U.S. Admiration For N.Z.-Fiji Commandos

Northern Advocate, 20 November 1943, Page 3

U.S. Admiration For N.Z .-Fiji Commandos

(Special) SYDNEY, This Day. American troops fighting in the Solomons have a fervent admiration for the South Pacific Scouts —New Zealand and Fijian Commandos who are so often their eyes and ears. Especially trained for jungle fighting and reconnaissance, these men have brought back valuable military information. They have also made swift guerilla sorties at selected points, invariably inflicting heavy casualties on the Japanese at small cost to themselves. “These steady, cool New Zealand officers and men, with their Fijian comrades have done their job without fanfare and without recognition —except from those who serve,” writes a United States Army official correspondent in the Solomons. “In the final stages of the battle for Munda airfield, New Georgia, scouts were attached to the American 37th Division whose commander, MajorGeneral Robert Beighler, was so impressed that he has commended them in an official letter from his headquarters.” The scouts were trained in Fiji, and American soldiers credit them with possessing the faculty of being able actually to smell out the Japanese. They arrived in the Solomons in time to participate in extermination of the Japanese on Guadalcanar. Here they made sorties against the enemy’s rear, infiltrating into his positions at night, destroying guns and equipment and demoralising his forces, and thus paving the way for an American drive along the coast.

Quiet Efficient Leaders When American troops occupied the Russell Islands, the scouts beaded the invasion forces, but their first major role came in the New Georgia campaign. Since then they have been prominent in every Allied move in the Solomons. The commander of the scouts is Major Charles Tripp, described by a United States Army correspondent as a “sandyhaired, taciturn, pleasant Scot, who was a Canterbury farmer-rancher before the war put its pressure on that double island country down under.” Second in command is Captain David Williams a “curly-haired farmer-rancher.” from Hawke’s Bay. Both Tripp and Williams have performed many notable exploits of jungle fighting—but the correspondent says he had to find out about their deeds from men who served under them. The two officers were voluble only in praise of their troops.