Jacob Vouza's Guadalcanal Jungle Warning

During the Guadalcanal campaign in August 1942, Solomon Island police sergeant major Jacob C. Vouza was scouting for the U.S. Marines when Japanese troops captured him. They found a small American flag on him, tied him to a tree, beat and bayoneted him repeatedly in the arms, chest, and throat, and left him for dead when he refused to reveal Allied positions.

Vouza later regained consciousness, chewed through the ropes that bound him, and crawled several miles through the jungle, bleeding heavily, to reach the Marine lines. He refused treatment until he warned officers about an imminent Japanese attack, giving the Marines crucial minutes to prepare, and then spent nearly two weeks in hospital before returning to duty as their chief scout.

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