JAP. FLIERS’ DESIRE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20915, 15 October 1942, Page 3

JAP. FLIERS’ DESIRE

JOIN ALLIED FORCES “SHORTS" SAVE MARINES (10.30) ,NEW YORK, Oct. 16. Some Japanese fliers who had been shot down in the south Pacific pleaded for a chance to become American or Australian citizens so that they could ioin the Allied air forces, according to Brigadier-General Perrin, who returned from Australia a month ago. He also told how “shorts'’ played a vital part in the rescue of a lost detachment of Marines on Guadalcanal A pilot flying a dive-bomber over an isolated part of the north shore observed white spots near the beach. He descended to investigate and saw the single word “Help,” which a group of marines, cut off on all sides by the Japanese, had formed by stripping off their “shprts” and spreading them on the ground. The pilot reported to Marine Headquarters and then sent the plane shrieking down repeatedly, while the gunner fired machine-guns to help the marines to fight their way to the shore. Meanwhile, two rescue boats, escorted by a destroyer, sped up the coast. The destroyer shelled the Japanese, while the marines drove through to the beach. The rescue boats raced to the shore under a hail of enemy machinc-gun fire, which forced them-to retire twice, but on the third attempt they reached the shore and took off the entire party.