DARING RESCUE

Grey River Argus, 27 April 1945, Page 5

DARING RESCUE

UNDER JAPANESE GUNS (Special P. A. correspondent with the Pacific FiceL) (On board the King George the Fifth) April 17. Aircraft of the Pacific Fleet to-day took part in a thrilling rescue of an airman who was shot down two miles from Hirara, a town on Miyako Island in the Uakashima group. He was saved under the very noses of the Japanese guns, and in full sight of civilians on the shore. The rescuing plane ignored anti-aircraft fire, which was then being directed on to the sea. The airman’s Avenger had been damaged by flak during an attack on harbour targets, ana had to be ditched well within the range of anti-aircraft positions. The crew of three managed to scramble to a dinghy and another Avenger and several fighters circled overhead, while help was summoned from the fleet. A. Walrus Amphibian, the same as those often heard chugging overhead in Auckland, was sent to the rescue, and when it arrived, found the Japanese had ranged guns on the dinghy, and were also attempting to drive off air cover, although not willing to put out to sea themselves, because of the British planes. The Amphibian risked the fire and landed, taxied to the dinghy, but found only one of the crew surviving. He was brought safely back, th e Amphibian cutting down the wheels and landing on the carrier in mid-afternpon. The other Avenger and fighters returned without loss. The incident was broadcast over in-ter-communication systems on other ships in the fleet, and the Amphibian was cheered as it came up to land. It was probably the most dangerous rescue so far made by the fleet’s air sea rescue methods.

Jap. Cannibalism SYDNEY, April 25. Recent revelations of organised Japanese cannibalism in the Southwest Pacific are supported by evidence of Australian war correspondents. In a despatch written more than a year ago, and released for publication to-day, a Sydney “Telegraph” correspondent, F. Aldridge, tells a macabre story of how members of a New South Wales infantry battalion, entering two secluded enemy-held villages in the Finisterre Ranges (New Guinea), found “human hearts and livers broiling over fires, human steaks stewing in dixies, and dissected bodies of murdered Japanese lying in improvised abattoirs.” The two villages, Tapen and Wandiluk, were destroyed by the Australians. ' CHINA’S CASUALTIES OVER THREE MILLIONS. (Rec. 10.30.) CHUNGKING, April 26. General Chen Cheng, Chinese War Minister, has estimated that Chinese casualties from the outbreak of the war in July, 1937, until March, 1945, have totalled three million one hundred thousand. Discussing the present Japanese offensive, which is aimed at Chihkiang, the Minister said the enemy would be halted.