JUNGLE NIGHT

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 4, 6 January 1944, Page 6

JUNGLE NIGHT

JAPS OVERHEAD CRIES IN THE DARK War in the jungle—the Japanese war of nerves, with stealthy footsteps, stabbings in the night, and all the noises and nerve-testing sensations that a wily Japanese mind has been able to devise. It is a familiar picture now, but rarely has it been more realistically told than in this description by a member of the Advance Medical Unit which took part in the initial landing of the New Zealanders on Vella Lavella Island, in the Central Solomons.

In the story, an extract of a longer article in Guerilla, the magazine of the Army Education and Welfare Service, Northern Military District, the writer tells of the landing, the excitement of first action, the rush of preparing a dressing station and tending the wounded while under severe bombardment and of a testing first night with Japanese planes overhead and the fall of bombs, and underneath, in the foxholes, thick slushy mucl. "Common consent that morning, he writes, "declared that never before had such earnest praying ascended from the hearts of our chaps as during the night. It was exceeded, I think, only by that of the following night. The heavy rain made our morning's task very difficult. There was stretcher-bearing to be done, through mud over boottops. and bearers brought back tales of the devilish night work of infiltrating Japanese armed with knives. We had a number of knife wounds to treat. . . . That "Jap." Smell "Late in the afternoon our first wounded Jap. was brought in—a severe stomach wound over 24 hours old. We did our best for him, but it proved insufficient, for he died after we had evacuated him to our headquarters. It was not till he came in that I appreciated the fact that the Jap. soldier has a smell of his own. He smelt 'high.' Maybe to the Jap. we, too, have a characteristic odour, especially living day and night in the same wet. sweaty clothes.

"Darkness soon fell, and with it came to an end the comparative quietness of the day. The enemy planes had returned, but not before the stealthy tread of Jap. 'nightworkers' had been heard. It soon became. evident that the latter were out in force that night, and asmasters of jungle-cra'ft they had apparently succeeded in penetrating the infantry perimeter. "Early in the night one of these 'commandos' made the night hideous with the sounds of his singing (in English), and this racket he kept up for three or four hours continuously. He even obliged us with 'Isa Lei' and with the favourite Yankee expression, 'Come on, boys, let's go.' Noises in the Night "For most of the boys the persistence of this racket was nerve-rack-ing enough, but added to this were the land crabs, lizards and other jungle creatures, to say nothing of the infiltrating Japs. They really seemed to be having a night out and enjoying it; gambolling, as it were, all over our 'foxholes' and tossing dirt into them with the idea of enticing us to come out. "Most of us were 'at the ready,' awaiting the first sign of a shadowy form to appear at <v >e mouths of our burrows, but they were too shrewd to give themselves away. Being medical, many of our boys wer.e, of course, unarmed except for sheath knives. We had a few guards posted, but these were soon obliged to take what cover there was. The night became very noisy with the sporadic fire of rifles, tommy-guns, automatics and the bursting of grenades. A pair of my woollen socks hanging up above my 'warren' bore ample evidence, in the morning, of the amount of metal that had been flying about. They were peppered with holes from top to toe. "Most of us wondered whether night would ever give place ,to day, and the gurgling cries, apparently 'turned on' by the Japs., gave one the impression that not a few 'carotids' in neighbouring 'foxholes' were being severed. Even one of the guards had his tin hat knocked back from his head by a hand from behind, and it was only a quick movement that saved him from the knife.

"A patient sleeping in our dugout theatre tells of three figures stealing in to escape the grenades and lining themselves alongside his stretcher. He said he was just paralysed, and could not move, and strangely enough the Japs, did not lay a finger on him, possibly imaging him to be dead. Unwelcome Visitor "All this time the bombing continued, and planes came and went, explosions rocking the ground and ribbons of tracers streaming down through the jungle. There was little doubt that the infiltrating Japs were guiding their bombers into the target area, and now and then a tell-tale flare was sent up 'pin-pointing' us. Sure enough in a plane would come and drops its 'eggs,' but we were not nearly as concerned about them as we were the previous night. In the early hours of the morning there was considerable stirring on top of my 'foxhole,' and it was clear that I had a visitor.

"The recognition of an odour similar to that of the Jap patient of the previous afternoon confirmed his identity. It is a smell that seems to linger long after the owner has passed. He tested out my 'foxhole' with the customary contribution of earth, but was denied any response, and then he apparently gave himself up to a waiting game, for he remained over my 'roof for the best part of three hours, each minute, of which seemed almost an eternity. "With my gaze fixed on the entrance I lay there in the mud scarely daring to move, all the while holding my pistol levelled 'at the ready,' finger hugging the trigger each time I heard a movement. Never have I known the sweat to pour more freely, for the tension of those hours was something terrific. I do not know how many times I ran my fingers along the barrel and sights of the revolver to check the aim, for it was impossible to judge direction by sight in the pitch darkness; nor do I know how many times I found it necessary to change hands, as the constant weight of the pistol almost paralysed the wrist, causing my hand to fall over limp and useless. It would have been easy to fall asleep.

"This continued till the first signs of morning light, and meanwhile the Jap busied himself, with his fellows, in directing by flares the target area for the returning planes. On one occasion the plane seemed extremely close and low; there followed a swish and then a terrific explosion which caused a hail of rubble to descend into the open end of my trench. Morning light revealed that the bomb had landed not more than twelve yards away from me. "Mine was the fortune, or otherwise, of being nearest to it of our

crowd, although there was another 'foxhole' just several yards from mine. At least I had the consolation of knowing that the Jap on the top of my trench was more exposed to the blast than I. I felt certain that he had been hit, for shortly afterwards something wet and slightly sticky dropped down on to my cheek from the 'roof.'

"With the first light of dawn, when things began to take shape again, I decided to put an end to the suspense. My "friend' seemed to be resting on the 'roof' just beyond my left shoulder, and judging the target by a slight movement, I aimed the pistol closely parallel with my left cheek. I was still lying on my back, and wondered what the effect of pulling the trigger would be,' whether it would penetrate the 'roof' or ricochet. J. decided to risk it, and with the shout of 'Fire,' with the hope of drawing some support from the pistols of my mates in the nearby trench —a hope that was realised by a couple of shots in the right direction from that quarter—l sent the six in the chamber skywards.

"They penetrated the roof, and considerable rustling made me wonder whether I had scored a hit. This was immediately followed by a squeal and the exclamation, 'Pull, pull, pull, pull!' The Japanese had apparently scarcely turned a hair. "Then daylight seemed to come with a rush, and a few cautious peeps over the edges of our 'holes' satisfied us that our 'companions' had withdrawn. They had certainly made a night of it, as many were the experiences related as we gathered for a stand-up breakfast. Never before had a night seemed so long, and never before was a day more welcomed. No one was missing, which fact we cannot yet understand, seeins so many were unarmed, and, too, when we 'recall the death-curdling cries of the night. If the Japanese had suffered casualties they had found it possible to take them with them, for there were none to be seen.