JUNGLE DRAMA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25364, 23 October 1943, Page 6

JUNGLE DRAMA

NEW ZEALANDERS AMBUSHED EXHAUSTING ORDEAL (N.Z.E.F. Official War Correspondent! VELLA LAVELLA, Oct. 12.

Two days before the New Zealanders were expected to make contact with the main body of Japanese troops on north-west Vella Lavella, a party of 50-odd men set out from headquarters to sit on the main trail leading from the enemy positions to the inland hills. Their objective was the top of a long ridge running 1000 yards up from the coast, where they were to guard against possible enemy escape from the enveloping movement of the mam forces.

The track here was well worn. It had been used by Japanese trekking into the Marquana Bay-T’imbala Bay area ever since the American invasion of the island a month previously, and much of the undergrowth had been smashed down, leaving a few clearings, in the midst of which grew tall, thick trees with flange-like roots forming natural protective fire positions. Beyond a radius of 20 or 30 yards the undergrowth closed in once more. There was no view through the forest which showed either the sea or any landmarks. “Here on the Monday morning our native guide saw 40 Japanese close to our objective,” one of the members of the party said afterward. “He was very excited and counted their numbers to me on his fingers. We took two sections up to the track ready to receive the enemy, but by mid-day, when we were all in position, the approach of between 90 and 100 Japanese froze us to the ground. The enemypassed within six feet of us. We could not open fire because we were greatly outnumbered and were split at that stage into two parties, one on either side of the track. Attack on Platoon "We stayed where we were until 4 o’clock, when a clatter in the gully announced a Japanese attack .on one platoon,” the New Zealander added. “ The Japanese had made a mass attack. Our troops 1 held them off with steady rifle fire, and as soon as opportunity presented we got a few bursts into the enemy’s flank, which allowed the platoon to rush over to our side of the track, where a united defence was formed.” An officer of one platoon who later was to guide the men down to the shore and to safety took up the story. “We poured a few magazines into the Japanese, and they faded into the trees, losing several dead,” he said, "but they surrounded us. Then they charged again. " We fired only when we saw a target. We tossed grenades behind trees and into hollows, and the Japanese retired for half an hour. Then they came again, and one man, probably an officer, stood upright to take a look 'at us. Possibly he thought we were all dead, and he called something out, but we changed his shouting to a scream, and no other Japanese stood up to get the same fate. “ Fortunately, we were left alone all night, although we could hear the Japanese moving round us, talking now and again, but they did not come in. We were short of rations now. We had to abandon them in the first moments of the Japanese attack. Our haversacks were lost, too, and all that was left was what each man could carry in ammunition. Some did not even have their water bottles.”

Next day the Japanese tried again and every day until the Friday, when the New Zealanders were so weak that they knew that remaining in their present position indefinitely would be fatal. On the Thursday an officer and two men had made a dash through the Japanese lines to get word to headquarters, but the party left on the ridge could wait no longer.

Wonderful Morale

“So we cut poles for stretchers,” the officer said, “ and prepared to fight our way to the coast, carrying the wounded with us. We buried some of our dead. Our losses in killed were very few. The morale of the wounded and unscathed was wonderful. They needed water badly, but we had none to give them. I hoped to find some nearer the coast. They had had nothing to eat for days. “On the Friday we fought our way over 1000 yards of jungle track between us and the coast. We had plenty of fighting on the way, but it was better than sitting still waiting to be picked off and to grow faint from hunger and thirst. It was wonderful how the men responded to the decision to get on the move. We had a few casualties, but nothing compared with what the enemy took. "At the bottom of the hill, still inside the Japanese positions, we hauled the stretcher wounded through mangrove swamps of black oozing mua to our knees. There was not a groan from them. I managed to collect a little wafer after we formed our new perimeter on the fringe of the bush —enough from the hole I scraped in the mud and from a hollow tree stump to fill three water bottles. Two I reserved for the wounded and one I handed round among the rest. We had 51 in our party then.” . , „ Relief came on the Saturday, and of the rescue, in which six men—five from a rescue party—lost their lives in two abortive daylight attempts, the men who spent nearly a week in a hell on earth spoke feelingly. They were sitting on the shore on Saturday night when, six feet from the shore, a head appeared and another and the dim outline of a canoe and a rubber lifeboat. A rope from the barges was secured and the first out were those who had been wounded. They were laid carefully in the lifeboat and the canoe. Their escort took knives to fight off the sharks. Then, a dozen at a time, the rest of the party slid into the water and crawled and swam to the boats. Next evening, resting after their trials, the men of those platoons approached their chaplain with a request that they hold a short service of thanksgivng at thendeliverance.