"airmen" - 1 õppematerjal

TheCodeBreakers

apparently never solved. These messages were transmitted by three brave Australian coastwatchers, part of a widespread network whose members observed enemy activity from the peaks and cliffs of enemy-held islands, collected tidbits from native allies, and radioed their information to Allied military commands. They frequently gave valuable early warning of Japanese bombing raids and ship movements, and they assisted in the rescue of downed Allied airmen. In the early morning hours of August 2, 1943, coast-watcher Lieutenant Arthur Reginald Evans of the Royal Australian Naval Volunteer Reserve saw a pinpoint of flame on the dark waters of Blackett Strait from his jungle ridge on Kolombangara Island, one of the Solomons. He did not know then that the Japanese destroyer Amagiri had rammed and sliced in half an American patrol torpedo boat, PT 109, Lieutenant John F. Kennedy, United States Naval Reserve, commanding.