Major Kennedy Decorated

A FORMER District Officer in the Solo mons, Major D. G. Kennedy, has been awarded the Distinguished Service Order m recognition of his gallant and distinguished service in the South-west Pacific. It will be remembered that Major Kennedy (then Captain), between the ln i e .L^k e Japs landed in the Solomons and the arrival of the Americans, “to re lieve him of the responsibility for the defence of his district,” ran a kind of private, amphibious war with the help of a 25 ft. whale boat and an “army” of 32 natives. In all he and his men accounted for 170 dead Japs and 22 prisoners.

Harold Cooper, who wrote the original Kennedy story in the October “PIM,” now reveals that Kennedy’s second-in-com mand was a Euronesian, William Billy Bennett. Billy had a varied career as cook-boy, medical dresser, and primary school teacher before he joined the Solomons Defence Force—but he soon proved expert in the kind of war dis pensed by Kennedy. He could speak, read and write English, and was a persuasive orator. Before each venture into Jap territory he and Kennedy would pore for hours over maps and plan the projected action down to the last detail. Then Billy would explain the plan to the men, end ing his discourse with a “pep talk” which, according to Kennedy, seemed to have an almost hypnotic effect on them.

In action and under lire he showed the highest courage—on one occasion board ing a silent enemy barge armed with a tommy-gun, although he realised that the silence was more than likely a Jap trick.

His mother is a New Georgia woman, and the longer the Japanese remained in occupation of that island the more he grew to hate them.