General Discussions
This is the place to discuss general issues related to the U-boat war or the war at sea in WWII.
Sources
Posted by:
Forest
()
Date: July 01, 2001 03:12AM
<HTML>Hammel wrote of a Japanese airman pulling a pistol and shooting at rescuers on Destroyer USS Cushing coing alongside to pick him up. The shooter missed, but an American was badly injured in the incident when ordered to shoot the Japanese, and his 20mm cannon misfired. The Japanese was then disposed of by a different gun.
Eric Hammel
Guadalcanal: Decision at Sea - The Naval Battle of Guadalcanal
last paragraph in Chapter 9
Morison wrote \"There were inumerable incidents such as a wounded Japanese soldier at Guadalcanal seizing a scalpel and burying it in the back of a surgeon who was about to save his life by an operation; and a survivor of the Battle of Vella Lavella, rescued by PT-163, pulling a gun and killing a bluejacket in the act of giving the Japanese a cup of coffee.\" That is the last sentence in a paragraph in which he tries to justify the killing of men in lifeboats.
Morison
Two Ocean War
Chapter 9, section 3, fourth paragraph (page 273 in my edition)
I might add that the same battle witnessed Japanese pilots machine-gunning American airmen dangling in parachutes, though this was not a precedent. Perhaps one crime does not justify another, but Gavin was correct that the Pacific war had a very different character than that between the Western Allies and Germany.</HTML>
Eric Hammel
Guadalcanal: Decision at Sea - The Naval Battle of Guadalcanal
last paragraph in Chapter 9
Morison wrote \"There were inumerable incidents such as a wounded Japanese soldier at Guadalcanal seizing a scalpel and burying it in the back of a surgeon who was about to save his life by an operation; and a survivor of the Battle of Vella Lavella, rescued by PT-163, pulling a gun and killing a bluejacket in the act of giving the Japanese a cup of coffee.\" That is the last sentence in a paragraph in which he tries to justify the killing of men in lifeboats.
Morison
Two Ocean War
Chapter 9, section 3, fourth paragraph (page 273 in my edition)
I might add that the same battle witnessed Japanese pilots machine-gunning American airmen dangling in parachutes, though this was not a precedent. Perhaps one crime does not justify another, but Gavin was correct that the Pacific war had a very different character than that between the Western Allies and Germany.</HTML>