Last Patrol

'THIS is the story of the last patrol 1 of two brothers —Tony and Cliff Phelps, sons of Mr. and Mrs. A. I.

Phelps, of Suva, Fiji. Tony joined the Fiji Military Forces when he was a year under age. Cliff was still a schoolboy, but as soon as he was able he, too, joined up. Tony was killed in January this year; Cliff has since been promoted to the rank of Second Lieutenant. This story is from a Harold Cooper despatch from the Northern Solomons.

LAST year the two brothers left the Colony for service overseas with the First Battalion, Tony as a Lieuten ant and Cliff as a Sergeant, both in the same company.

In the Northern Solomons, recently, I heard the story of their last patrol to gether. Tony was leading it and his scouts detected a Japanese machine-gun post on a spit of land which jutted out into the river along whose bank the patrol was moving. Plans were made for eliminating this obstacle, but as Tony and his men moved forward other Japs on their flank suddenly opened fire with machine-guns, mortars and grenades.

Tony was wounded. As he fell he ordered his men to “Attack on the left and then withdraw.”

Sergeant Phelps now took command of the patrol, and the first thing he did was to call for volunteers to help him bring in his brother, who was lying in an ex posed position in what had become No Man’s Land. Two Fijians volunteered and with them Cliff, after twice being driven back by heavy fire, succeeded in retrieving his brother’s body—because, by then, Tony was dead.

What happened next is thus described in Cliff's resolutely unemotional report to his Commanding Officer: “We buried Mr.

Phelps in the sand by the side of the river. We then proceeded to carry out his order to attack on the left and re tire.”

Before retiring, Cliff and his men silenced two machine-guns and one light machine-gun, making it possible for the rest of the patrol to escape safely from the Japanese ambush.