PT-109 Rescue Thompsons

[anjong-ni]

"Wikipedia" articles are always interesting.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrol_torpedo_boat_PT-109

Checking "PT-109", on Wikipedia:

One of the best-researched subjects of my childhood (before "Dallas November 22, 1963") was the rescue of Kennedy and the PT crew. Plenty of heroism there.

The article mentions the two natives that make contact, Gasa and Kumana, and infers that they had "Tommy guns".

Could this possibly be true? Where would they have gotten them?

The story always was that they were "looking for coconuts"... 

Below, a pretty good account of what I always thought actually transpired.     Phil

 

This account is attributed to "Doyle".

""By chance, Gasa and Kumana stopped by Naru to investigate a Japanese wreck, from which they salvaged fuel and food. They first fled by canoe from Kennedy, who with his sunburn, beard, and disheveled clothing appeared to them to be a Japanese soldier. When they later arrived on Olasana, they pointed their Tommy guns at the rest of the crew, since the only light-skinned people they expected to find were Japanese with whom they could not communicate"".

http://www.orwelltoday.com/jfkpt109evanscoastwatcherrescue.shtml

 

Edited October 27, 2023 by anjong-ni

[StrangeRanger]

If true, there's at least a couple of possibilities

The US might have given Thompsons to the Aussies who issued them to their coast watchers in the Solomons who in turn might have given them to the locals most of whom were not fans of the "Co-Prosperity Sphere"

The US Marines and/or Army fighting their way up the slot towards the main Japanese base at Rabaul might have given them to the local allies to hunt Japs.