US Sailor in China Letter Archive - Fighting Communists and More
Group of ten (10) letters with nine (9) air mail covers, two change of address forms and one newspaper pertaining to Carl L. Murphy, USS Amphitrite (ARL-29), while operating in Guam, the South Pacific and occupied China during the summer of 1946. The letters are most multipaged and relate his experiences while serving on this landing craft repair ship. In small part: "...[6/2/1946 Guam]I took a trip out to Harmon Field the other day (Memorial Day) and never saw so many planes in all my life. There were B29's, 24's, 25's C 47, 46, 54, P 38, 60, & 7 & many were sitting all over the field…[6/25/1946 Gsingsoa, China] I finally got aboard the craft I expect to be on for the next two years. The name of it is the USS Amphitrite (A.R.L 29) From what I have seen of it so far it doesnt look like I am going to like it too well. We made the trip from Shanghai on the Navy hospital ship USS Repose…I sure wouldnt mind a little duty on that thing. It is really clean…They have a golf course here and I have always wanted to try the game…here is going to be the headquarters of the 7th Fleet. They are moving from Shanghai. I guess the anchorage here is better or something. When ever you see anything in the papers about the Communists & the Nationalists fighting look for the name of this town. The communists are about 15 miles out of town. We can see them shooting every night. They will never take this town so I am not worried. The US was not going to put their nose in it but as [?] they did. I heard a couple of Gyereas got it the other night. There are light gunners manets on the ship here…I heard I am going to be in charge of the gunnery gang or the O division…[7/12/1946 Tsingtao China]I believe I wrote and told you about the trip we made to Japan. We just stayed overnite and then came right back. So we had no time to pull liberty…[8/18/1946 TsingSao, China] We get liberty every other night now. I guess they figure the Communists are far enough back so they can let more of the crew go ashore. There has been some acts of sabotage around here the last few nights and some of the dock sentries have been shot at but outside of that things are pretty quiet….They are moving all the Marines out of here and moving them up to the line to Tintin. That is where all the fighting is going on now. A train full of Marines were ambushed on the way to [?] from Shanghai d something like thirty of them were killed. A couple of sailors were killed uptown the other night by a Chinese police. Then the rickshaw driver beat up a sailor darn near every night. It is getting so you cant even ride in a rickshaw for less than 50c…" More. Fine condition….plus; Newspaper "People's Herald", Tsingtao, China, July 18, 1946, with good front page news on the Communists and more. A nice grouping from this sailor.
[ translate ]Group of ten (10) letters with nine (9) air mail covers, two change of address forms and one newspaper pertaining to Carl L. Murphy, USS Amphitrite (ARL-29), while operating in Guam, the South Pacific and occupied China during the summer of 1946. The letters are most multipaged and relate his experiences while serving on this landing craft repair ship. In small part: "...[6/2/1946 Guam]I took a trip out to Harmon Field the other day (Memorial Day) and never saw so many planes in all my life. There were B29's, 24's, 25's C 47, 46, 54, P 38, 60, & 7 & many were sitting all over the field…[6/25/1946 Gsingsoa, China] I finally got aboard the craft I expect to be on for the next two years. The name of it is the USS Amphitrite (A.R.L 29) From what I have seen of it so far it doesnt look like I am going to like it too well. We made the trip from Shanghai on the Navy hospital ship USS Repose…I sure wouldnt mind a little duty on that thing. It is really clean…They have a golf course here and I have always wanted to try the game…here is going to be the headquarters of the 7th Fleet. They are moving from Shanghai. I guess the anchorage here is better or something. When ever you see anything in the papers about the Communists & the Nationalists fighting look for the name of this town. The communists are about 15 miles out of town. We can see them shooting every night. They will never take this town so I am not worried. The US was not going to put their nose in it but as [?] they did. I heard a couple of Gyereas got it the other night. There are light gunners manets on the ship here…I heard I am going to be in charge of the gunnery gang or the O division…[7/12/1946 Tsingtao China]I believe I wrote and told you about the trip we made to Japan. We just stayed overnite and then came right back. So we had no time to pull liberty…[8/18/1946 TsingSao, China] We get liberty every other night now. I guess they figure the Communists are far enough back so they can let more of the crew go ashore. There has been some acts of sabotage around here the last few nights and some of the dock sentries have been shot at but outside of that things are pretty quiet….They are moving all the Marines out of here and moving them up to the line to Tintin. That is where all the fighting is going on now. A train full of Marines were ambushed on the way to [?] from Shanghai d something like thirty of them were killed. A couple of sailors were killed uptown the other night by a Chinese police. Then the rickshaw driver beat up a sailor darn near every night. It is getting so you cant even ride in a rickshaw for less than 50c…" More. Fine condition….plus; Newspaper "People's Herald", Tsingtao, China, July 18, 1946, with good front page news on the Communists and more. A nice grouping from this sailor.
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