Netherlands East Indies

Two air raids — results unknown. Stood duty from noon yesterday to noon today. Was supposed to take one of our remaining five planes to scatter base, but as the crate was in danger of falling apart in midair, they called it off, and set about trying to patch her up. They’ve been using a flooded rice field on the south coast of Java as a scatter base. They land and taxi up to a row of trees shading a road — tie up to the trees, everyone climbs out of the nose onto the road and grab the next bus in the town, leaving two Dutch Marines to guard the plane.

A Dutch officer told me that 95% of the labor out of the Naval Air Station has fled to the hills, leaving them terribly crippled. In town here, it’s almost as bad. Every day the streets become a little more deserted, even though the town proper has suffered only one bombing — these people have very little backbone. Due to the native exodus, a shortage of meat and beer is looming ahead.

Started reading Erich Maria Remarque’s “Flotsam.” Took Tommy von Oven and Odette (the Chilean) to see “The Northwest Mounted.”