BURNING TANK

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 January 1943, Page 4

BURNING TANK

CREW MAULED BY JAPANESE ' IN SOLOMONS. SURVIVORS SAVED BY SNIPER. In a San Francisco hospital, Private Eugene Moore, the “indestructible Marine,” told new details of the Solomon Islands fight in which he survived attacks by Japanese armed with weapons ranging from fish spears to hand grenades. Moore was in a tank assigned to clearing out Japanese machine-gun nests on a small island —he can’t remember its name —near Gavatu Island. They were getting on with the job, although they had been hit by grenades and some, of the tank’s crewmen were dead.' “Then the fire started,” Moore said. ‘I grabbed an extinguisher and fought the flames, but couldn’t get them under control. The assistant driver climbed out, and was met by an angry mob of Japs. He wasn’t killed, however, as previously reported, but somehow got back to his outfit. “I killed one Jap who stuck his face into the turret. I just fired my .45 right in his face. Then I had to get out oi’ burn to death. I went out feet first. The Japs kept kicking, beating and punching me all the time. “I guess all that saved me was my heavy, padded crash helmet. One Jap stabbed me with a three-pronged fish spear, and another hit me with a gun butt. I had a lot of burns and a head wound from a grenade.” Moore was knocked out and did not become conscious again for two hours. He did not find out until later, after he woke up in a pile of dead Japanese, that a Marine sniper, Private Kenneth . Koon, of Summitville, Ind., had been picking off the Japs one by one while they mauled Moore. “One of the Japs-I thought was dead came to life,” said Moore. “But one of our snipers saw him and killed him while the Jap was raising his rifle to let me have it. I recalled that pretty vividly.” He vaguely remembers American Marines running by. Some paused and gave him water, but could not help him further because they were on their way to an objective. “I heard Marines talking again that night,” he said, “and made my way toward their outpost.”