BEHEADING OF AIRMAN

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25135, 17 March 1947, Page 3

BEHEADING OF AIRMAN

JAPANESE SUSPECT ARRESTED

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) SYBNEY, March 16. Australian soldiers in Lae, New Guinea, have identified and arrested a Japanese officer suspected of having beheaded ap Australian airman at Salamaua on March 29, 1943, with a Samurai sword.

The Army Department announced the arrest of the Japanese, but did not disclose his name. The Australian War Crimes Tribunal will shortly try him at Rabaul on a charge of having murdered the airman.

Australian newspapers published in August. 1945. the picture of a Japanese officer beheading an Australian airman. which horrified the nation. The picture was taken from the pocket of a dead Japanese soldier who had watched the execution. In September, 1945, Royal Australian Air Force authorities reported that they were convinced the airman was Flight-Lieuten-ant W. E. Newton, who was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for low-Jevel bombing attacks on Salamaua.

Australian Army headquarters have now announced that the executed airman came from Ballarat. Victoria, but they refused to. disclose his name. They laid previous reports that the executed airman was Newton were not correct.