LONG JOURNEY FROM BATAAN
AMERICAN OFFICERS’ ESCAPE (Special Australian Correspondent, N.Z.P.A.) (Rec. 7 p.m.) SYDNEY, Oct. 20. Two American officers who have arrived in Australia after dodging the Japanese for 159 days while escaping from the Philippines came closest to death off the Australian coast. For 15 minutes they lay flat in a native-built motor-boat while a Japanese plane riddled their craft with machine-gun bullets. The officers are Captain William Lloyd Osborne, of Los Angeles, and Lieutenant Damon Gause, of Georgia. Their journey began the day Bataan fell. In their journey they charted a 1500-mile course with a compass that worked only in still water. They survived a typhoon and stopped at islands to plug holes in their leaky craft. “We are not here by navigation, but by the grace of God,” declared one of the men. For as long as 16 days they were out of the sight of land in an old 22-foot motor-boat whose Diesel engine , ran finally on a mixture, including coconut oil, collected from island natives. They had only two gallons of this left on October 11 when an Australian motor-launch encountered them and guided them to a remote harbour. For as long as three days they had gone without food and sometimes for two days without water, but both arrived in the best of health. The two officers escaped separately after the fall of Bataan. Captain Osborne lived for two months as a hermit near a volcano. Lieutenant Gause was once captured, stripped of his clothes and herded with 300 other American prisoners, but he managed to escape. After some weeks the men learned of each other’s presence by “bamboo wireless.” It took months of travel for them to meet and another month to plan their escape. Their sailing time to the Australian coast was 58 days. Their first meal after 159 days of rice and coconuts was a tin of sliced peaches. Their great worry was that the Japanese might have arrived in Australia before they did. TANKS IN AUSTRALIA Increase In Production (Rec. 11.20 p.m.) SYDNEY, October 20. Australia’s tank production has increased one hundredfold during the past year,” stated the Attorney-Gen-eral, Dr H. V. Evatt, today. He said there were now 96 times as many tanks in Australia as there were six or seven months ago, while aircraft strength had also increased enormously. Emphasizing the state of Australia’s war effort, Dr Evatt said there were few fronts on which Australians were not fighting. One small contingent of the Australian Imperial Force had even been fighting in distant China. An essential part of the war effort, declared Dr Evatt, was to plan for the post-war period. “There must be no repetition of the chaos, anarchy and broken promises that followed the last war. Australia must look to the time when 1,500,000 men are taken out of war occupations to be reabsorbed in normal civilian life.” RECAPTURE OF BURMA Generals Discuss Plans (Rec. 9.20 p.m.) NEW YORK, Oct 19. The United Press of America Chungking correspondent says that General Lo Choying, commander of the Chinese Expeditionary Force in India, Lieuten-ant-General Joseph W. Stilwell, commander of the American forces in Asia, General Sir Claude Auchinleck, formerly commander-in-chief in the Middle East, and General Sir Archibald Wavell, commander-in-chief in India, attended a conference believed to be connected with Allied plans for the recapture of Burma, to which the Japanese are reported to have transferred an undetermined number of troops from I Malaya.
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Southland Times, Issue 24880, 21 October 1942, Page 5
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577LONG JOURNEY FROM BATAAN Southland Times, Issue 24880, 21 October 1942, Page 5
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