west of the Lunga Point perimeter, between Point Cruz and the Matanikau River, on a reconnaissance mission to contact a group of Japanese troops that American forces believed might be willing to surrender. Soon after the patrol landed, a group of Japanese naval troops ambushed and almost completely wiped out the patrol. Goettge was among the dead. Only three Americans made it back to American lines in the Lunga Point perimeter alive. News of the killing and treachery by the Japanese outraged the American Marines: Second Lieutenant D. A. Clark of the 7th Marines told a similar story while patrolling Guadalcanal: Samuel Eliot Morison, in his book, The Two-Ocean War: A Short History of the United States Navy in the Second World War, wrote: (A PT is a patrol torpedo boat and a bluejacket is an enlisted sailor.) These incidents, along with many other perfidious actions of the Japanese throughout the Pacific War, led to an American tendency to shoot dead or wounded Japanese soldiers and those attempting to surrender and not readily take them as prisoners of war. Two Marines of Iwo Jima told cautionary tales. One confided: Attacks on hospital ships Hospital ships are painted white with large red crosses to show they are not combat ships but vessels carrying wounded people and medical staff. Japan had signed the Hague Convention X of 1907 that stated attacking a hospital ship is a war crime. On 23 April 1945, the was struck by a Japanese suicide plane. The plane crashed through three decks, exploding in surgery, which was filled with medical personnel and patients. Casualties were 28 killed (including six nurses) and 48 wounded, with considerable damage done to the ship. The was attacked and damaged during the Battle of Leyte Gulf and the Battle of Okinawa. The USS Relief was attacked and damaged at Guam on 2 April 1945. On 19 February 1942, the Australian HMHS Manunda was dive-bombed during the Japanese air raids on Darwin; twelve crew and hospital staff were killed and nineteen others were seriously wounded. On 14 May 1943, the Australian AHS Centaur was sunk by Japanese submarine I-177 off Stradbroke Island, Queensland with 268 lives lost. The Royal Netherlands Navy hospital ship SS Op ten Noort was bombed on 21 February 1942, in the Java Sea. One surgeon and three nurses were killed, and eleven were badly wounded. After repairs, on 28 February