World-Wide Publicity For
p. 37 · Read in the full issue
Fiji's Soldiers
rELVE pages of brilliant photographs, some of them coloured, and several pages of letterpress, are devoted by the “National Geographic Magazine” of January, 1945, to the exploits of the Fijian soldiers in the jungles of Bougain ville.
It is a remarkable story. The scene of most of the incidents is the outpost estab lished by the Fijians at Ibu, in the moun tains overlooking Numa Numa, on the east coast of Bougainville. Ibu was reached in 20 minutes’ flying in a Tiger Cub from the American, beach-head at Empress Augusta Bay. The Cub flew mostly through canyons in the central mountains. The Ibu air-strip, which clung to the crest of a ridge, was 350 feet long!
The author pays many well-deserved tributes to the Ist Fiji Battalion, and to the trained New Guinea police boys, who, as scouts, led them through most difficult country.