Based on the letters of Earl Philip Reinhalter (1922-1953). Edited by his son, Earl Philip Reinhalter (1950-).


<- PREVIOUS LETTER June 24, 1944
Saidor, New Guinea
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June 24, 1944

Somewhere in New Guinea

Hello Ma:

      Enclosed are some pictures which you might like to have. [Some of the photos are below. - Ed.] If you will notice, some of the pictures are numbered on the back. I'll tell you about each of those as follows:

      Picture #1 shows a picture of a captured Jap Zero with an American pilot on the wing.

      Picture #2 shows a native cemetery.

      Pictures #3 and #10 show some Jap skulls, one of which the boys are pulling out probably gold teeth.

      Picture #4 was taken at my base during a Jap bombing raid. Notice all of our tracer bullets and bursting shells.

      Picture #5 shows some native totem poles or something of the sort.

      Picture #6 shows the native army of New Guinea.

      Picture #7 shows a captured Jap flag.

      Picture #8 shows a native with a captured Jap. [According to his September 13, 1944 letter, this photo was returned by the military censor. - Ed.]

      Picture #9 shows some Japs in the background. This picture was developed from a captured Jap camera with a roll of films still in it.

      Picture #11 shows an invasion beach after our boys took it. Notice the barbed wire entanglements which the Japs had put up.

      Picture #12 was taken just after a Jap plane hit the water.

      Picture #13 shows me and some natives. Enclosed also is the negative.

      All of the others are just natives, some of the New Guinea and others are from nearby islands. If you consider any of these pictures too immoral, you can throw them away. [Some of the photos included bare-breasted native women. - Ed.]

      No, I didn't take the pictures, but a friend of mine did. The negatives naturally are his.

      I think that you will find all of the pictures interesting. -

Earl




Ack-ack (anti-aircraft tracer fire) at night in New Guinea, 1944.




Native totem poles in New Guinea, 1944.




New Guinea natives line up in formation. This is possibly the "native army" that he mentioned in his June 24, 1944 letter.


Earl and a native of New Guinea.




Native chief in New Guinea.




 
NOW AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK!

The Kindle book includes the letters; all 23 issues of the unit’s wartime newsletter “The Squadron Pulse,” which was originally edited by Leonard Stringfield; all 12 issues of the “Pennant Parade” newsletter that Stringfield published while sailing home after the war; complete text of the U.S. government booklet “Pocket Guide to Australia,” which soldiers heading Down Under were given to read; more than 200 photos; pre-war and postwar family history; and over 700 explanatory endnotes.















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