Korovulavula awarded ED and MC

AN Efficiency Decoration by the Governor, Sir Kenneth Maddocks was represented to Major Isireli Korovulavula in Suva on June, 1959 for his service during the Solomon Campaign during WWII.

Maj Korovulavula also won the Military Cross during the campaign.

He was awarded for courage and endurance that he showed when he an American Air Force pilot crashed in a reconnaissance aircraft in the interior of Bougainville during the war.

Maj Korovulavula, who was then a Lieutenant, had served for 22 years with the Fiji Military Forces then and it included his service in the Solomon with the 1st Battalion in Malaya, and in the Territorial Force.

on June 17, 1959, published an article on Korovulavula’s endurance during his return in early 1944 when he tried to return to his unit with American pilot, Lieutenant Cross.

Due to thick weather it made it impossible for Korovulavula and Cross’s plane to get to its destination or to later get back over the high mountains to its original base. Late in the afternoon they crashed into a treetop.

By the time the two men had gotten to the ground heavy rain was falling and it was dark.

They had no idea where they were but they decided to make their way through the thick bush, following an odd one-man trail.

Major Korovulavula and Cross walked for 10 days before they saw the sun, and during that time they had no food of any sort.

According to the report, Cross was not used to the bush and he was not able to travel at more than 10 to 12 paces a minute.

It was cold in the mountains and Maj Korovulavula gave Cross his shirt. He himself had on green overalls.

The physical strain, the cold and the lack of food began to tell, and after a week’s travelling he had to carry Cross whenever they had to climb or go down a particularly steep hill.

At this stage they still had no idea where they were, but when the sun broke through on the 10th day he was able to climb a tree and look round.

He recognised two landmarks, the island of Buka and Mount Balbi. He climbed down and told Cross that for 10 days they had been walking in the wrong direction.

They were deep in enemy territory and they would have to go back, the report described.

So they started back on the same route.

They had to keep to the mountains because they knew that if they went close to the beach they would almost certainly be caught by the Japanese.

They still had no food, though there was plenty of water. They struck steep cliffs and sheer rocks. It was still cold in the high country.

What happened four days later, a fortnight after the aircraft crashed, is best told in Maj Korovulavula’ s own words.

“We were somewhere below Mount Balbi about February 9, 1944, when Cross called out to me, “Sorry pal, I’m done and I can’t go any further” but he only answered with tears running down his cheeks: No – I’m afraid I can’t,” he said.

“He asked me to build a shelter for him and he also asked me to tell some pilots in his units to write to his father and mother that he died like a soldier and was happy to die for his country.

“I was still trying to get him to come with me. I was done too. If I had a bit of fruit or anything at all I would have been able to take him with me.

“So I built a little shelter for him and said goodbye, and he wished me all the luck in the world.”

The going had been hard, but now it became harder still. He was no longer concerned with trails as long as he got somewhere-anywhere where he might get help for Cross.

At one place he fell into a waterfall five times and his clothes were gradually rippled from him and his boots were torn to pieces.

The journey had lasted seven days, and then on February 16 he walked into a small garden and there he fell down exhausted and slept.

He woke again to see a Solomon Islander, who said that he was a friend and that his name was Kakae.

Next day some of Kakae’s men set out in different directions towards Mount Balbi to look for Cross.

All that he could tell them by this time was that he had left Cross somewhere to the North-West, at the foot of the mountain.

Exhaustion and hunger had wiped details of time and place from his mind.

All that remained were chaotic impressions, left after the dreadful week when he had floundered through the bush and over the hills to get help for the man who had been able to go no farther.

This newspaper reported that days later Kakae’s men returned to say that they had not been able to find Cross.

He met Sergeant Moto, a Japanese soldier, who had been detailed to search for him and Cross at Suva.

Sergeant Moto was a member of the crew of a Japanese fishing ship which called to replenish her supplies.