MARINE WINS WAGER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 September 1942, Page 5

MARINE WINS WAGER

FIRST TO KILL A JAPANESE. ATTACK ON THE SOLOMON ISLANDS. SYDNEY, September 5. “United States Marines aboard a transport had a wager before landing at Guadalcanal- (in the Solomons), on who would kill the first Japanese,” says Robert Miller, United Press of America correspondent, in a delayed, despatch from Guadalcanal-. “Lieutenant Jack Gately, who won the bet, relates: ‘Our patrol pushed inland through jungle. The Japs let us pass and then fired from the rear, wounding me twice. Lying in the grass I saw something moving. I thought it was a Marine, and waved to him, but too late, discovered it was a Jap aiming point-blank at me. “‘Fortunately his trigger had jammed, giving me the opportunity to get a bead on him. Next moment I was horrified when I found that my trigger also had jammed. For endless seconds both fumbled with the triggers, realising it was a matter of life and death who was ready first.

“I got the trouble straightened out before him, and my bullet lifted him from the ground backwards. Next thing I knew I opened my eyes on a stretcher in hospital; but I had won the bet’.” Miller also described the fanatical attitude of most of the Japanese prisoners, who indicated that they would prefer death. One Japanese survivor said: “I personally am not ashamed of my actions, but, according to the Japanese code, I am listed as dead, and my return would disgrace my family. If 1 had had a gun, I never would have been taken alive.”