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Corporal SEFANAIA SUKANAIVALU

Service Number: 4469
Regiment & Unit/Ship

Fiji Infantry Regiment

3 Bn.

Date of Death

Died 23 June 1944

Age 26 years old

Buried or commemorated at

RABAUL (BITA PAKA) WAR CEMETERY

V. B. 13.

Papua New Guinea

  • Country of Service United Kingdom
  • Awards Victoria Cross
  • Additional Citation note

    The following details are given in the London Gazette of November, 2nd, 1944 : On June, 23rd, 1944 at Mawaraka, Bougainville, in the Solomon Islands, Cpl. Sefanaia Sukanaivalu crawled forward to rescue some men wounded when their platoon was ambushed. After recovering two men this N.C.O. volunteered to go alone through heavy fire to try and rescue another - but on the way back was seriously wounded and fell to the ground unable to move further. Several unsuccessful attempts were made to rescue him; and realising that his men would not withdraw while he was still alive Cpl. Sukanaivalu raised himself up in front of the Japanese machine gun and was riddled with bullets. This brave Fiji soldier, after rescuing two wounded men with the greatest heroism and being gravely wounded himself, deliberately sacrificed his own life knowing that in no other way could his men be induced to retire from a situation in which they must have been annihilated.

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Buried or commemorated at