Father Joseph Lamarre...

history · 25 November 1943 · 81 years ago

Father Joseph Lamarre witnessed two Australian and ten American captives, blindfolded and bounded at the wrists, being loaded onto trucks. While the Japanese said that they were being transported to Japan, Lamarre noted that the trucks did not stop by the wharves. Instead, they were taken to a field of volcanic ash near Tavurvur for their execution. US Lieutenant Marcus Mangett, Jr. and US Staff Sergeant Kenneth Vetter, who were wounded and could not stand, were executed by rifle fire. The remaining ten prisoners of war were executed by beheading at the hands of newly arrived junior officers as a test of their courage; the ten victims included Australian Warrant Officer John Bailey, Australian Flight Officer Charles Vincent, US Lieutenant John Rippy, US Lieutenant Philip Bek, US First Lieutenant Ernest Naumann, US Aviation Ordnanceman 2nd Class Harlan Burrus, US Lieutenant Leslie Neuman, US Staff Sergeant Ernest Burnside, US Corporal John Mulligan, and US Private Robert George. 

More history on 25 Nov