VI
Nissan Island

Headquarters company disembarked at the site of the original beach-head on Pokonian Beach. Equipment and personnel were transferred to LCTs (landing craft, tanks), and the move to Mission Landing at the south end of the lagoon was made. Trucks carried equipment and personnel to the camp site on the seaward side of the south coast, pup tents were pitched, and the company settled in for its first rainy night on Nissan. As evidence that the landing had gone smoothly according to well laid plans the GOC, Major-General H. E. Barrowclough, CB, DSO, MC, and the ADMS, Colonel N. C. Speight, CBE, found time during the first evening of the invasion to call on the general's brother, our commanding officer. The distinguished guests were entertained in the narrow but hospitable confines of Lieutenant-Colonel Barrowclough's pup tent.

page 79

A reconnaissance party to the camp site, a few hours prior to the arrival of the main body on this first day, had discovered a Jap soldier lying unconscious behind a fallen tree and suffering from head wounds inflicted in the fighting a few days before. He was the 22nd's first and only prisoner. Early the following evening three Japs, armed to the teeth, marched through our camp along the cliff track and scared the wits out of unsuspecting camp constructing ambulance men. The Japs were just as nonplussed, and each party ran from the other—our men to get rifles and report the occurrence, the Japs to beat it to temporary safety.

Throughout this camp establishing period souvenir hunting was the chief recreation. Men hunted the jungle after the day's work and were rewarded by finding masses of Japanese equipment left by the deceased or hiding enemy. Rifles, helmets, antitank rifles, machineguns, flags, letters, mess cans half full of rice, clothing, and web equipment were eagerly acquired by the souvenir hunter. Mess tins, with the owner's name scratched on the aluminium in Japanese characters, were highly prized. Rifles of 0.256 bore were, of course, most sought after, and these, with about three or four inches of barrel sawn off, made good carbines. The anti-tank rifles, being cumbersome, were not in great demand, but one enterprising youth in the unit sold one to a Seabee (US naval engineer) for 100 dollars.

Around our camp was much evidence of the Japanese occupation. There were no permanent camps, as this island had been used mainly as a staging depot between Buka, New Britain, and New Ireland. Bivouac areas and hastily constructed beach defences were plentiful. The bivouac areas contained letters and the inevitable army forms dear to the heart of the quartermaster, clothing, ration tins, and the stinking remains of slaughtered pigs, with which the island was well stocked. These animals were plentiful in our area, and were responsible for many midnight scares when the sweating soldier, rifle in hand, watched with straining eyes and ears for the prowling Jap, who turned out to be a foraging pig.

The water supply in the early days of occupation was a problem of first magnitude. There were no natural sources except badly polluted native wells. The sole supply came from condensation plants which were established at various points on the lagoon side of the island and which produced a flat, warm water, page 80limited initially to one gallon a day for each man, but later stepped up to a bountiful four gallons. The camp construction proved the hardest the unit had ever done. The site was virgin jungle, with large overhanging banyan and mahogany trees with, of course, the inevitable pandanus. Thick second growth under the parent trees converted the site into almost impassable jungle, which had to be completely cleared to allow personnel and hospital tents to be erected and orderly room and quartermaster's stores established. The factor which caused the most hard work was undoubtedly the coral floor of the jungle. Latrines and sumps required drills and explosives, and the squad of engineers who helped us did their hard work well. The everlasting thick surface mud necessitated weeks of work constructing paths and flooring the hospital tents with cracked coral. No sand was available, except by a long haul by trucks urgently needed for other work as well. The job was barely finished when scores of patients descended on us and work began in earnest. Captain Skelley constructed a ladder down a 60-foot cliff to the sea, and bathing without tears was possible after this.

On 1 March, 1944, B company arrived by LST in one of the final echelons. Four members of this company had been present in the commando raid a month earlier, so the familiar landmarks were pointed out to the other members of the company with some assurance, not untinged with superiority. The company had acted as a rearguard for the unit for the trip north, and had stayed on in the old camp site at Joroveto, Vella, evacuating and treating the final sick. Its arrival at Nissan did not go according to plan. After a harrowing day, spent first in unloading our equipment to the accompaniment of exhortations from the LST commander, who was anxiously scanning the skies for Jap planes, and then in futile endeavours to find an LCT for the trip to Mission Landing, the company finally reached camp in the dark, to find that headquarters, in its own inimitable style, had again failed to provide a meal because of some misunderstanding. After a cup of tea the company pitched pup tents and introduced itself to the coral and dampness that was Nissan.

On 4 March B company was ordered to proceed to a new camp site to establish a convalescent camp to which the 22nd and 24th Field Ambulance hospitals would evacuate those patients not ready for active duty with their units. The site was truly idyllic. A dense plantation of palms, which opened out on to a page 81sandy beach on which the blue Pacific broke its combers unceasingly, was B company's new home. The men were jubilant at this release from the claustrophobic jungle at headquarters, and set to work to erect a new camp which, within two weeks, was taking in patients. All tents were floored with fine clean sand, and drainage was, of course, no problem in the sandy soil. Much credit is due to Corporal Dave Dickson and his lads of the ASC for constructing, with skill worthy of engineers, a road down a sheer coral bank.

On 25 March, 1944, news was received from A company at Guadalcanal that Lieutenant C. T. Smith had been killed in a Liberator bomber crash and that his companion, Captain B. W. Clouston, had been severely burned in the same accident. Lieutenant Smith v/as an old member of the unit for whom everyone had the highest regard, and news of his death was received with genuine regret by all. To replace him Lieutenant Fraser, of B company, was despatched to Guadalcanal. During the ensuing period weekly trips to a neighbouring island, Pinipel, were undertaken by members of the unit for the purpose of giving treatment to the natives. These people had been without medical care or supplies since the Japanese occupation and, consequently, were in a bad shape medically. Yaws had got out of hand, and almost all the natives were infected with large ulcers, tinea imbricala, and other skin diseases. In all nearly 100 natives received treatment each day that the trip was made. A fascinating sight, which enthralled all who beheld her, was a young native girl who was downright handsome for a Solomon islander. She was named Little Nell, and the editor of the Larynx was so impressed by her beauty—and he was not alone in this—that he was compelled to write a few verses in her honour, which are here reproduced.

Little Nell, The Belle of Pinipel,
or
Yaws For Ever.
(With apologies to Gunga Din.)
You may talk of ladies fair
When you're quartered safe back there
At the 4GH and sitting on your bottom,
But in the blue Pacific,
Lack of women is terrific,
And all a lad can do is wish he'd got 'em.
page 82 Now in Nissan's sunny clime,
Where I used to spend my time
A-serving Pete and Paddy Webb so well,
Of all that black-faced crew,
The finest girl I knezv
Was Little Nell, the belle of Pinipel.

The lingerie she wore
Was nothing much before,
And rather less than half of that behind,
For a string of coral beads
And a few hibiscus weeds
Was all the millinery that she could find.
On a hot and sunny day,
When we anchored in the bay,
Where the heat would make your blooming eyebrows crawl,
By the table when we'd set it,
The first to come and get it
Was Little Nell, the belle of Pinipel.

It was Nell, Nell, Nell,
First I stumbled, then I fell.
She sat upon her rudder
With the gravity of Budda,
Then she bared it 'cos the bismuth made her well.

I shan't forget the thought,
Though I know I didn't ought
To have thought it though you think those things up here,
That if I'd tipped her half a wink.
As fast as you could blink,
She'd be waiting fifty paces right flank rear.
She lifted up her head
When she heard the things I said,
And she smiled a word that Pidgin couldn't tell,
It was really not so hot,
But of all the smiles I've got
I'm gratefullest to one from Little Nell.
page 83 It was Nell, Nell, Nell,
Here's a Kiwi with his morals shot to hell.
Your smile is quite perfection,
You're the belle in this direction,
For God's sake smile a smile, please, Little Nell.

They carried us away to zvhere the coxswain lay
With his buttocks where his boot soles should have been,
We were heading from the beach
When I heard a lady screech,
'I hope you liked your smile,' says Pmi's queen.
I'll not meet her later on
In the place where I'll have gone,
Where it's parlez vous, ca va and all quinine,
She'll he smiling here, perhaps,
Smiling smiles to poor damn Japs
As they hara-kiri quietly on the green.

It was Nell, Nell, Nell,
You quite unrivalled queen of Pinipel,
And though Paris gowns evade you
By, the living God that made you
You wear nothing very well, Little Nell.

The health of troops in headquarters area was at this time given a jolt when insects literally fell from the heavens. The offending creatures produced an intolerable generalised urticaria in a large percentage of patients and unit personnel alike. The cause was finally identified as a furry caterpillar, which, at this season of the year, was out feeding on the green leaves of trees around and above our camp. This insect had long fur which was moulted before the cacoon stage. The fur floated down on to the unsuspecting soldier, his blankets and clothes, and thus was the itch produced. It was not necessary to touch the caterpillar itself; contact with objects which had known it was sufficient. Some patients, already ill, were tormented by the itch, with consequent sleepless nights and additional work for the hospital orderlies.

On 24 April, 1944, the first contingent of those returning to essential industry left for New Caledonia. There were the inevitable parties on 'jungle juice' prior to embarkation and page 84farewells were numerous. Our numbers were further depleted when Major Sheppard and Captain Ryder left for New Caledonia to assist in the medical boarding of industry personnel. Captain Ryder, who did not rejoin us, was one of the 'old-timers' of the unit, having been associated with it since he was on the staff of the Namaka Hospital in Fiji. His cheerful morning face, his comments on the food, his fund of stories told as only he could tell them, were missed sadly by those who remained in the officers' mess.

At this period, too, the 'hookworm scare' started. Captain B. W. Nixon, the regimental medical officer of the 30th NZ Battalion and at one time attached to our unit, found eosinophilia of marked degree in some of his troops presenting symptoms of anorexia, vomiting and abdominal pain. The finding of hookworm ova in the stools of one of these men started the snowball rolling, and all eosinophilia was labelled hookworm. In subsequent investigations over 30 per cent of all troops on the island were found to have eosinophilia, and massed dosing with tetrachlorethylene was instituted on the assumption that all were hookworm. We had our share in these investigations. Many painful hours were spent by Captains Skelley and Wishart in blood and fascal examinations, while our microscope man, Private Phil (Dracula) McEnroe, had a hectic time on blood counts. Large numbers of apparently fit men were evacuated by air to the casualty clearing station on Guadalcanal. Never in the history of the NZEFIP had so many fit men been flown so far for so little.

During this period the men occupied themselves in many ways. Those with sporting instincts were gratified by the introduction of 'race days,' complete with totalisator, at the Palm Beach (B company) course. Unsuspecting members from headquarters were frequently invited and were relieved of their dollars by the trustees of the above-mentioned company, among whom Private F. W. Dement and Corporal Bill Paap were outstanding figures. Those to whom exercise appealed took their pleasure in tenniquoit and basketball. This latter game was very popular, and many fine matches were played against brigade headquarters and, occasionally, against American teams. Swimming was, of course, a sport which all could enjoy, and some enthusiasts constructed Krazy Kraft for fishing purposes. The man who showed the way here was Captain Skelley, who employed a large part of his very considerable time in the construction of his yacht—the page 85Home Brew. For those with commercial instincts an outlet was found in the evergreen and expanding American market. Salvaged Japanese equipment found a ready sale, but perhaps the greatest racket ever seen in those fair islands was the 'shell racket.' Shells were hunted on the reefs by picked 'shell hawks,' different members of the combine prepared the shells for threading, and others completed the job. The result was a first class necklace, which commanded the amazing price of 10 dollars from our allies. However, apart from sport and excursions into business, for the ordinary people of the unit the work with the patients went on and night followed day with unvarying monotony.

Towards the end of April Padre R. C. Aires joined the unit to replace Padre Francis, who had returned to New Caledonia with the first industry draft. Shortly afterwards Lieutenant R. H. Saunders, who had joined the unit in New Caledonia as transport officer, was recalled to New Zealand. In May our quartermaster, Captain Betteridge, became seriously ill. His condition was so dangerous that penicillin was tried as a last resort, and his recovery was little short of miraculous. This officer and Captain Hudson, who was his bosom companion, formed a duo who had seen long service in the islands and were foundation members of the old 7th NZ Field Ambulance in Fiji.