Being frightened of what you do in war

[SouthWestPacificVet]

Hello Christos,

I remember the New Guinea natives to be quite tough and friendly, they showed the greatest compassion when caring for our wounded, they could carry litters up muddy mountain jungle trails, or cross monsoon streams that would make a pack mule think twice about. The japs feared them and they hated the japs, and they were quite good at tracking them. The aussie bounty I had heard was 10 or so shillings a head, that could be traded for supplies, and that's what I remember them collecting, heads, carried in a bag next to that big curved knife they all wore. Some would carry jap rifles or pistols.

[Christos]

Wow....HEADS for trophies eh?....thats a fine detail that Jim must have 'censored from his coversation...he mentioned only EARS, which, when you look at it, doesn't seem quite as bad as a HEAD.....

We Australians have THE GREATEST respect and admiration for the fighting qualities, and the sheer COMPASSION of these marvellous people...A documentary I saw a while ago featured an Aussie Kokodsa vet talking to these people that had been 'bearers', and scewing up his eyes, he asked them , for the camera, what they thought of "Japan-man"....

The reaction of the native veterans that he was talking to was to SPIT....one very universal human reaction that was understood by everyone present......People like those New Guineans and Solomon Islanders like JACOB VOUZA are HEROS of the South Pacific, and their contribution to victory in that theater was PRICELESS....

May all the New Guinea natives that died in that terrible period "rest under the shade of a Kumi tree, by the sweet water" that these 'blackfellows' loved so much....

R.I.P.

[Owen]

He went on to tell me that they had Vickers machine guns set up in the sandhills behind sandbags and when the Japanese marines came ashore they mowed them down in their hundreds. He said that it was such a massacre that him and the boys became very frightened at what they were doing......... He said they felt ashamed after, when they looked at all the bodies.

Just re-reading The Winter War by William R. Trotter, which made me think of this thread, he has this to say about the Finnish machin-gun crews mowing down the masses ranks of Soviet infantry.

Page 79.

In some battles the Finnish machine gunners held their fire until the range was down to fifty meters; the butchery was dreadful.
In a number of cases Finnish machine gunners had to be evacuated due to stress.
They had become emotionally unstable from having to perform such mindless slaughter day after day.

[Donnie]

My granfather felt extreme guilt for killing in the war (after the war i might add).......he was a crew member of the Crocs and used the flamethrower to "mop" up german troops....from after he was demobed he never had a barbeque in his garden, he closed the doors and windows when neighbours were( he hated the smell). He did on one occation shoot a teenage German soldier point blank when his tank was knocked out....he felt no guilt during the war but it hit him hard after.

Donnie