TWO AUSTRALIANS GET THE V. C.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 89, Issue 266, 10 November 1945, Page 5

TWO AUSTRALIANS GET THE V. C.

Canberra, Nov. 9. Two Australians who. between them, killed 19 Japanese in a daring assault, have been awarded the Victoria Cross. They are:— Cornoral J. B. Mackey, of Sydney. Private L. T. Starcevich, of Western Australia. Both were members of the 9th Division of the A.I.F. Australians have now won nineteen V.C.’s In the Second World War. The award to Corporal Mackey was posthumous. He was in charge of a section in an attack east of Taraka, Borneo, when he came under fire from three well-sited positions near the top of a ridge. Mackey charged a light machine-"un position, but slipped and fell. Rising, he wrestled with one Japanese and bayoneted him. He then charged on to a heavy machinegun in a bunker. After killing the gun crew with grenades ho changed his rifle for a sub-machin" gun. IL had almost reached ano* hr’* enemy position when ho was killed. Private Starcevich, in on attack which canturod Beaufort. North Borneo. moved forward and assaulted two cnemv maeb'ne-gun posts in turn, killing five Japanese and forcing the remainder to floe. His advance continued until the section came under fire from two more machine-gun nosts. Starcevich cantured both nosts «in?lr-hnndefl, killing so vow more Japanese.