by Duke Doering
During World War II the 147th Field Artillery soldiers from Yankton, tired of C rations, went “fishing” in New Guinea. On December 5, 1944, the 147th Field Artillery Battalion was on the North Shore of Noemfoor Island in New Guinea. Noemfoor sat nearly on the equator. The unit had an opportunity for rest and recreation on a tropical island, however, according to the soldiers. “The buildings, facilities and towns had made little progress in the last 1,000 years.”
The enemy had been removed from the island on September 1, 1944. It had been occupied by the Japanese in December 1943 and was the site of three Japanese airfields. With no enemy resistance the 147th Field Artillery was waiting orders for their next assignment. The soldiers were kept busy in road building, air strip improvement and patrolling to make life a little more active.
Capt. Lewis Van Osdel was always surprised at how resourceful the soldiers were and related the following story, “When soldiers are busy and the chow is poor they gripe, yet they go about their business, but when chow is bad and they are idle, it’s serious.” At Sarmi and Noemfoor the C rations were very monotonous and “One Bun” Blazek, Mess Sergeant for Battery E, had got down to where he had just enough flour for one-half a bun per man, things were bad.
The engineers had a habit of leaving dynamite around. Add a row boat, a large lagoon and a hungry G.I. and something is likely to happen. Soon a crew composed of the members of the Yankton unit, which had been activated three years earlier, included Capt. Donald Perry, George Modereger as bombardier and Donald Modereger, Robert Novotny, Donald Colgan and James Lanctot as oarsmen and “bringers in” was afloat.
Puny one stick charges of dynamite brought no results, however a 12 stick dynamite underwater bomb brought fish boiling to the surface. What had been a sea of water was now a sea of red fish about 10 inches long. The “bringers in” swam until they couldn’t lift another fish into the boat which was just about swamped with the first day’s haul of 469 fish. A fish feast varied the diet and was very welcome.”
Later in the war Donald Colgan was wounded, first at Batangas near Lemery, and later near Legaspi. He was a sergeant when he returned to the United States in May 1945.
A few weeks later the 147th embarked in LST’s (Landing Ship Tank’s) for the 11 day, 1,900 mile trip to Lingayen Gulf in the Philippines. This was not a delightful sojourn to a tropical island either.
The Commanding Officer of the 147th Field Artillery Battalion on this date was Lt. Col. Kenneth R. Scurr of Pierre and Major Clifford D. Nelson, Sioux Falls, was the Executive Officer.
