More WW2 stuff, N2NL.NET

I’ve been really too busy to update the blog until now, but I’ve still had a couple opportunities to head back into the jungle for some exploration. A couple weeks ago I was able to explore the stretch of abandoned WW2 road from the FAA property up to NCTS. I was not expecting to find much, but I was surprised to stumble across some nice stuff from the war.

What is called “FAA property” is a parcel land that bisects NCTS to the north and the South Finegayan housing area to the south. There was a Federal Aviation Administration facility here until about 10-15 years ago, when the buildings were taken down. I knew my abandoned road had to pass through this area, however the edges of the jungle are heavily overgrown with dense brush and Google Maps didn’t show much of anything where I thought the road should be. I wrote down some coordinates, grabbed my GPS, and headed off into the jungle.

It was really hard going for the first couple hundred yards. I just had to push my way through the growth and cut the vines that would otherwise trip me. I find it easier to traverse the jungle this way as opposed to hacking a path with a machete. It is less tiring and is much less obtrusive. I wear heavy long sleeve coveralls with gloves so it’s not too difficult to push through this way.

I was not too far from my GPS location when I started finding bottles and other old trash.

An old Delco-Remy battery case laying next to a beer bottle dated 1944.

The logo looks identical to online images of advertisements from the WW2 era

It was only the case – the guts of the battery are long gone

I finally broke through the heavy growth and into the primary forest. The area was absolutely beautiful and looked almost Jurassic. I chose my GPS coordinates wisely – they put me right on the old road and a WW2 era dump site – bottles and other trash was everywhere!

The can at the bottom of the photo was obviously recently left by hunters who were oblivious to the WW2 history around them

The road itself can be seen here – the border between the road (bottom left) and rocky jungle (top right) is easily seen in this photo

Old bottles were scattered everywhere along the old road bed. It was impossible to take a photo of the area, because the road itself was heavily overgrown with brush and visibility was only a few feet.

Two old coke bottles and an enameled steel dinner plate

The plate is dated 194? – the last number in the date is no longer readable

Here is a Japanese Dai Nippon beer bottle, sitting where it was dropped more than 60 years ago

More Japanese beer bottles and a US GI’s canteen that I found that was mostly buried in dirt

The aluminum canteen, badly wasted away, is dated 1943.

There is no telling how much I overlooked due to the heavy tropical growth. The area was obviously a bivouac area due to the number of bottles and other metal trash. The most recent datable objects found were 1945 bottles, so this is most definitely a WW2 dump.

I followed the road north, trying to intersect Haputo Beach road on NCTS, however the road disappeared into a dense jungle area I could not push or cut my way through.

Dense jungle growth – this is as far as I can go without a bulldozer!

So, now I have explored this abandoned road almost in it’s entirety. I’ve walked almost the entire length, from where the road is first abandoned just north of Two Lover’s Point, all the way to Northwest Field. There are only a few areas I’ve not yet explored, on NCTS just east of Haputo Beach, and a few areas that are all but impenetrable. All along this road I have found literally thousands of bottles and other relics left along the road as debris from the time during and following the liberation of Guam in August, 1944.