BAYONETING INCIDENTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23953, 31 October 1939, Page 9

BAYONETING INCIDENTS

SENTRIES IN NEW SOUTH WALES CAMPS ONE MAN DIES FROM WOUND (From Our Own Correspondent) SYDNEY, Oct. 19. Robert Hunter, a 21-years-old militiaman, was bayoneted and killed by a fellow member of a guard on sentry duty at an oil depot in Newcastle. He suffered a large wound in the chest and died about half an hour after being admitted to hospital. An official police report states that Private Robert Hunter had been relieved of his appointments earlier in the day because he was drunk. The corporal who relieved him told Hunter that he would recommend to the officer of the guard that he should be placed under arrest. Hunter is thought to have gone to his tent to sleep. It is believed that Hunter awoke about 9.30 p.m., and, wearing uniform, walked to where Private John William King, 18, was on duty. What then has not been made clear, but it is believed that there was a struggle, and Hunter, who was much taller than King, and more powerful, fell wounded. King immediately secured help, and sent for an ambulance. He suffered so severely from shock that he had to receive medical attention. After a military inquiry, the evidence will probably be laid before a coroner’s inquiry. There is some doubt, however, as to the position of the coroner in the case of the death of a man who, enlisting for home defence, is killed on active service in time of war. A non-commissjOned officer of the Army Ordnance Corps was bayoneted in a camp near Sydney by a sentry from his own unit, but was only slightly injured. He had refused satisfactorily to answer the sentry’s challenge. The bayonet pierced his greatcoat and jacket, and gashed his abdomen. The bayoneting occurred through a misunderstanding. The n.c.o. did not know that sentries had been posted that night. When challenged, he was searching, with the aid of a torch, for a pair of his socks, which had blown off a clothesline. He thought it was a joke and did not reply. To the second challenge, he replied: "It's Peter, the pumpkin-eater.” The sentry then lunged with his bayoneted rifle. He called for aid immediately he knew that the n.c.o. had been injured.