Japanese helmet, machine gun damage, japanese text inside cloth cover, translation?

[GIZMO8Z]

Very impressive thread!

May I ask for your translator's contact info? My helmet and prayer flag need some attention.

[Scout]

If not too much bother, it would be great if you could post some of the pics from the album too.
No need for the grisly ones nor the personal ones (familily), if thats a problem.
Anyway, Im way more interested in the 'officers with swords' & 'military ceremonies' pics if at all possible.
PS
I assume your big toe is sticking upwards like that with the strain of pushing the camera button!

[tomp]

I would think that the roll with the STATUS info. might be the way to go, part. if it assists in pointing to the sailor's contribution within his unit leading up to the Milne Bay battle, etc. Of course the STATUS info. might be as simple as stating that the sailor is ACTIVE within his unit or something similar, ultimately not revealing a whole lot.
Of course info. regarding previous posting could be very interesting and, if the sailor's name is contained in the roll, it would paint a slightly broader picture of his personal history--was he on a ship beforehand? was he new to the unit fresh from training? Part of another SNLF unit transferred in recently? Lots of new questions pop up about the sailor who owned that helmet.

I just want to clarify--The two batt. rolls have the exact same list of names but with one entry different, that being either Status or Previous post?

Tom

[milmuseum]

Fantastic bit of research. I'm looking forward to hearing more.

Burt

[Paulnoonan]

Hello everyone
*
My ww2 research is going so well it is very hard for me to keep up with it! I will address your recent enquiries in a separate post. This message is just an update on the main subject. When I have a little more time I'll put another detailed post up so you see for yourself what i've turned up, and i'll respond to the recent questions.

I previously mentioned that the Australian War Memorial (The AWM) have 2 comparable battalion nominal rolls for the 5th kure special naval landing force (the unit that my japanese helmet came from). These are captured documents from the Milne Bay battle in August -September 1942. These are books. One contain 74 pages (Tom, this is the "includes status" one) the other 88 pages (Tom, this is the "includes previous post" one) and purportedly the 5th Kure special's 1000 soldiers details are in each Book. I asked the AWM TO SEND ME A SAMPLE OF EACH BOOK so i could get a sense of the differences. They did this within a few hours. These people are so obliging, and they post overseas if anyone needs anything from them. They have a searchable database of their records online. Its really outstanding. After that i decided i might as well get both rolls. The AWM is also getting me an electronic copy of some interrogation reports of a 5th kure soldier they captured, who described the whole organisational structure of the battalion, their adventures en route from Kure in Japan, what they ate, all sorts including an extract from his diary. I am so looking forward to getting it all.
*
I also just received both of my grandfathers service records from the national australian archives yesterday (separate organisation to the AWM). It turns out the grandfather who bought back the helmet and belt was one of the earliest RAAF guys at the Milne Bay base (he was a telephone guy - presumably setting up communications while the engineers built the airstrips) and he was based at milne bay during the japanese assault. In fact part of his personnel file (including his leave record form) was replaced in early 1943 and the replacement leave record form*says "Original destroyed by enemy action". So the japanese obviously got pretty close. His posting in July '42 was to 'fall river' (the allied code name for Milne bay) and on 20 August '42 his operational base was recorded as 'gurney', a part of the Milne bay facility. He was there till late October '42.

I have to look into whether I can upload PDF document images in this web forum so I can post the sample records from the AWM. I am very glad you are all enjoying and sharing this odyssey with me, giving me pointers along the way.

I should also tell you the AWM also have a medical record book with 500 entries for 5th Kure special marines, and one other interrogation report, and a platoon list for the 5th Kure 1st company 4th platoon, also other records from the 3rd Kure specials and some for the 5th Yokosuka specials.

Best regards

Paul

[Paulnoonan]

Very impressive thread!

May I ask for your translator's contact info? My helmet and prayer flag need some attention.

Hi. My translators name is Ludwika S. I simply contacted her through the Elance web portal. She was great, quick, communicative, and possibly best of all, she read my thread to familiarise herself with the whole subject before contacting me when I put my enquiry out.

Here are her details. https://www.elance.com/s/ludwika/

[Paulnoonan]

If not too much bother, it would be great if you could post some of the pics from the album too.
No need for the grisly ones nor the personal ones (familily), if thats a problem.
Anyway, Im way more interested in the 'officers with swords' & 'military ceremonies' pics if at all possible.
PS
I assume your big toe is sticking upwards like that with the strain of pushing the camera button!

Yes, I'm happy to put the photos you asked about on the thread here. I may not get to it for some days though. Ahh yes, the toe.....good thought, but actually it's just because I'm really highly strung.

[Paulnoonan]

I would think that the roll with the STATUS info. might be the way to go, part. if it assists in pointing to the sailor's contribution within his unit leading up to the Milne Bay battle, etc. Of course the STATUS info. might be as simple as stating that the sailor is ACTIVE within his unit or something similar, ultimately not revealing a whole lot.
Of course info. regarding previous posting could be very interesting and, if the sailor's name is contained in the roll, it would paint a slightly broader picture of his personal history--was he on a ship beforehand? was he new to the unit fresh from training? Part of another SNLF unit transferred in recently? Lots of new questions pop up about the sailor who owned that helmet.

I just want to clarify--The two batt. rolls have the exact same list of names but with one entry different, that being either Status or Previous post?

Tom

Hi Tom. I probably won't be able to tell if both rolls contain the same 1000 names. It remains to be seen whether they are in fact both from the 5th Kure specials. My plan is to interrogate each roll looking for the kanji of my helmet guys name. If I locate that I.ll have that page translated. Luckily the interrogation report will be entirely in English as it was written by our translation service staff in 1942. I just can't wait to get into this new information , and you in particular have been very helpful all the way along. Thank you!!

[Scout]

Yes, I'm happy to put the photos you asked about on the thread here. I may not get to it for some days though. Ahh yes, the toe.....good thought, but actually it's just because I'm really highly strung.

You dont seem highly strung
Look forward to pics.
Just when ever you have the time, no worries.
Again, fascinating relics and interesting info in thread. Thanks for sharing.

[Paulnoonan]

Hi All

I worked out how to get screenshots of my AWM sample documents onto this forum. The original pdf's were too large, so here are screenshot jpegs.

Please be aware that the AWM retain ownership of the digital media you are looking at in these 4 and then the next 4 photos, and happily share it with us for private enjoyment.

So this is the japanese cover, an allied translation service (ATS) note from 1942 and the first page of one of their nominals rolls for the 5th Kure Special Naval Landing Force, captured at Milne Bay early September 1942.