MAKIN ISLAND RAID

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 31 August 1942, Page 5

MAKIN ISLAND RAID

FIRST-HAND ACCOUNTS GARRISON WIPED OUT Pearl Harbour, Aug. 28. Graphic first-hand accounts of the United States marine corps’ recent raid on a Japanese seaplane base on Makin Island are given by Lieut-Colonel Evans Carlson, who led the raiders, and Major James Roosevelt, son of the President

The marines wiped out the seaplane base and the installations, destroyed three radio stations, 1000 barrels of aviation petrol, bombs, and foodstuffs, said Major Roosevelt. Only two Japanese out of a force of 300 survived the marines’ sudden attack. The American losses were less than 10 per cent, of the enemy’s.

Lieut.-Colonel Carlson revealed that the marines were on the island for 20 minutes before they were discovered although the Japanese maintained a continuous alert with snipers strapped to the tops of 70-foot coconut trees for days at a time. JAP BOMBING MUDDLE “We fought until 11.30 a.m. on the first day when the fir#t Japanese air raiders came over,” he said. “Meanwhile we had sunk a 3500-ton Japanese transport and a gunboat. Japanese planes strafed and bombed confusedly dropping more bombs on their own troops than on us. “The fight ended at 4 p.m. on the second day. There were 1700 natives on the island, and they had been illtreated by the Japanese. The natives looked on the Americans as deliverers and served as an auxiliary intelligence corps.

“One of my hardest jobs was to keep my reserves from entering the firing lines because they all wanted to shoot. By accident, an officer and men in a boat got lost and came up at the rear of the Japanese. They shot eight and knocked out a Japanese radio station. They spen> the rest of the day cutting enemy c/mmunications, killing Japanese messengers, and generally raising hell. BASE NOT MUCH USE NOW “The battlefield was some sight when we left —dead Japs were behind almost every coconut tree.” Lieut.-Colonel Carlson said the Japanese were able to operate against Samoa and the Australian lifeline from Makin Island. As the marines destroyed everything the base is not much use at present. Apparently several British subjects had been on the island when the Japanese landed, but the marines found no indications of their fate. —P.A,