RUSES IN .JUNGLE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 73, 23 September 1943, Page 5

RUSES IN .JUNGLE

SOLOMONS FIGHTING

O.C. South Pacific Base, Sept. 16. Further reports from ,tn"e fighting front show how the Japs make use of men specially trained to speak English, filter through the jungle, and harass troops with the intention of destroying morale. The only difference is that now their tricks are recognised as such and dealt with accordingly. U.S. Staff Sergeant Robert E. Husbands, an experienced soldier singled out to accompany the regimental com--mander into the fighting on New Georgia on an advance mission—during which for 28 days he wore the same clothing and went without shave or bath—has a lot to say of the night activities of the enemy. To frighten the Yanks from their fox-holes, he says, they filtered through on several occasions to the very edge, yelling in perfect English words that might have been misconstrued as cries for help from buddies. Sometimes they made the weirdest noises, firing weapons as fast .as they could, throwing handgrenades, in some' instances firing captured American weapons. At. times they.would resort to the use of phonographs and records of large masses of Japs firing, yelling, feet-stamping, and blowing whistles. There were unseen snipers strapped to trees, using smokeless powder. LESSONS WELL LEARNT. j The lessons of jungle patrol work are j being well learnt. A soldier who made himself outstanding when his unit entered into the campaign for the Munda airport is Truman D. Souden, a Californian promoted on the field.from corporal to acting lieutenant. He repeatedly led patrols into unknown terrain, on one occasion iscouting out a strong-point made up of 73 Jap pill-, boxes, reconnoitring the area so thoroughly that the eventual attack,, which might have been a failure had information lacked, was successful. On two- other occasions he led an entire platoon of a heavy weapon company to safety after they had been.pinned down by enemy fire, and he also led in attacks on strong-points before getting a shrapnel wound in the leg three days prior to the airport's capture. Another soldier wounded during the Munda fighting is Private Wayne Price, of Houston, Texas. Price as leading scout of the leading platoon of his company is credited with some notabl/ exploits. He carried on for days with a .25-calibre bullet in his side, and played a part in the capture of a command post, where ten Jap soldiers and two officers were killed. This action took place at noon, and Private Price led his squad to the first warm meal they had had since the beginning of the campaign—a Jap meal of hot rice and beef. LIEUTENANT'S IMPRESSIONS. Land*crabs the size of one's hands, the stealthy approach of which at night caused men:in fox-holes to think they were creeping Japs; Major-General John L. Hodge standing on the last ridge overlooking Munda airfield, a ridge that had held up the advance for ten days, clapping members of his staff on the back and shaking hands while Jap bodies lay strewn all around; no bath for a month—such were the impressions of 2nd Lieutenant Carl Wedal, of Washington, D.C., who received his Bachelor of Arts degree at Yale two months before he joined the army, and who was commissioned at a South Pacific officers' candidates school last January.