MUNDA REINFORCED.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 63, Issue 247, 29 July 1943, Page 3

MUNDA REINFORCED.

ATTACK BY THE AMERICANS. AUSTRALIAN GAIN IN N. GUINEA SYDNEY, July 28. “United States troops are slashing forward from several directions in a drive against Munda, hut the .Japanese are apparently determined to light, to the last man,” a naval spokesman at; South Pacific Headquarters said to a war correspondent. He indicated that the Japanese, probably by employing small barges at night, had succeeded in reinforcing Munda. However. the number of reinforcements was not large. The American advance against the airfields and defences had been made with the aid of light tanks whortfVer the jungle terrain allowed our troops were finding it necessary to seek out and kill every Japanese soldier since there was no surrendering.

The spokesman added that the capture of Munda airfield would not necessarily mean the end of all Japanese resistance on New Georgia, as remnants of the garrison might escape to the hills. Most of the. 45(500 defenders of the Japanese air base have been compressed into a square mile of territory round the air-strips and Lambotti plantation. Fierce fighting continues as the Americans increase their pressure against the enemy’s outer ring of machine-gun and mortar posts. The latest advance of 500 yards is the biggest gain made since .July .10, when, as a preliminary to full-scale assaults, they expanded their beachhead at Lilia, east of Mundn. From New Guinea details of the battle for Mount Tambii, overlooking Salaman a, are reported. For three days and three nights, between July 10 and IS, t%‘ battle raged between a mere handful of Australians and a Japanese force almost 1000. The Australians beat; hack 17 counter-attacks, inflicting casualties estimated at ten times their own. The capture of Mount Tambu is described as “an extraordinary feat of arms.” The plateau held by the .Japanese was a strongly-fortified area 150 yards by 100 yards. ’The enemy defences wore on the crest! of a steep rise. Over the final mile of the Australian attack the grade was one in three, and in some stretches one in two.