IV. Sergeant J. W. Burnie's account of the Nissan landing

The immediate task of the engineer section attached to the 37th Battalion combat team for the Nissan Island attack was to blow down a face of coral cliff opposite Tangalan Plantation and thus provide the necessary beaching area for the LSTs with page 102their bulldozers and others vehicles. Specialists who took part in the commando raid two weeks before D-day (15 February 1944) had charted and sounded the area so that everything was cut and dried. Between the time that the LCIs with us aboard landed at 0703 hours and the time that the LSTs were due to drop their ramps at 0730 hours, it was estimated that we could do sufficient damage to the overhanging cliff of coral. We had to provide a good easy grade for the bulldozers to land from the existing small, stone, native jetty and roll directly into the plantation to get on with the job of airstrip clearance.

Laden with cases of TNT and other accessories we duly landed from the LCIs on to the jetty and prepared our charges. Fortunately for us no one else was about with explosives and we had a clear run. Considerable delay was caused by the officer in charge of a nearby LCM who misunderstood our signals to move out of the line of fire along with his craft. The LSTs were gliding all too rapidly across the lagoon from the entrance and the precious minutes were getting fewer and fewer. The official photographer was standing by to record the doings, the sergeant in charge of the demolition becoming more and more agitated. At 0730 hours the charge went off—a failure! The resultant damage to the cliff face was inadequate to give the bulldozer the desired ramp.

Hurriedly alternative action had to be taken. Coconut palms on the plantation edge above were felled and pushed over the cliff face to make a very rough slope up which the bulldozer from the LST was trying to climb within ten minutes of the first charge's failure. We had some doubts whether the dozer would make the grade but after some tense moments of teetering on the top of the pile, the big blade tilted forward and sufficient grip was obtained on the edge of the coral shelf to pull the machine up into the plantation. This preliminary action over, we proceeded to cut down coconut palms for the bofors boys to provide them with something like an arc of fire. Two sappers lending a hand with the guns when the first planes came over claimed to have had a share in shooting one down and considering the number of times that we moved the AA posts before satisfaction was given, we reckon that the prize was earned. AA pits were made of coconut logs nicked with the power saw on the page 103mortice and tenon principle. When the logs were finally laid in position earth was bulldozed around them and the pit so completed provided a safe area from the night sniping of the allied troops.