JAPANESE ATROCITY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25301, 11 August 1943, Page 3

JAPANESE ATROCITY

MASSACRE OF WOUNDED. NEW YORK, Aug. 9. A tight-lipped American, Lieutenant Nicholas Kliebert, has given details of the massacre of American wounded by Japanese at Munda, New Georgia. He told the United Press correspondent how the 11 men he commanded, who were guarding 40 wounded in litters and 100 walking wounded, battled with 300 Japanese for seven hours on* night, killing 175. “The Japanese were advancing against our wounded,” he said. “I set up a box defence and the Japanese streamed towards us. We had to stop firing to let our only two machine guns, which were white hot, cool off. In the meantime we tossed grenades, but the Japanese saw that our guns could not be used, and swarmed yelling among our wounded. They stood one man against a tree and five of them bayoneted him. Many of the Japanese pulled the blankets off the litters, lined up the helpless wounded, and used machetes (broad, heavy knives) on them. They cut one from the top of his head to his feet and then shot him. Five of my men in a frenzy dashed in and out, doing things one would not have believed possible, felling many of the enemy.

“Then the Japanese began on the fox-holes where the walking wounded were crouched. They threw a grenade into each fox-hole. We ran out of ammunition when there were seven of us left. Five escaped, but the other two were hacked to pieces. Later we found that the men I had assigned to hide the wounded had escaped and had hidden 20 cases in the jungle. The unarmed medical personnel with the wounded were the bravest men I have seen.”