NOT SOLD (BIDDING OVER)
0.00USD+ applicable fees & taxes.
This item WAS NOT SOLD. Auction date was 2003 Nov 09 @ 13:00UTC-5 : EST/CDT
<b>219. (WORLD WAR II COMBAT CORRESPONDENCE)</b> A huge collection of about 584 letters, scrap album, and souvenirs from Marine Lieut. Herbert Serrett 27th Marine Division, totaling approximately 2200pp.,written from January 6, 1943 through Dec. 11, 1945. His correspondence virtually spans his entireWorld War II career and begins with his being stationed at various posts stateside and at Hawaii. By mid-1944, he saw combat at Saipan and Okinawa, including details that are seldom encountered in WWII letters. Heavily involved in the military operations in the Pacific, he give us an insightful look at the feelings the GI had for the enemy and of the use of the Atomic bomb. The correspondence concludes while he was part of Japan's occupying army. The correspondence reads in very small part: <i>"...[Hawaiian Islands, Dec. 27, 43]...I'm in charge of the litter bearer platoon and will have about 40 men under me. I'd be a fool to try to pretend that this is a nice safe, cozy job for it isn't...we men of the Medical Dept take a lot of kidding from the rest of the army. They call us pill rollers...but when they get hurt they're damned glad to find that the pill rollers are right behind them...[Hawaiian Islands, Jan. 2, 44]...I'm now the censor for Co. B...[Jan. 4]...when the war started the people were so glad to have the army and navy here that they almost gave things away...now that the threat of invasion is practically past they are starting to take the soldiers and sailors for a ride...[July 2, 44]...I'm now in Headquarters of the Battalion and...battalion adjutant...[Saipan, July 5, 44]...I've been bombed and shelled and fired at by snipers...one night I had a foxhole out in an open field...we had a bad...time with snipers that night...I flattened myself out on the bottom of that hole while bullets buzzed over my head. Next day I decided to get out...that night we were dive bombed...you don't know the meaning of `fear'. One of the bombs whistled by us and exploded nearby...the next morning I cautiously raised my head expecting some sniper to take a pot-shot at me...the bomb had landed...in the middle of the foxhole I had slept in the previous night...I'll be very happy to get off this island when the time comes. It has been just one round of horror and stark terror...[Saipan July 11]...what we want with this island now that we've got it is more than I can image. When the war is over, they ought to make the Japs take it back, just for punishment...[July 14]...this rather peculiar paper is [captured from the] Jap[s]...I'm enclosing some Jap money. The two small bills are 50 yen each and the large one 10 sen...these were taken from a dead Jap [these bills are included with the lot, mounted in the scrap album]...[July 16]...our principle complaint...is still flies...I've seen too many flies crawling on decomposed dead Japs...[July 18, 44]...you mentioned the holiday of July 4th...we really had a noisy bang-up celebration...[July 19, 44]...I had to dig a foxhole before dark...that night the Japs made their suicide counter-attack...when morning came the `front' had come awfully close to me and the bullets were whizzing over my head...I started to reading my mail...if they were going to get me, I'd just as soon know what you had to say...there I sat with zing, zing all over the place...here's what I read...'today is one of those warm lazy Sundays...I'm sitting under the old apple tree'...I got a really laugh out of that...what a life...we were in our holes...snipers were around. We had heard their guns (Jap guns don't sound like ours)...bullets...came over my head...I heard footsteps coming...my hair stood up...I saw a dark form approaching...a huge black bull walked calmly past...a sergeant was sleeping with me...[we] started waving our hands...and...whispered shoo!...we were hoping no sniper would let loose while we were sitting up... [July 28]...all you heard about `bloody Friday' was not exaggerated. I personally saw many of our own dead and wounded and many more dead Japs...[Aug. 6]... I'm enclosing two pages from Time magazine...the...story `Gone to Earth' was just one of [many] instances...of getting rid of...those damn Japs who...wouldn't surrender [the article pages are included]...[Aug. 11]...we got more news about...Guam from Australian radio than we did from any other...we also hear `Tokyo Rose' once in a while she's an English specking-specking propagandist who broadcasts a lot of nonsense from Tokyo...[Aug. 17]...I had seen the Japs dead piled three and four deep-hundreds upon hundreds of them...[Aug. 27]...I...got my war-ballot today. It was a pleasure to vote against him [FDR.]...I only wish I could go to the polls on Nov. 7th and vote against him again!...[Aug. 28]...I'm enclosing a letter from the battalion commander which was sent to all the officers and men of the battalion...[this letter is included in the scrapbook reading, in part: `Now that the battle of Saipan is over, I wish to extend...my appreciation for a job well done...you under took extra jobs...gave your blood without complaint...I am proud of you.']...[Sept. 5]...if...wants to...open all the closed caves on Saipan they would find the skeletons of hundreds...of Japs. Long after the battle was officially ended it was necessary to start a systematic mopping up operation and treat the remaining Japs to the same `convincing process' their defunct pals had been subjected to. every opportunity was given them to surrender...they chose to remain in their caves, so the army fixed it so they couldn't change their minds...it's a case of `me killing you before you kill me'...[somewhere in the Pacific, Oct. 8]...I've left Saipan...and I'm now on a tropical island...complete with cannibals...with bushy hair and bones stuck in their noses...they come...and sell trinkets and grass skirts. One of our lieutenants meet a cannibal...who tried to trade his wife for the lieutenant's watch...[Oct. 9]...on Saipan...a lot of civilians were killed...they could have saved themselves a lot of grief if they had allowed themselves to be taken care of by our forces...the Japs won't hesitate to kill each other if they...were going to be captured ...they often cut off their heads with swords...screwy people, these Japs...[Oct. 14]...the civilians on Saipan...are put into internment camps and used for labor being paid a regular wage...[Oct.21]...MacArthur really fooled the Japs by landing where he did...there must be plenty of Jap airfields all around them...the Japs fleet seems to have chosen to `gather its strength'...the Japs...never...give their land forces much naval support...[Oct. 23]...they were still killing Japs on Sapain at the time I left...some troops were out in the jungle, training...they stumbled into a Jap camp...within sight of where I had been living...they killed 150 Japs that day...[Oct. 25]...[at] the division review...last week...[were given] the awards of the Silver Star...this week we're having our own battalion formation for the purpose of awarding the Bronze Star...and Purple Hearts...the most welcome award the army can ever give me will be my Honorable Discharge...[Nov. 8]...we don't have all of the election returns in yet...if his health is as poor as his picture...indicate...then we'll be stuck with Truman...wait for 1948 and maybe by that time the Mrs. [Eleanor] will be running for office... [Nov. 20]...one of the most pleasant sights I saw during the campaign was a Jap plane with its nose afire streaking across the sky. Suddenly there was a terrific burst of orange light and a few seconds later the sound of the explosion reached us...[Dec. 25]...during the worst at Saipan one of our men... `had to go'...so he urinated into his helmet...he placed it between his knees and...fell off to sleep...a half hour later...there was a air raid. The man woke up...grabbed his helmet and plopped it on his head! You can imagine the rest...[Jan. 5, 1945]... Iwo Jima has been bombed for twenty-six...days. I wonder if we're going to take that island. It would give us a base about 600 miles from Japan... [Mar. 23]...the new carrier attacks on Japan are encouraging. Now that we have Iwo we ought to be able to raise holy hell with them...[Okinawa, May 13]...'Okie' is...a cute little pup...if any Jap civilians come along he sets up an awful fuss. When our guards are on duty...he sits with them at their posts...[May 14]...Okinawa...is pretty...I'm impressed by its beauty...of course it is not very pretty when the fighting is going on...the German's are [not] any worse than the Japs. The body of one of our aviators who was shot down behind the Jap lines will testify to the...enemies we have over here...about 30,000 Japs have died on Okinawa, but only 100 have been captured...every last one of them must be killed...[May 15]...the Japs have excellent defenses here...each Jap has to be rooted out of a hole and killed. Often we can't find the hole; all we know is that every time one of our men gets to a certain position, he is shot down. The there is a long search to find the hole. When it's found and we approach...we'll probably be shot by another from hole #2 which is set up to protect hole #1...[May 17].. on [one] occasion I was high-tailing it for my fox hole with a cup of coffee...why I hung on to that cup of coffee, I'll never know, but when I...landed head first in my fox hole. I still had a full cup of coffee! The one that landed that time missed me by twenty feet...by...less than a second...[June 6]...about the Okinawa campaign...every day there was the artillery fire...I was often sleeping right in front of our own artillery batteries...let just one enemy shell come over and I'd be wide awake before it ever hit the ground...wherever the division goes I'll be there...[June 15]...I...got the impression that Pre. Truman is going to work out...I'm very much in favor of less dreaming...we've had...during the last twelve years...[June 19]...Steve...had quite an experience at Okinawa. His ship took part in the mine sweeping operations...they were attacked by a kamikaze plane...that...killed seven men in a gun crew. Before it hit...the plane released...its only bomb. The bomb went into one side of the ship...[July 5]...the B-29 pilots are betting twenty to one that Japan will be out of the war in ninety days...[July 8]...the number of prisoners taken on Okinawa was rather large...I am always relieved to see some of them give up...[July 9]...in combat...seasoned troops are always more scared than green...including the enemy.. [Aug. 8]...the principle topic of conversation is the atomic bomb which we've started using on Japan...it represents entirely too much power...in the hands of mere human beings...[Aug. 11]...the end many come sooner than I had expected...I hope that they...plaster the daylights out of them with atomic bombs...they've got a lot of gall offering to surrender on their own terms...[Aug. 15]...its finally over. We got word this morning that the Japs...decided to quit...I find it hard to believe. There is no visible difference here, except that the bombers aren't heading north anymore...[Aug. 20]...personally I feel that we haven't beaten the Japs as thoroughly as we should...they should have been beaten down until they were drying and begging for mercy...[Sept. 2]...V-J Day has come at last...we heard the broadcast of the signing of the surrender terms...I'll never forget that Sunday in 1939...well its over now...[Muramitsu, Japan, Nov. 8]...we're stationed in what used to be a Jap army post...[Nov. 9]...it is very interesting to see the extensive damage...huge sections were completely devastated...we hardly knew it when we were going through Tokyo...[Nov. 28]...this morning I picked up a souvenir which I've wanted for long time: Jap flag [included with the lot]...[Dec. 7]...I'm leaving...for Yokohoma to join the 1st Cavalry division...[Dec. 11]...this is it!...it looks as though aboard a ship by Thursday...I'm on my way home...</i>". Also included is his scrap album that includes items such as a pamphlet written in Japanese, but dropped by the Americans imploring the Japanese soldiers to surrender; money taken off of the body of a dead Japanese soldier; a copy of their battalion commander's congratulatory letter to his men after the fall of Saipan, as well as the Japanese commander's order to his men to defend the island to the last. Other items include captured Japanese stationery, a Japanese flag, his army photo, and newspaper articles detailing the 27th Division's movements. Overall a very rare collection of WWII material seldom encountered in the marketplace.<b> $2,000-3,000</b> -
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