TREASURY ISLAND

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 November 1943, Page 3

TREASURY ISLAND

TAKEN BY NEW ZEALANDERS . FIGHTING WITH GREAT DASH AND DETERMINATION. ENEMY ROUTED BY BAYONET CHARGE. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) SYDNEY, November 1. “The New Zealanders are fighting with great dash and determination on the Treasury Island group south of Bougainville, in the northern Solomons,” writes the Sydney “Sun” war correspondent in the South Pacific, Winston. Turner. Held up at one stage by Japanese strongpoints, they fixed bayonets and routed the Japanese out of their nests with cold steel. The occupation of Treasury Island is now revealed to have been accomplished wholly and solely by the New Zealanders. They are thus the first entirely British force to recapture a British island in the Pacific. The- invasion troops were under the command of Brigadier Fobert Rowe, and Turner says they went ashore knowing they were putting their heads right into the lion’s mouth, as they were within 45 miles of two Japanese airfields and only 30 miles from the coast of Bougainville, where the Japanese have 45,000 troops. But they went into action proud of the fact that they had been selected to be the spearhead of a new Allied offensive. “As the New Zealanders approached the shore after a naval bombardment in which 1000 shells were poured into the coastal village of Falami (the Japanese headquarters), the enemy sprayed the landing craft with mach-ine-guns,- ’ Turner writes. “Bullets tore into the barges and splintered, the wood, but failed to penetrate the sides. Wearing camouflage suits and with their faces and hands smeared with green dye, the first wave of New Zealanders charged ashore and plunged into the jungle. They , quickly fanned cut along the coast. • One group charged through Falami village without waiting to clean out snipers, who were eliminated by a second patrol. _ Turner says that heavy fighting occurred later on Wednesday, but details are at present not available. However, the New Zealanders are pushing the Japanese toward Malsi, at the north-eastern extremity of the island. Here the enemy can either stand and die or try to break through Admiral Halsey’s sea blockade and get across to Fc.ugainville in barges. The New Zealanders are also prepared to face the possibility of an enemy counter-invasion in force from Bougainville. There is evidence that the Japanese were building up the defences on Treasury Island. The number of new gun positions showed that the enemy was awaiting the arrival of artillery. There were also indications that he had reinforced his garrison very recently. FIRST AID GIVEN BY WAR CORRESPONDENTS TO TWO NEW ZEALAND WOUNDED (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) SYDNEY, November 1. Two New Zealanders who trained for two years to fight landed with the forces on Treasury Island, and within two minutes were finished with this war. Both were badly wounded. Three war correspondents gave them first aid. The story is told by Keith Palmer, the Melbourne “Herald” correspondent in the Solomons. “Stretcher-bearers gently lifted the badly wounded men into a barge,” he writes. “Pat Robinson, of International News Service, a last war veteran, bandaged the leg of one boy, John Fairfax, of the “Sydney Morning Herald,” injected a morphia syrette in the other lad, easing his agony from three severe wounds, and Archer Thomas, of the Sydney “Telegraph,” read him instructions from the syrette package. The wounded men subsequently received treatment on an American warship, and when Palmer saw them later he describes them as “grinning their thanks behind stubble and jungle paint.” “Not easily will I forget the courage of that lean-jawed, tight-lipped man fighting back the pain of his shattered knee and wounded back without even a groan,” writes Mr Fairfax, who adds that the kindliness of American sailors to the courageous wounded New Zealanders Was “something better than all the lend-lease in the world.”