Erling Jonassen
Era: World War II
Military Branch: Army
Mr. Jonassen served during World War II.
He served in the U.S. Army and was trained as an airplane mechanic. He served in the 19th Bomb Group, 10th Military District.
Mr. Jonassen enlisted before World War II, and was in the Philippine Islands when Pearl Harbor was bombed. Shortly after, the Japanese invaded the Philippines. The Americans and Filipinos were overwhelmed and outgunned. Gen. Douglas MacArthur withdrew to Australia, leaving tens of thousands of servicemen behind. Most were captured.
Some servicemen instead went into the jungle. Mr. Jonassen was one of these.
He and other Americans joined with some Filipinos as a guerrilla force that worked under the authority of the U.S. Command in Australia. Mr. Jonassen was in charge of about 150 guerrillas.
At first, the guerrillas tried to kill the Japanese forces, and the Japanese responded by killing Filipinos. Later, their mission was changed, and they instead provided intelligence to U.S. Command in Australia about Japanese movements. The Filipinos were offered 5,000 pesos for each American they turned over to the Japanese, dead or alive; it is a credit that the Fiipinos did not turn them in but allowed the Americans to live in their villages. Mr. Jonassen returned to Duluth, sick with malaria and other illnesses, malnourished, but alive.
Mr. Jonassen was born in Duluth, Minnesota, in 1919.
He was decorated with the Presidential Citation and a Bronze Star.
Sources: "A Duluth Vet Recalls Survival and Triumph in the Philippines,"
Minnesota Public Radio, November 11, 2008
(see below; visit the following site: www.mprnews.org/story/2008/11/11/jonassens_wa...
and interview by the MacArthur Memorial Oral History Project, October 30, 2007, part of the MacArthur Memorial (see below; visit www.macarthurmemorial.org), Norfolk, Virginia. Both used with permission.
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"A Duluth Vet Recalls Survival and Triumph in the Philippines"
By Stephanie Hemphill, Minnesota Public Radio
November 11, 2008
On this Veterans Day, one World War II vet is remembering a remarkable and little known part of the war. The Duluth man fought the Japanese during one of the darkest periods of the war.
Duluth, Minnesota – Erling Jonassen’s extraordinary experience took place in the jungles of the Philippines, where he spied on the Japanese and fought them in a guerrilla war that has never received much attention.
It ended three years later, when Gen. Douglas MacArthur made his famous “return” to the Philippines.
Erling Jonassen’s mother and father immigrated to Duluth from Norway. He graduated from high school in 1937, deep in the Depression. With no jobs to be had, he enlisted in the service and got training as an airplane mechanic.
In December 1941, Jonassen found himself stationed in the Philippine Islands. Just a few hours after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, they invaded the Philippines.
American and Filipino soldiers offered a bloody but hopeless defense, which at least slowed the Japanese advance across the Pacific to give Australia time to mobilize.
Gen. Douglas MacArthur retreated from the Philippines for Australia, and from there he issued his famous promise, “I shall return.”
Tens of thousands of American troops were left behind. Most were captured and put in camps—this was the time of the Bataan Death March, which killed as many as 11,000 men.
Some of them, like Erling Jonassen, melted into the jungle; Jonassen and his buddies felt they’d been used—sacrificed by their military leaders.
“There’s a lot of guys that died that were cussing the Americans for leaving them sitting there, high and dry, with no chance of anything,” said Jonassen. “They were the most tremendous people you could ever imagine. They fought until they were sick; they fought while they were sick and while they were starving. They just fought until they died. No good. Whole damm thing was no good.
Jonassen lost some good friends. Like most of them, he was just a kid.
“I think the official surrender was May 7, because I was 21 years old May 5, and I indicated that those bastards did not kill me until my 21st birthday at least, so I felt kind of good about that.”
The time came when his commanding officer told the men they had to surrender to the Japanese.
“A couple of the guys asked, “What if we don’t want to surrender?”…And he said, “You guys that don’t want to surrender, take off, and good luck.”
Jonassen and a dozen other men grabbed guns, ammunition and supplies, and took off for the jungle. Their plan was to get to the coast, find a sailboat, and island-hop to Australia.
But they never made it.
They heard about some American civilians who were organizing Filipino fighters into a guerrilla force. These were plantation managers; mining engineers, lumbermen who’d lived in the Philippines for years. They were familiar with the territory and the local people.
The U.S. military commissioned them as officers, and they put Erling Jonassen in charge of about 150 Filipino fighters. This skeleton military outfit took its orders from the U.S. command in Australia.
“At the very beginning of this operation, we would go out in groups of six, seven, 10, and we would ambush Japanese trucks, and the result of that was (the) Japanese punish(ed) the Filipino people.
Then word came from Australia, changing their mission.
“Don’t kill any Japanese, we’ll take care of killing the Japanese, you give us intelligence, keep civil government as best you can,” Jonassen recalled. “And that’s exactly what we did until MacArthur came back to the islands.”
They maintained primitive radio communication with neighboring forces, and relayed information on Japanese movements to the U.S. command. They printed money to keep the economy going.
Every so often, U.S. submarines would make secret visits to the coast. They brought supplies, and sometimes took away American soldiers who were having trouble handling the situation.
Jonassen chose not to leave.
“It was a temptation to go, but by the time it was a little bit personal too, so I stayed. And so did a bunch of other guys.”
Jonassen suffered recurring bouts of malaria and other diseases, Supplies were scarce. Jonassen used a school notebook to record his observations of air traffic. He wore civilian clothing to blend in with the population.
There were occasional firefights with the Japanese, who certainly knew the Americans were there.
“There was one time I had a message from them asking me to surrender, and being guaranteed a very good stay with them in their prison,” said Jonassen. “So they knew us; they knew our name, rank, serial number. They had a 5,000-peso reward, dead or alive, on all Americans for all the time we were there. They knew all of us. They didn’t collect once, that’s the Filipino people - - and helping other American soldiers.
If you ask Erling Jonassen whether the hardships he suffered during the war were worth it, he says it’s up to history to decide. But he’s proud of his role helping to maintain order for the Filipino people - - and helping other American soldiers.
“We picked up pilots that had gotten in trouble and fallen to the ground. The natives would bring them to us, they’d say, “What the hell’s going on here? Who are you? We got two separate ones that we sent back to the coast that went back by submarine.”
Soldiers hidden along the coast could pinpoint the location of ships so submarines could torpedo them.
“I think in that respect, we probably saved one heck of a lot of American lives.”
Erling Jonassen was promoted twice during his time on the Philippines. He received a Presidential Citation and a Bronze Star for his service.
Today, at 89, he lives in Duluth, Minnesota. He reads history books, keeps up with his favorite sports teams, and enjoys family gatherings, especially with his two grandchildren.
Source: © Minnesota Public Radio, all rights reserved, 480 Cedar Street, Saint Paul, MN USA 55101, 651-290-1212, http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/...
jonassens_war_in_the_phillipines/
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MacArthur Memorial Oral History Project
Interviewer: James Zobel – 30 October 2007
Veteran: Erling Jonassen Interview
19th Bomb Group
10th Military District
American Guerrilla of Mindanao
Zobel: It is 30 October 2007. I am here with Mr. Erling Jonassen, who was a guerrilla on Mindanao. This is part of the MacArthur Memorial Oral History Project. Mr. Jonassen, we have in front of us your copy of your service which you wrote up, not real recently, but more recent than more in the past. So what we are going to do is ask questions in conjunction with this so people wanting to know your story can listen to the tape as well as go along with your writing. It is said that you enlisted from Duluth in 1939. Were you born there, in Duluth?
Jonassen: Born in Duluth, yes.
Zobel: When?
Jonassen: [date recorded elsewhere,] 1919.
Zobel: Before you joined the military, were you in any kind of Boy Scouts or any type of groups that did outdoor activities or anything?
Jonassen: Boy Scouts yes, for a short period of time; other than that, no.
Zobel: Were you a hunter?
Jonassen: Never a hunter.
Zobel: Fisherman?
Jonassen: Fisherman; yes, sportsman, yes.
Zobel: What was it that made you want to go into the Army?
Jonassen: We had a depression during this time. No jobs available. I realized that there would be a time when people would have to mark time before they got work; I decided that the Army would be a good place for me to mark time until economic conditions became better than they were in 1935.
Zobel: Did you have any relatives that had served in the military?
Jonassen: None.
Zobel: So did you have any idea of Army life at all before you entered?
Jonassen: No, first generation American.
Zobel: Okay, great. In your script here you talk about your early training and working with the 19th Bomb Group. What was your specialty that you were trained for?
Jonassen: Trained for airplane mechanic. I went to a couple of schools in California, sent by the Army.
Zobel: Now were you training for a specific plane, or would this be a mechanic who could work on all types of planes?
Jonassen: I don’t know.
Zobel: What plane did they….B17?
Jonassen: Well we had 17s and that was our airplane.
Zobel: Right, and then come November, you went into San Francisco where you were going to be shipped to the Philippines. Do you remember the name of the ship that you went over on?
Jonassen: It was one of the President Lines.
Zobel: One of the President Lines. How was the crossing?
Jonassen: Very good.
Zobel: No problems, or rough weather, or do you remember anything?
Jonassen: There was rough weather, but I volunteered to be with a laundry group which got me out of the hold of the ship and I was fine.
Zobel: Okay, so you had better accommodations maybe?
Jonassen: I had better accommodations.
Zobel: Do you remember any other units that were on your ship, besides the 19th Bomb Group?
Jonassen: No, I don’t.
Zobel: When you got to the Philippines, your first time out of the United States?
Jonassen: First time, other than Canada.
Zobel: Big shock to come to the Philippines?
Jonassen: Yes, definitely. I was accustomed to the northern climates of Minnesota and southern climates of Canada. Philippines were entirely different.
Zobel: Now did the 19th go straight to Clark Field?
Jonassen: Yes, they did.
Zobel: Can you describe, maybe, your living conditions, your routine before the war opened?
Jonassen: Yes, I remember mahogany beds. That was an unusual thing for me. Mahogany was a easily acquired wood over in the islands. They made the barracks out of it. We had time to get acquainted with the towns nearby. We had time to get acquainted with life outside of Clark Field. We went swimming in certain rivers. I remember we had guards posted, I guess to keep us safe from animals that might have come into our recreation area. It was a good life.
Zobel: How about working on the planes? How long would you be, as far as official duties?
Jonassen: Official duties, we always had a special routine and the routine was in maintenance of airplane and the routine took us from “to flight” to “after flight” and it was regular routine. It was nothing extraordinary.
Zobel: How many hours a day?
Jonassen: May 5, maybe 6.
Zobel: Okay, before the war opens, a lot of scuttle butt about war coming? Or is there a talk maybe you will avoid it?
Jonassen: We were convinced the war was coming and we dug trenches all over the place and we did not like the idea because we did a lot of extra work. The idea of the trenches of course was the fact that we were going to be in a war. It wasn’t a rumor.
Zobel: Okay, so everybody was convinced. That tells a lot. The day of Clark Field; describe that.
Jonassen: It was a day that started out as everyday, usual. We had previous to this kept airplanes in the air and they were going over territory north of the islands and around the islands because we were on alert. We were always on alert. This became a routine in itself.
Zobel: Of being on alert.
Jonassen: Of being on alert and our aircraft when it came down were always maintained on alert status so they could take off and go up anytime.
Zobel: Did they ever disperse them? Or were they always kept together?
Jonassen: I never saw them dispersed, that I saw.
Zobel: Never.
Jonassen: Never.
Zobel: Now was there the reason of sabotage for this? Or do you know why?
Jonassen: I only have an opinion.
Zobel: Okay, well that is good enough.
Jonassen: And that opinion is we did not want ……
Zobel: Having been in the business of bullets flying.
Jonassen: Exactly.
Zobel: That day, when it comes in, you said you were working on a plane and then dove under a plane. What’s it like to all of a sudden be in a real shooting….
Jonassen: It was terrifying. Terrifying is the only real explanation and as I said before we had trenches, we didn’t like the idea of, but were happy we had them at the time because the first thing we did was dive in these trenches.
Zobel: Now before this; you must have had thoughts to yourself about what it would be like if the shooting ever started. Was it anything like you had imagined, or was it beyond anything?
Jonassen: It was beyond anything. It was a realization that came from the flash of the moment of a terrible terrifying thing happening and it did not take the people long to find out that it was terrible and it was happening and we had to learn how to live with it. I guess that is about the only thing I can say.
Zobel: Now a few weeks afterwards you would leave for Del Monte, but how about in that time between; is it mostly cleaning up Clark, was it working a perimeter defense, what kind of things were you doing?
Jonassen: We did not have any airplanes left anymore so that was out of the question and what we were doing exactly was trying to clean up and prepare for what, I did not have the prerogative to know what was going to happen and I guess that is all we did. Try to clean up and keep ourselves from getting killed when succeeding attacks came.
Zobel: Now after you had moved down to Del Monte, which you explained pretty thoroughly in your script here, what was your job at Del Monte; aircraft mechanic again?
Jonassen: We were going to be aircraft mechanics, but apparently when we got to Del Monte, it was determined that that was not a good idea. Our supply lines from Australia to Del Monte were still too long. We did not have the equipment to maintain airplanes when we got there, so apparently this was abandoned and myself, I was given the duty to; I was a prison guard. We had some Japanese prisoners by that time and I was a prisoner guard and these prisoners would by day behind wire and they would be preparing timbers for an underground hanger we were building.
Zobel: How big was this? There is a guy digging on this thing right now at Mindanao.
Jonassen: That’s right. I don’t think I ever got... All I remember is that we had these big timbers that these guys were making dovetail joints on. They would be doing this in the daytime. At the nighttime, they would be hauled out to the site and they would be put together in an underground hanger that was being made.
Zobel: Now was this right by the airfields? Or is more towards the plantation?
Jonassen: I can’t recall that.
Zobel: Was it built into a hill?
Jonassen: It was built into a hill. I cannot say where the hill was?
Zobel: It wasn’t Gabok Hill, was it?
Jonassen: I don’t know.
Zobel: Okay.
Jonassen; I say this only because in order to have an underground hangar, you have to have a hill to dig it into to. First thing you end up with a tunnel and then you reinforce the tunnel with timber.
Zobel: Wow, okay. Did you know Bob Ball during the war?
Jonassen: No.
Zobel: But you know of him in the afterwards in AGOM?
Jonassen: The name?
Zobel: Robert Ball.
Jonassen: I knew him, yes. I don’t recall meeting him, but I did know him.
Zobel: Now were there any guys that were friends or yours, besides like Sanders and from the 19th Bomb Group that stayed and were guerrillas? You know that were good friends of yours?
Jonassen: You mean previous to the war?
Zobel: Yes.
Jonassen: None.
Zobel: Now you were there at the MacArthur evacuation. Can you describe that for me?
Jonassen: It was an airplane that came in from Australia. MacArthur came in with his entourage.
Zobel: Were you there when they came in? Like were you stationed around the plantation?
Jonassen: I was stationed on the plantation, but I wasn’t at the point where the PT boats came in. I was at the airfield that MacArthur came to and boarded and took off in.
Zobel: Okay, so you saw his wife and son and all of them?
Jonassen: I must have. I can’t recall specifically.
Zobel: How did that make you feel, seeing the commanding general leaving?
Jonassen: I don’t know. I don’t think at the time I blamed him. A commander is not going to do you any good if he is going to get captured and so I think I was okay with that. I guess I had some qualms about staying there. I knew damn well that I was going to be there, but other than that I had no animosity toward the people that took off.
Zobel: Is anybody talking surrender at this time or anything?
Jonassen: I don’t think they were talking. I think all of us knew that surrender was inevitable…
Zobel: So it is in the back of your mind?
Jonassen: Oh yeah.
Zobel: How about the Royce Raid? Were you at the field when Royce and all of them brought in those B17s that hit Cebu in April? Do you remember that at all?
Jonassen: Did not.
Zobel: Now, in your script you talk about after the surrender May 10th, when Sharp issues the word for surrender and somebody said the idea of going into the hills and in your script you say that somebody said, well roll hasn’t been taken yet. The stores are open. Was this an officer?
Jonassen: This was an officer and I can’t recall if it was an Air Force officer, or what kind. It was the officer in command at the time and we went into formation and were told our next project was to get ourselves into the hands of the Japanese without getting killed ourselves. That was the final blow. We were expecting surrender and I am sure a lot of people had thought about not surrendering. A lot of us thought what is the reason for surrendering if you don’t have any Japanese around you forcing surrender? Why surrender? And so, some person said, “what about if they don’t want to surrender?” And the reply was, “we haven’t checked roll yet, we haven’t checked supplies yet,” and he said if there is anybody that has to do, we will give them x-amount of time to get what you need before we take roll call.
Zobel: And they opened the stores to you guys.
Jonassen: Yes.
Zobel: Was there no Quinine to grab or anything like that?
Jonassen: No.
Zobel: Mostly weapons….
Jonassen: In fact, even if there was Quinine I don’t think we were smart enough to grab a whole bunch of that.
Zobel: So you had had no type of sickness up until then?
Jonassen: Up until then, no.
Zobel: Okay, great. In your script you talk about going out and hooking up with the Manobo tribes, living with them for a while, and this is where you get sick, is living with them.
Jonassen: Yes.
Zobel: You catch malaria. Now did you have bad malaria bouts when you were with the tribes? Do you remember?
Jonassen: I think I had worse bouts after I got out. By the time I got out, I had an assortment of diseases, a lot of I don’t know what I had. I just had a bunch of it. I know I had malaria. I know I had beriberi. I know I had the symptoms of dysentery. I know that I was weak from the lack of food, because every time I would get up I would almost fall down and stars most of the time. This is because I don’t have the food.
Zobel: Malnourished.
Jonassen: The rest of us were just about the same shape and we realized that there was nothing that could be done about it up in the hills.
Zobel: And so after, in your script again-going back to that, it says about September of ’42, that is when you heard about guerrilla activities going on and you tried to make your way to some kind of group, and you ended up with Pendatuan.
Jonassen: Yes.
Zobel: Can you describe Pendatuan for us?
Jonassen: To me he was a very well educated person. He was aggressive, might even say domineering, smart. I think he was looking for a higher level of chieftain than he was at the time, but that is merely an opinion again.
Zobel: But he was very welcoming to you, very….
Jonassen: Very welcoming, absolutely.
Zobel: How about as well for his chief of staff, Andrews? Could you describe him for us?
Jonassen: Well, Andrews was just the opposite. Andrews did not like Americans. He was at one time, I think the commander of the Philippine Air Force, was educated and trained in the United States and for some reason whatever he did not like the Americans and I think he probably had quite a bit of influence on Pendatuan.
Zobel: In not trusting Americans?
Jonassen: In not trusting Americans.
Zobel: Do you remember the time frame, like how long were you with Pendatuan before you made your trip to Talakag to meet up with Grinstead?
Jonassen: Well, I believe it might have been 2 or 3 weeks, or what we had decided and Pendatuan was good about it. Gave us whatever we needed in medicine.
Zobel: So it was only about a month that you were with him?
Jonassen: Right.
Zobel: Now Grinstead, you make your way to Talakag, was that because you had heard he was there?
Jonassen: We had heard that he was there and we said, let’s get to that guy and see what he has to say.
Zobel: Were there any other Americans with Pendatuan at that time?
Jonassen: Yes there was. I believe that maybe 20 or 25 Americans at one time went through Pendatuan’s organization before they finally ended up where they were going.
Zobel: Did you ever meet McGee, the WWI veteran?
Jonassen: John McGee?
Zobel: Yes, exactly.
Jonassen: I think I met him one time.
Zobel: I know he was down in that region.
Jonassen: Yes, and he was an old West Point man.
Zobel: Right, right, got killed like the last week of the war on Mindanao.
Jonassen: Really? I did not know what. I know he was killed, but I did not know…..and he was a tremendous person in my estimation.
Zobel: Well, so just you and Sanders go to Talakag?
Jonassen: We went together yes.
Zobel: With guides…
Jonassen: I think it was one guide or two guides.
Zobel: Now had you and Sanders been friends before the war like during training and things like that?
Jonassen: No we met on the trail going away from the group that was ordered to surrender. He was one of the group that took off. I think there were 12 of us.
Zobel: Did you have good friends before you were at Del Monte?
Jonassen: Yeah, I think I did.
Zobel: But did you get separated from them, like when you got sent to Del Monte?
Jonassen: Well sure, army people always get separated with friends.
Zobel: What I am getting at is when you went into the jungle you went with 12 guys that you did not really know very well.
Jonassen : No, Bob Merchant was a person that I knew somewhat that was with the group that evacuated.
Zobel: Right, but he went off different than your four.
Jonassen: He did.
Zobel: Grinstead, can you describe him; tall, short, sense of humor?
Jonassen: No sense of humor, well, yes, yes, I take that back. He did have a sense of humor. Kind of a dry sense of humor. Highly intelligent. He had read up on United States politics. He knew the politics of the State of Minnesota.
Zobel: Is that where he was from?
Jonassen: No, no.
Zobel: Oh, but you were from there and he knew about that.
Jonassen: Right.
Zobel: Tall guy? Short guy? Smoke? Drink?
Jonassen: He was overweight. He was maybe more than average in height.
Zobel: In his 50s.
Jonassen: In his 50s, with wide experience in the Philippine Islands. He was in WWI. Why he came to the islands afterwards, I don’t know, but he had military experience there. He took part in the original organization of the Philippine Constabulary. He trained those people and I think he was on his plantation when the war broke out. I don’t know if he asked to be part of the organization or not, but he became part of the organization.
Zobel: Now in going through your script again, when you talk about before Parsons came, you were involved in ambushes along the road and things like that, but then that brought in retaliation among the villages. Did you have personal witness of areas after the Japanese had gone through, what they had done to various areas?
Jonassen: Rather than various areas, various people, yes.
Zobel: Okay, so you knew personally people that had been….okay.
Jonassen: Yes, not good.
Zobel: And then you said later on, when you got home, you were even called to testify about these atrocities.
Jonassen: My commander was, I wasn’t.
Zobel: Okay, you weren’t, but Grinstead was. Haggerty, the Jesuit Priest, what was he like? What type of person was he? His influence? How others saw him?
Jonassen: I think others, well particularly the Filipinos, they looked upon him as the next thing to Jesus Christ because he had a tremendous influence on those people. He was a good man in my estimation. I remember him as a priest riding on a horse. I remember him getting the respect of anyone that he met when he went from point-A to point-B.
Zobel: Did you see him very many times?
Jonassen: I saw him I think 2 or 3 times.
Zobel: Just coming through the area administering to the people?
Jonassen: Exactly.
Zobel: Unbelievable, now, he was one of the few Americans that would come through your area in Bukidnon?
Jonassen: Colonel Bowler came through our area.
Zobel: Did you meet him?
Jonassen: I met him one time. He was a good friend of McLachlan who was the 112th Regimental Commander.
Zobel: Now in your piece here, you said that McLachlan was 4th Marines, but earlier you said he was with the 31st Division.
Jonassen: 31st Infantry Regiment.
Zobel: Okay, so it was the 31st. Okay well that clears up because I was wondering how could a 4th Marine guy be down on Mindanao. And McLachlan was an enlisted guy, but you say he was a very capable person.
Jonassen: I thought he was …….and when he had a regiment, he was in my estimation the person to be the head of the regiment and the more I got to know McLachlan, the higher my regard was for him and his capabilities and also his personality. He loved the Filipino people and I think they loved him.
Zobel: What was his; nonchalant, very serious, ….?
Jonassen: I don’t think. Mac was not serious except when he had to be serious.
Zobel: But he kind of took it every day?
Jonassen: He took it every day, absolutely.
Zobel: Do you know where he was, when the surrender was? Like how he evaded capture? What his story was?
Jonassen: No that is one thing I do not know. All I know is that….
Zobel: Now did you run into him when you first went to Talakag?
Jonassen: I did not. I met him, because I was assigned to him by Grinstead and that is when I met Mac. I must have been with him for maybe 6 to 8 months.
Zobel: Oh, okay. And throughout this time, you stayed pretty much just in Bukidnon?
Jonassen: In Bukidnon, that was our home.
Zobel: But you did say that now and again supplies from the submarine, when a shipment would come in, you would get something. What would this be? Weapons, propaganda materials, or…?
Jonassen: Propaganda materials for the Filipino people to give them the confidence that MacArthur would return as he stated.
Zobel: And you said it was very good propaganda; worked very well.
Jonassen: We had ammunition with the date stamped on it which indicated that it came from Australia. We had the matches; “I shall return.” We had magazines.
Zobel: How do you think that worked with the people?
Jonassen: I think it did well.
Zobel: Because he gained so much criticism for that, but I always think he said it just for the Filipinos.
Jonassen: Yes, I did not know he got the criticism.
Zobel: Oh yeah, back home.
Jonassen: Really, I didn’t know that.
Zobel: It should have been “we shall return”.
Jonassen: Oh, well, that is the nature of the beast and it was good and accepted….
Zobel: And that is what all the guerrillas say that it was a big boost. When you had like a company, how many guys would be in a company?
Jonassen: Well we had roughly a hundred, a little more, a little less than a hundred.
Zobel: And these were all Filipinos?
Jonassen: All Filipinos.
Zobel: And you said before, roughly what age about?
Jonassen: I think maybe between 18 and 30.
Zobel: And when you first started out, before you started getting supplies from submarines, what were these guys armed with?
Jonassen: They were armed with Enfield rifles; the British rifle. We had some 1903 Springfields, which was a fine rifle. Good weapon. Not many of them; mostly Enfields.
Zobel: How about the, what do they call them, those Paliuntods, the shotguns they make out of the curtain rods? Were there any homemade weapons that guys had like that?
Jonassen: Not that I saw.
Zobel: Okay, great. What was the biggest piece of armament that you would get from the subs?
Jonassen: We had a bazooka once that was shipped up by submarine, that they shipped out to our regiment and Mac and I did not know how to operate that thing. We fired it one time and that was all. I believe they were shipped, because we only had one, but I understand there were more that came up in other parts of the island and the idea was to take these weapons; they did not want to use them at the time because as soon as the Japanese found out we had heavier weapons than rifles….
Zobel: They would come after you.
Jonassen: They’d come after us.
Zobel: So this was meant to be cached away until the Americans return.
Jonassen: Exactly.
Zobel: Okay, alright that explains it. Getting around, like this mountain. Kitlanglad?
Jonassen: Kitanglad.
Zobel: Well, you’re barefoot pretty much of the time. How’s travel? I mean do your feet just become complete callus.
Jonassen: They became exactly like the Filipino foot which was just as good as having tennis shoes on.
Zobel: Right, right.
Jonassen: That was not a problem except ….
Zobel: How about insects, jungle animals? How would that affect you? Snakes, things like that?
Jonassen: Snakes, I recall being…I had a horse that I used for a while and I recall going down a trail and the horse stopped and I almost went over the top of it and I gave him a kick and I couldn’t figure out why he wouldn’t move and I looked down and I see this body on the trail going across the trail. I didn’t see a head, nor did I see a tail and after a short period of time, a tail appeared and that is about the time, I got to believe it was python that was crossing at that time.
Zobel: How about the Pulangi River? Crocodiles, anything like that?
Jonassen: I didn’t see a crocodile. I didn’t see anything in the Pulangi River except the little ……, little fish.
Zobel: Okay, would you use the river much to travel?
Jonassen: Oh yes, when we were in the mountains, we took a raft. That was how we kept track of what was going on with the Japanese. Although once in a while we’d go down to the Filipino village and we would find out what was going on. They were the ones that told us that Pendatuan was there, and he would have some raids on Malaybalay and the more we heard about that and considering the conditions we were up in the mountains, we said, we got to get out of here and this was our out and at the time we took a guy down. A guy got in a fight with someone and he got a slash in his lower jaw that went from the front to the back and they, by they I mean the natives, gave him to us.
Zobel: Yeah, I saw where you….Was he an American?
Jonassen: No he was a Filipino.
Zobel: But he made it.
Jonassen: Yeah, he did. It was either a case of us getting him out of his misery or letting the Japanese or somebody else doing it and we preferred someone else do it rather than us and the guy lucks out and the Filipinos take care of him. They get him to a doctor and we found out later that he was no worse for wear.
Zobel: When you are under Grinstead, do you ever recall any kind of air field construction in your area at all?
Jonassen: Before?
Zobel: No, during the war when they were making these fields; because they were hoping to bring in C-47s to supply the guerrillas.
Jonassen: Yeah, this is before we went into the hills and just before the surrender.
Zobel: They were making fields around….
Jonassen: Yes.
Zobel: Okay. Do you think that was for guerrilla warfare?
Jonassen: No. It was for the …
Zobel: Supply.
Jonassen: Yeah, it was for the overall plan to supply Mindanao, to help Luzon, and to protect Australia.
Zobel: Okay, you said you had a 5,000 peso reward on your head.
Jonassen: Not only me, all of the guys did.
Zobel: All the guys, but you never once gotten anybody….Filipinos took care of you completely.
Jonassen: That’s the amazing thing and I have a tremendously great admiration for the people of the Philippines during that time because they would do anything to help an American guerrilla and they did time, after time, after time, risking their own lives. No I have a tremendous respect for them, always will have.
Zobel: Now a couple of those times when you talk about when the Japanese were coming into Bukidnon and you guys would lay out a defensive, you said they would move through you. Now when that would happen, would everybody just scatter?
Jonassen: I don’t like the word scatter.
Zobel: Okay.
Jonassen: They would move to one side. They knew what they were doing.
Zobel: Well, I mean they would know there would be a rally point somewhere, but they would get away from that area.
Jonassen: There was a time when we could not defend any longer. When that time came, you’d move to one side and they would again become farmers until the next time, until they left, which was most of the time in a matter of 2 or 3 days. They’d come in, occupy the area, let them know that they were the conquerors and eventually they would go back home.
Zobel: Do you have any idea what the Japanese unit was that would come through the area?
Jonassen: Numbers, I don’t know. I wondered at some time when they came through if they were very green troops that were still being…as long as they were on the island, they had to do something with them, and that they were green troops from Japan. They may have sent them against us as training.
Zobel: Oh, I see what you’re saying.
Jonassen: I don’t know that for sure.
Zobel: Would the guerrillas ever take prisoners?
Jonassen: We could hardly take care of ourselves, let alone prisoners.
Zobel: That is what I was wondering.
Jonassen: And…
Zobel: What?
Jonassen: I won’t say anything.
Zobel: Please.
Jonassen: What I was saying is later in the campaign, it seems to me that Australia sent up a man named Rosenquist whose objective was to release prisoners in Davao.
Zobel: Did you ever run into Rosenquist at all?
Jonassen: Did not. I found out what his mission was. Apparently we were ordered to do anything that he wanted to accomplish his mission and when we found out what the mission was, or when the guerrilla leader found out what his mission was and said “we can’t take care of ourselves let along prisoners that you may rescue from Davao. Leave them there.” I think that was the time when they felt the mission was impossible. It would have been worse than leaving them where they were.
Zobel: Well, I feel like with your script here and going through with these things that covers all my questions. Did you have any thoughts that you wanted to leave with us?
Jonassen: No, but before I leave here, I would…..the organization was tremendous. I think it served a purpose and before I leave here, I think I want to find out more about my own organization. Not the 112th, but Fertig’s general mission, how he accomplished it, the politics behind it, because I don’t know anything about that. Been there for 3 years and didn’t know anything about it.
Zobel: Well, we appreciate you doing this and also for leaving this and we will just complete right now and we will go back out there and you can look at whatever you wanted to look at.
DAY 2
Zobel: It’s the 31st of October and we are here again with Mr. Erling Jonassen of the 19th Bomb Group. Yesterday we went over a few things and today we are trying to figure out a little bit more. Do you remember the date of your departure from Luzon to Del Monte? Was it before Christmas or after?
Jonassen: It had to be after Christmas.
Zobel: So early…maybe January. Can you describe the Del Monte complex for us?
Jonassen: Yes, the Del Monte complex was an installation as I recall that was independent within itself. They had their own people that lived there and worked there. It was a posh place as I recall for business people who went and stayed there before the war on business and for recreation. It was a nice place.
Zobel: How many buildings?
Jonassen: That I don’t remember. It was almost like a town by itself, which housed its workers. They had their own storage there, their own living quarters. In fact, they had their own section.
Zobel: More than a dozen houses?
Jonassen: Yes,
Zobel: So it was big. When you went into the jungle, did you all take off walking?
Jonassen: Yes,
Zobel: Who guided at first because you all were heading east to try and get to the coast.
Jonassen: I should back up first before getting to that question.
Zobel: OK, to the Del Monte complex or how you left the camp?
Jonassen: When we left the camp we had two automobiles. We had picked up two automobiles and loaded them with anything and everything we could use. We got to a bridge on the river. We dumped the two cars in the river.
Zobel: It was just a foot bridge?
Jonassen: I believe it was.
Zobel: How far were you able to drive?
Jonassen: Not very far.
Zobel: Just to the edge of the jungle. Now who guided this group?
Jonassen: That I can’t recall. I don’t know if anyone guided we just headed out and when the road ended we dumped the cars and we were on a trail and went in the right direction and eventually we saw a house occupied by the Filipinos. We went over and we were going to question those people about the options that were available and they were our salvation in that respect. They guided us to the edge of the jungle.
Zobel: With the Manobos, do you remember any strange habits of theirs or the food they ate? Describe the Manobos.
Jonassen: Manobo were related to the wandering tribes. They were a wandering tribe as I understood it. Their habits were not any different than any other native people. I drank wine with the chief once. In fact, at one time they had a big party where other chiefs' from neighboring tribes came and rather than drink wine with them all at once. I had to drink wine with each one individually. I remember before the party they had to check in their spears. They weren’t too much different from us in that respect.
Zobel: Did you learn about the jungle from them?
Jonassen: I don’t know. I’m sure we learned certain things from them. It was amazing to me the pregnant women would work until the day of delivery and they would deliver and go right back to work it seems to me.
Zobel: When you would go on these raft trips from the Manobos downriver to find out what was going on, what were the rafts made of?
Jonassen: Bamboo
Zobel: About how long a trip would it be.
Jonassen: I think it was a good day starting at dawn and we’d be back in civilization by the end of the day.
Zobel: Would this be floating down river? How would you get back?
Jonassen: Walk
Zobel: These villages that you would go to. Would you go into them or go to the outskirts and try to hook up with someone there to figure out if there were Japanese in the village?
Jonassen: Well we were very careful initially to look around and find out just who was in the vicinity and when we finally saw a Filipino we would check with him as to the status of the Japanese. Then we would investigate further to find out.
Zobel: Now when you went into a village would everyone come out when they heard Americans were there?
Jonassen: When you talk of village I don’t think I would describe it that way. I would describe it as scattered homes. We were not that far into civilization.
Zobel: When you got to Pendatuan and you were with the Muslim group was there any social customs you had to be aware of not to violate. When you got there did you realize first you had to act in a certain way?
Jonassen: No, I guess the only way we decided we would act was to be very careful and observe rather than speak and say yes or no to their offers or their questions. I was very careful that way.
Zobel: Did you ever meet his wife, Mataybay?
Jonassen: No, never.
Zobel: But you smile when I mention her. Did you know about her?
Jonassen: Well it was common knowledge that he had more than one person he lived with.
Zobel: In your script you said; “he was more like a gang leader, collecting guns and then he was going to go back home."
Jonassen: That was my impression. He had a source of arms and ammunition with this guerrilla organization and he brought people up from Cotabato to join our organization to be issued arms and ammunition which I feel he eventually took back to his own Cotabato.
Zobel: Do you know where his stash of weapons came from?
Jonassen: No I don’t.
Zobel: Grinstead, in one of those letters I copied this morning it said that you and Sanders showed up at his place around November 1943. Does that sound right?
Jonassen: I say it’s right if you say its right.
Zobel: That was in a letter he wrote to Fertig. So he would have already met Fertig by that time. When you first go to meet Grinstead how did you know where to go to find him?
Jonassen: Natives - they know everything.
Zobel: Bamboo telegraph?
Jonassen: Bamboo telegraph; it’s as good as our communication now.
Zobel: Do you know where you first met him? Was that in Talakag?
Jonassen: Silatra
Zobel: And what was decided from that did he tell you; “Ok, you will be responsible for this?"
Jonassen: I think no. That’s a question I can’t recall an answer to. I can only presume we said hello and where we were from and he evaluated us and I must believe he reported to Fertig that he had a couple of Americans there. Fertig agreed that we should stay with him for the time being and he could evaluate us and then give us an assignment.
Zobel: What were your duties as a company commander of the guerrillas?
Jonassen: The company commander was similar to our American army company commander as a leader of a group of people he places his people. To the best of his ability he strategically places them so they will be able to defend themselves and safely retreat when we have to.
Zobel: So would you have rifle practice or things like that or were bullets too scarce.
Jonassen: Ammunition was so scarce. It was amazing. They would come to the front and fire their first shots at the Japanese. Ammunition was that scarce. I would say we averaged ten or fifteen rounds per person. That’s nothing. I had two or three BAR’s and they carried maybe fifty or sixty rounds of ammunition apiece and no machine guns.
Zobel: Now say when you got supplies from the subs would they send Springfield and Enfield ammunition or did you have to make that?
Jonassen: No, they sent carbines to begin with. Those old Enfield rifles were a heavy rifle and your Filipino is not a big man. The carbine I think was the good addition to the arms we already had. We never made any ammunition.
Zobel: How would you get Springfield ammunition? Is it just left over.
Jonassen: Left over. Springfield .O3’s were left over. The Enfields were left over.
Zobel: So it was whenever you could find it you would have some more ammunition.
Jonassen: As I recall the ammo. for the Enfield, I can’t say for certain, but I think it was interchangeable with the .O3.
Zobel: Haggerty talks a lot about Bowler being in Talakag a lot. Was his headquarters there as well.
Jonassen: I think he was in command of the division that Grinstead took.
Zobel: OK, now before Bowler leaves was Grinstead working under Bowler?
Jonassen: That I don’t know, but I would presume that when Grinstead came the idea of Fertig, or Bowler was in command at that time, and Bowler was given a different assignment and it was understood that Grinstead would take his place.
Zobel: OK, that clears up a lot. Who did you live with during the time? The company wouldn’t live together in the same area, they would spread out right?
Jonassen: No, they are spread out and again the bamboo telegraph lets everyone know when the Japanese are approaching and from which direction. That’s the time you would automatically become fighters rather than farmers. It was an automatic situation. Myself as a company commander would live separately from the division commander anywhere from a half of a kilometer to three kilometers. As for myself I lived in a house.
Zobel : Where was that house; in the mountains?
Jonassen: No, it was not in the mountains. It was in the outskirts of a town.
Zobel: Do you remember the town or would it be different towns?
Jonassen: Different towns.
Zobel: You would go from place to place.
Jonassen: Yes, depending on where you were and these assignments would take you from maybe two weeks to a month or two or three days.
Zobel: Did you have an orderly that stuck with you the whole time.
Jonassen: Yes I did.
Zobel: What was his name?
Jonassen: I don’t remember. He died too. I don’t remember. He died of malaria; cerebral malaria. I think that’s one that attacks the brain and one does not last very long. I remember I signed his death certificate.
Zobel: Didn’t you say you had a girl that lived with you too?
Jonassen: Well, we had a lady that cooked for us. She was there all the time. The Filipino people were so wonderful in that respect. Here as these people they accept an American into their house. You live with them and know very well if the Japanese ever find out they’re gone.
Zobel: Now how about that? You are pretty much a kid. Ever see girls or is that not in your mind then.
Jonassen: Oh it’s always in your mind. No doubt about that. I will go so far as to say we lived a life as most anyone else would. We were accepted as there own people and we lived, we dined as they did.
Zobel: OK, well that is just fine. In June of 1943, Talakag was burned. Do you remember that?
Jonassen: I don’t. No, I don’t
Zobel: Well I guess that is about the same time they are kicking Fertig out, but you weren’t there then.
Jonassen: I was over with the Manobos.
Zobel: In the Bukidnon, during the war there were things called Farm Projects, and this is where they were trying to get airfields Valencia, Maramag, and down a Talakag ready in case they were going to try and bring in supplies. Do you have any memory of that? Were any of your guys ever involved with that?
Jonassen: Are you talking about before the surrender?
Zobel: I’m talking about during the guerrilla days. You see I’m trying to figure out if they used different groups for that and didn’t let you all know so you wouldn’t give each other away.
Jonassen: About the only thing I can say about that is I recall we wanted to supply drops by air. We wanted supply in any shape manner or form. I remember myself going out into a cornfield and checking the ground to determine what kind of weight per square inch could be handled.
Zobel: OK, was this something you were assigned to do or was it something you did on your own?
Jonassen: I don’t recall specifically, but it had to be an assignment or we would not have done it. We looked at widths. We looked at lengths. We tried to determine stability of the soil.
Zobel: OK, that’s what these are then. You are definitely involved in that. OK, great. When you were with Pendatuan did you ever meet Ogtog, who was the big datu of Cotabato?
Jonassen: No, I think the biggest datu I ever met was Pendatuan.
Zobel: Did you ever hear anything about Chincona plant plantations?
Jonassen: Yes, a whole lot. Chincona, of course, is the tree that quinine for malaria comes from. A Jesuit priest…we had malaria, of course, and we had it bad and we ran into a Jesuit priest who said why don’t you try to grind up the Chincona bark, boil it in the water, and drink it. Which we did and it worked like a charm.
Zobel: It did work!
Jonassen: Absolutely, then as I understand it in the United States, their only supply of quinine came from the Chincona bark in the Philippines. We cut that bark like crazy, had cargadores carry the bundles over the mountains and I presume they eventually ended up on submarines and it went Australia.
Zobel: Now was that a big activity or yours?
Jonassen: It was for a while and apparently they, by they, I mean the United States, found other options that were better.
Zobel: Atabrine, yeah. These were plantations that were planted before the war. Have you ever heard of Fischer, because it was an army officer named Fischer who planted them before the war?
Jonassen: You know when you talk about that, Grinstead, McLachlan, and myself were practically isolated to the point that we had our own operation going independently, and I think this was quite common in a whole lot of divisions.
Zobel: Now you mentioned yesterday about Grinstead sending corn shipments to Fertig and you have the Chincona. Do you trade with other areas for different things like we’ll send you this if you send us that?
Jonassen: I can’t speak specifically on that, but I believe we had procurement people and they did; we got some of this they got some of that. One of the important things we needed was salt and salt came from the coast. Salt and sugar, I don’t quite understand it, but the sugar was brown and they had salt mixed in with the sugar. It was not pure salt as it were. I’m sure trading occurred, but when it comes down to it we didn’t have much to trade with as we were really hungry most of the time.
Zobel: Grinstead, you said you would usually stay within about a half mile from him. Would you see him regularly?
Jonassen: Regularly two or three times a week.
Zobel: Would you go to his headquarters and meet with him?
Jonassen: We would go to his headquarters all the time. If he needed us in the meantime he would send a runner.
Zobel: Did he (Grinstead) have radio contact with Fertig?
Jonassen: For the most part no, at the very end maybe. We had communication via an antiquated telephone system. When I had a signal company one of the main jobs that the signal company had was to maintain this system.
Zobel: Where did it run from?
Jonassen: It ran from Talakag….we’re talking about sixty years ago so I can’t recall.
Zobel: Would it go to Illigan or Cagayan? Would it go all the way around.
Jonassen: No, no, no as I recall it may have been 15 or 20 kilometers long, no more. It was one of the old types that you cranked up. It would run through…we had glass bottles that you used for insulation and again maintaining it was a big job. You had so much rain, so much wet conditions that telephone communication was practically impossible to maintain. As you know we had lots of wind at times, lots of rain at times. It always had problems
Zobel: So it was mostly something you had to contact other people in your area. I don’t think many other people had something like that.
Jonassen: Well it was maintained from prewar days.
Zobel: That was about all I had from rethinking everything last night. More about MacLachlan, would you say that you learned how to be an infantryman from him?
Jonassen: What little I acquired in the infantry was very little.
Zobel: Grinstead seemed to thing you acquired a great deal. Not from him, but that you showed great promise as an infantry officer.
Jonassen: Well that’s good. I appreciate his thoughts on that and whatever I did learn, MacLachlan taught me.
Zobel: How old was he?
Jonassen: Let’s see, I was 21 or 22. He might have been 26.
Zobel: So not much older.
Jonassen: No, but his whole life was infantry and the army. He was a tremendous person and I hope someone gives him the credit he deserves; and Grinstead. Grinstead decided he was going to grow a beard and he had a big white beard and he never did cut it.
Zobel: And he was a big man too.
Jonassen: Big man.
Zobel: Well, what, did he look like Santa Claus?
Jonassen: That is a good description. I considered him an elder and really when I had Japanese that I was working I didn’t want him around because I didn’t want to have to take care of him along with my own business with the company. He, on the other hand, he wanted to be there. He was a good man too.
Zobel: Do you have any other thoughts?
Jonassen: I think you’ve covered it very well. There is one thing that is kind of an interesting side issue. That is when this was all finished, we all went our separate ways. I was by myself when I went from Talakag to Leyte to Manila and then to the Hawaiian Islands and San Francisco. None of us, we did not as a group go back to the United States. When I think back on it, I guess there wasn’t any reason. We were all army and everybody went their way. They went and got checked up in the hospitals and eventually were reassigned to whatever army unit that we were assigned to, which was not necessarily the same as everyone else.
Zobel: When did you first start hearing about AGOM; the reunion group?
Jonassen: Very shortly after we got back and I don’t know who started the organization either. Whoever did it was a good. I think Ben Farrens got involved in it very shortly and he was a good person to keep the thing going, because it did provide a place for us people to meet and extend the camaraderie that we had previous to that. It was good in that respect. It’s too bad that these things can’t go on forever and everything must come to an end and AGOM is practically to its end now I believe.
Zobel: When you got back to the states and people would ask you about the war would you be able to talk about it?
Jonassen: No.
Zobel: Was it because you didn’t feel like they would be able to understand?
Jonassen: Precisely, that’s it exactly. I tried it a couple of times and I got the impression from looking at other people that “this guy is just weaving a story.” They couldn’t believe it. About the only people that would listen and believe were my brother, my parents, and some very close friends. I have to believe that was the same with the other guys too.
Zobel: Yeah that’s why I asked. Many would say they started, but then could just see people’s eyes glaze over. Well thanks, that’s great
Jonassen: Don’t mention it.
Source: MacArthur Memorial, Norfolk Virginia (www.macarthurmemorial.org)
