RECOLLECTION

Chester Hill 1988

“GENERAL EICHELBERGER”

At the time of the Pearl Harbor attack Lieutenant General Robert E. Eichelberger had been Superintendent of The United States Military Academy at West Point, perhaps with one or two fewer stars on his collar than he wore aboard Swanson as probably the highest ranking officer ever to take passage in us. His present superior, General MacArthur, had also held that position, as had also Lt.Col. Robert E. Lee many years before. A year later Eichelberger held a very high staff position under MacArthur in Australia. We had a small force, mostly Aussies , holding on to New Guinea at Port Moresby on the Coral Sea near the south-eastern tip of that long, undeveloped, primitive island. The Japanese had worked down the northern side on the Solomon Sea to Buna. The two forces were roughly 100 miles apart, with the Owen Stanley Mountains halfway in between. That elevated tropical rain-forest formed one of the roughest and meanest natural barriers on earth. Milne Bay, basically not held in force by anybody, was at the very tip of the island, in between.

The enemy effort to cross the mountains and seize Port Moresby surged back and forth in the hellish heat of the disease-ridden forest. American reinforcements arrived, but still the issue was in serious doubt. If the enemy thrusts should finally succeed there would be no defense of Australia but the Coral Sea.

MacArthur called in Eichelberger to take personal field command of all the Allied Forces involved, with orders to take Buna. He took Buna. The attrition of the battle was extreme, reaching almost totality on the part of the Japanese. The American public was shocked to see the famous full-page photograph in LIFE magazine showing “Dead Americans on the beach at Buna.” Tokyo Rose called Eichelberger “The Butcher of Buna” repeatedly. Legends grew about the battle and tall, lanky, rawboned, weathered general who had personally led the final fight, rallying our frightened, malaria-ridden troops into hard, vicious combat, proudly wearing his three stars on his collar, in defiance of standing orders, so that his troops would know that the was with them.

When he and his immediate staff came aboard off Goodenough Island for passage in us for the BIG STRIKE on the northern coast of New Guinea I first met his Chief of Staff Brigadier General Clovis Byars, who came into my cabin, introduced himself, and said that he had been assigned to be my cabin mate for the trip. I immediately pointed to my permanently installed “Beautyrest” mattressed lower bunk and said, “That’s yours, General.”

“No way, Chester,” he said as he swung his gear into the temporary top rack. “You are going to be standing watch on this trip, and I am not.”

“As you say, General,” I replied. Who was I, a lowly ensign, to question the decision of General Eichelberger’s Chief of Staff? Shortly thereafter General Eichelberger arrived and ensconced himself in the single berth cabin directly across the passageway from mine. He and I soon became what I will always remember as very close friends during the ensuing evenings as I introduced him to the rules and nuances of the omnipresent wardroom game of ACEY DEUCY.

We were well along in our game on night when despite my reservations regarding the propriety of doing so I screwed up my courage and asked him, “General, can you tell me about what really happened at Buna?” He did not lift his eyes from studying his next move on the game board. Dead silence smothered the boisterous banter coming from the game of bridge in progress at the other end of the long, expanded table. I was beginning to think that either he hadn't heard me or preferred not to respond. Should I ask him again?

Slowly, quietly, but clearly he said, “Well, Chester, it was like this. General MacArthur and I have always been very close friends. We were having a lot of trouble hanging on to what little we still had in New Guinea when he called me into his office and said, “Bob, I want you to go and take Buna or don’t come back.” So, I went and took Buna. Your cabin mate Byers deserves more of the credit than I.” The game was quickly over and he bade us “Good night” and went to write his nightly letter to his wife.