TALKING OF JAPS.

Dozerdust, Volume 2, Issue 12, 11 March 1944, Page 4

TALKING OF JAPS.

.THE other day we cornered Sprs. j.L. Loy and Hec Coombes who have been in the forward area. After some persuasion they took us alogg to their tent and displayed some of the Jap suuvenirs they have. Spr. Loy has a Jap mess kit. It is shaped very much like a binocular* case and could easily be mistaken for one. painted brown, it can bo hooked on to a belt ar carried as would a billy* Inside are small five small trays, a round container something like a large popper shaker and a perforated tray* The container which looks like a pepper shaker is a general utility carrier. Inside it was what wo took to be a packet of a sprue, but which. we learnt a packet of dye tablets packed after the same manner as aspros, Tho tablets wore dissolved in ,r water and smeared over the face - a form of jungle camouflage. All tho trays in the mess kit and tho case were made of prossod aluminium, very at, easily cleaned and of very fine workmanship. The container coulu be used as. billy. .:;j WHEN raiding Treasury, said * Spr. Loy, 51 we disturbed tho Japs at breakfast® What I saw of tho food it was good. Tho,M & V for instance, which was on the table • was different from ours in that at the bottom, say, was a layer of mo&t, than a layer of a vegetable, then another layer of moat, followed by another kind of vegetable. In , the larder wore fruit and root foods tho Japs had scrounged off the islands: bi: THE canteen was .

well stocked with a wide range of goods® Hk showed us a soap con* tainer which was made ,of heavy celluloid, a- packet of cigarettes, . packed in a flimsy packet with poor wrapping, but the cigarettes , were smokable. Underclothing was made of cotton and wool and

of suf*” olently high quality to impress us* Spr« Coombos slid he was most impressed by the Jap blankets - which wore thick

wooly ones, soft and in good con* ition, :::: TWO water bottles,one

used by a paratroop, the other

a standard army issuewre of prated aXdoiMnxa, very light and with screw tops. It was not possible to see whore the parts had been joined, ::::: SNEAKING generally, the two Sappers said the Jap soldiers equipment of of a high quality and from their limited knowledge the Jap soldier was well looked after. It is also true that the average Jap t soldier” can run like hell when

there is danger of their being hurriedly sent off the the ’flowery > land’ J*