The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-12-14
40 MARINES BACK
 FROM SOLOMONS
Patrol Attack 22-Man Jap Unit, Killing l9, WOund-
 ing Three
By TECH. SGT. JAMES w. HURLBURT Marine Corps Combat Correspon
 donfl

HURLBURT
 Marine Corps Combat Correspon-
 dent)
 Distributed by United Press)
 Tulagi, Solomon Islands, Nov. B. (Delayed)-(UP) - Forty marines have just returned from the island of Malaita, where they executed one of the most successful patrol &C., tions carried out in the southeast Solomons.
 Led by First Lieut.. J. Wendell Grain of Ada, Okla, the patrol at- tackled 22-man Japanese unit at Cape Astrolabe, on the northwest tip of Malaita.
 Nineteen Japs were killed and three wounded. Ore of the injured was captured and the other two es- capped. Short-wave radio equipment, machine guns and rifles were seized. There was not single marine cas- ualty.
 The mission was perfectly plan ned, perfectly executed and com- pletely successful" said Lieut.. Col. Robert G. Hunt, USING of Coronado, Calif., commanding officer of the contingent which supplied the pa trol. Hunt said it W; developed first by Maj. Donald V. Fuller of Hartland, Me, who had to leave for Guadalcanal just before the patrol was to go out.
 The patrol, accompanied by Lieut.. Robert Adams, medical corps, USNR of San Diego, Calif., and navy hos pital corps1nan, left Tulagi Nov. ? in two small motor boats. Bad weather and heavy seas delayed the patrol enroute.
 Plans for the attack were per- fected Nov. { at p. m. The pa- trol set out and travelled through the jungle for 12 1-2 hours, arriving at its objective at 5:30 a. n., the next day.
 we just got into position on time," Grain said. 'It was getting light when the six teams into which they patrol had been divided circled the camp. We completely covered three Hanks and the ocean was on the other side, SO the Japs couldn't get away.
 "The team I was with crav .S,.. within 15 yards of the mess hall. We watched them walk around, wash up and brush their teeth, get ting ready for chow. At 7:45 a. m., IA of them were in mess hall eating native potatoes and bananas and dr hiking coffee. We had hoped to ge; all 2 together but when two of u IA prepared to leave, I decided to dive the signal to commence fir ing. A corporal in my team had a tommy gun and the others used automatic firles and Springfields. We got every one of the 14 in the mess hall.
 "All the others who were killed were nearby. Three had walked down toward the river, and two of them were killed. The third was wounded in the chest, and ran into the bush. Two of them were down at the beach. One was wounded and he surrendered when he saw his com rade killed. The rest were just out side the mess hall. One of them i made break for the radio shack probably to try to send a message but he only took about three steps before he went down.
 Tt was all over in five minutes. They didn't fire a single shot. It was so sudden and such a complete surprise, they didn't even scream.
 "The natives were overjoyed at our success. The Japs had been liv- ing on their gardens and stealing their chickens. The natives gave us plenty of fruit and sang a lot of native songs for us. Before we left, they were all singing the Marine Corps Hymn
 The day we left they lined up and gave us three cheers, in typical fash ion. You know, Hip, Hip, Hoorayl Hip, Hip, Hooray!'-just like that. !"