Dec 3, 2012
The Boston spent the first week of December 1944 still anchored at Manus Island in the Admiralties (south of the Equator). They had spent the last four days of November in drydock in Seeadler Harbor. Among other things, the guys went “over the sides” and scraped barnacles off the bottom of the ship before it was repainted.
Manus Island was populated with indigenous peoples. I have mentioned recently that ship’s photographer Bernard Oster’s son Dirk sent me a stack of pictures taken by his dad – most of which live on in the CA-69 Cruise Book and in the collection of official Navy photos in the National Archives (Washington, DC). I also posted a picture from Manus recently entitled “When Cultures Collide,” showing Capt. Hermann with some of the natives. I am happy to post this picture of the Captain inspecting the “local militia” during his visit to Manus . . .
In my humble opinion, those are the coolest Army uniforms I’ve ever seen . . .
Thanks, Dirk!