Josselyn's War

By Harold Cooper

AMONG the young administrative officers in the Solomons who played a leading part in operations against the Japs is Henry Josselyn, formerly of Kenya.

Although he spent many months at a lonely Allied post Josselyn rarely had to call for supplies for himself or his small band of native scouts. The Japs pro vided him with all he needed.

He made a particularly rich haul when a Jap destroyer, which had been set ablaze by American bombers, was beached near his headquarters. No sooner had the Japs abandoned tjie vessel than Josselyn and his men were aboard.

In a race against time, for fires burn ing in the stern were threatening to spread to other parts of the ship, they ransacked as much of the destroyer as they could safely reach and brought ashore “enough stuff to stock a depart ment store.”

Josselyn’s one regret was that he didn’t manage to salvage the ship’s sick bay equipment, for soon afterwards he found himself acting as nurse to a New Zea land Flight Sergeant, the sole survivor of a reconnaissance plane shot down by the Japs.

The New Zealander was too ill to be moved, and was suffering from multiple shrapnel wounds. Some of these looked so dangerous that Josselyn decided he would have to operate. Using a darning needle, a razor blade and a pair of pliers he extracted several pieces of shrapnel, probably saving the sergeant’s life. The only thing he was able to ad minister to the patient by way of anaesthetic was a stiff glass of brandy.

The sergeant came through the ordeal in great style. Indeed, the operation troubled him far less than the fact that in the crash he’d lost his false teeth, and was unable to share the luxurious rations Josselyn had acquired from the beached destroyer.

On another occasion Josselyn and a party of native scouts penetrated deep into Jap territory in search of the sur vivors of a sunken American warship.

More than 100 sailors had swum or been washed ashore at different points along a 30 mile stretch of beach. Josselyn’s men managed to contact all of them, and concentrated them in two improvised camps which were skilfully camouflaged to avoid detection from the air.

The inmates of the camps, despite the fact that they were- virtually surrounded by the enemy, were kept supplied with food and other necessaries of life until American forces effected their rescue.