SOLDIERS LEAD

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 68, Issue 5943, 15 May 1944, Page 3

SOLDIERS LEAD

DIVE-BOMBING ATTACKS (Official War Correspondent, N.Z.E.F.) Seated in the cockpit of an Allied dive-bombing aircraft, a former master at Christ’s College, Christchurch, Captain P. H. T. Williams, directed the craft’s pilot over jungled mountains of Bourgainville to well behind Japanese forward troops. Consulting a map and noting landmarks, Captain Williams changed the pilot’s course from time to time, watched the impenetrable miles of tall foliage below, and eventually indicated: “There’s your target.” Behind the leading machine a flight of dive-bombers turned towards the ground and let go a bomb load and a strafing spray into the jungle. Climbing out of their dive, they headed for the home base. Below, the Japanese, believing themselves hidden from aerial observation and attack, took bewildered stock of fresh damage and casualties. They could not know that an officer of the Fijian Military Forces had accompanied the pilot of the leading aircraft, knowing exactly where the Japanese positions were. This dual role of ground patrot and air attack leader is one that a number of Fijian Force officers have taken on. Captain Williams has led several such attacks; 2/Lieut. B. I. Dent, of Timaru, later killed in action, had led one, and Lieut. Isireli Korovulavula another.

Just another practical example of the value of the Fijians’ work on Bourgainville, these instances reveal the uncanny accuracy of their reconrnaissances. Having noticed, on patrol, big enemy concentrations, an officer notes all he can about the immediate neighbourhood, pin-points the enemy position on his map, returns to his outpost base, flies from the small strip there in a cub aeroplane to the main Allied base at Empress Augustra Bay, explains the task and the target, and himself accompanies the pilot of the leading aircraft on the bombing mission. Sounds simple, doesn’t it?