Playboys?

On Our Job, Issue 7, 1 March 1944, Page 2

Playboys?

THE following letter, which we think A will be of interest to all our readers was received from one of our cobbers serving in the Islands. “I suppose you read in the papers where we have been in action, but things have quietened down now and we are back to normal. I didn’t enjoy the first week here very much, and I am sure I didn’t have that on my own. We were on the move all day combing the island for Japs, and during the night slept in foxholes. Not that there was much sleeping, except on the second night out and then I wished I had been wide 'away. I was sharing a foxhole with one of the boys, each of us taking turns in keeping awake. I had just finished my picket and dosed off when I heard a yell and woke up to see my mate hanging on to someone by the legs. Before I knew what was happening he broke away and then got tangled up with the next hole, then on to the next one where one of the boys threw him with a flying mare, as he wasn’t sure if it was one of our men or not, but the chaps in the next hole were not taking any chances so opened up with a burst of Tommy-gun fire. Things quietened down for a while, but not quite enough for me to go to sleep again as something inside me seemed to be thumping like hell and keeping me awake. We were not allowed to move until a certain time, but I think we were all up a little earlier that morning to see the results, but we were disappointed, as when the last fellow fired there was a drop of about 50 feet into the sea and we couldn’t see a sign of anything. However, a patrol came across the dead Jap next day and that cheered up the boys a lot for they . had made their first kill. My mate was lucky though, as he got a smack in the back, and as our pick was missing, that must have been what the Jap was using, so it was just as well perhaps that he grabbed him by the legs or he may have got one on the head. I hate to think what would have happened had he dozed off for a while, a thing I will never do after that experi- ’ ence. By the time we had finished clearing this area we had got 11 Japs with no losses to our side, which wasn’t bad going for one company. One of our other companies bottled up 60 Japs, and you never saw a mess like it when our chaps had finished with them. I am sure that I will never forget it.” * *_ * Inquired the old lady in the tram: “I know who Mr Churchill means when' he says ‘bloodthirsty guttersnipe,’ but who is this ‘offensive sweep’ I hear about in the news?”