Tag Archives: Philippines 1944

Winning hearts

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80 years ago today. 25 December 1944, Philippines. Original wartime caption: “Left to right: Pfc. Philip H. Dunbar (Worcester, Massachusetts) and Pvt. Si Gerson (New York City) giving Christmas candy to Filipino children in San Jose, Mindoro Island.”

Photographer: Pvt. Ben Gross, Signal Corps image 111-SC-377725, National Archives Identifier 148727530

For the record, the rations, “Candy, Pan Coated Disks” were M&Ms– which were introduced to the commercial market in 1941– and were often regarded at the time as “Air Crew Lunch.”

Of note, Simon W. “Si” Gerson was a longtime member of the CPUSA and editor for The Daily Worker. He passed in 2004, on the day after Christmas, aged 95.

The Greatest Generation included Americans of all kinds.

Merry Christmas, guys.

Tokyo Terror

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Some 80 years ago today. 13 December 1944, in San Jose, Mindoro, Philippines, a Skysoldier of the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Parachute Infantry, covers an area with his M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle. Note the gun’s nickname on the buttstock.

At some four feet in length and with an unloaded weight pushing 20 pounds, the BAR was not jumped often with paratroopers, with paratroopers instead relying on M1919A4/6 light machine guns that could be broken down and dropped among sections then assembled on landing.

Our para, of course, may have just “acquired” Tokyo Terror once on the ground.

2-503rd would earn a Presidential Unit Citation for jumping atop Corregidor and is remembered as “The Rock” to this day.

And the above BAR operator was likely there. At least one was. 

A M1918 BAR man of the 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment firing at the Japanese after the jump on Corregidor, Philippines, 20 February 1945. SC Photo 364533 by Pfc. Morris Weiner.

They are currently part of the 173rd Airborne Brigade, based at Caserma Del Din, Vicenza, Italy.