Black Hero

To U.S. troops in the South Pacific, the exploits of Fiji scouts on Bougainville are already legendary. The smiling, coal-black British colonials, tall, husky and soldierly, have deeply impressed G.I.s with their jungle craft and cool courage. One whom troops of the U.S. XIV Army Corps will long remember was Corporal Sefanaia Sukanaivalu.

One day last June the corporal's battalion, supported by U.S. engineers and artillery, landed, pushed into the Bougainville jungles and ran into a Japanese ambush. The fighting was hot and bloody. Among the Allied casualties was Sefanaia, who had rescued two wounded men before he went down.

His fellow Fijis tried to rescue him. Sefanaia shouted to them to go back. Several of them were wounded, but others continued to crawl towards him under machine-gun fire. To save his companions, Sefanaia deliberately raised his body--and dropped, riddled with bullets.

From the XIV Corps came word last week that a Victoria Cross had gone posthumously to Corporal Sefanaia Sukanaivalu.

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