting that photos of Americans without shirts are fairly uncommon while for the Australians it was standard dress. The Seabees adopted the Australian form and many shirtless photos are to be seen.

The Seabees also had a high percentage of black troops in their combat engineer units unlike the Army who commonly restricted black soldiers to transport and support units.

Here are Seabees at Hollandia.

[Lang]

Solved the camouflage troop question.

They are members of the 1881st Aviation Engineer Battalion. In current terms they would be an Air Force Airfield Construction Regiment.

They had been languishing at the huge air base at Nadzab for over a year (after building the strips their claim to fame was they built the largest playhouse and concert stage in the whole Pacific)

They obviously were issued with brand new clothing for Hollandia. I am sure they would have been the source of much joking in their jungle suits sitting on an airfield grader while the fighting troops wore plain old uniforms.

Lang