ADVANCE CONTINUES IN STANLEY RANGES

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 233, 2 October 1942, Page 3

ADVANCE CONTINUES IN STANLEY RANGES

JAPS. FALL BACK

British Fighters And New U.S. Planes Hit Hard

Special Australian Correspondent United Press Association—Copyright Rec. 1.30 p.m. SYDNEY, this day. Driving further up the Owen Stanley mountain trails, the Australian troops have captured Naoro. 10 miles north of loribaiwi, as well as the high ground in the neighbourhood. Contact has not yet been made with the main Japanese force. The Australian attackers are led by seasoned veterans of the Lybia. Syria and Crete campaigns. It was believed the Japanese would make strong efforts to hold the Australian advance at Naoro, where there are excellent positions for defence. However, no prepared positions were found and the enemy is now retreating toward Manari. about six miles north of Naoro toward Hell's Gap Pass through the ranges.

Reporting this further success against the Japanese land forces threatening Port Moresbv, the latest communique from General MacArthurs Headquarters saws- "Additional supplies and equipment abandoned by the retreating Japanhands"°° PS haVe fallen into our

-\Tanari is now being heavilv strafed by British Beaufighters and arrnpd C^ n ' A 2 °-' S — fast ' Powerful lvarmed, twin-engined attack bomber's B^to a n= in^ eSign t ? the well-known nf /w k 13 t] , le first mention nf r£° % b <PS l,sed m the company of Beaufighters m New Guinea. The Japanese are believed to have pre--s?«d positions in the Manari area, i t as een sev cral times attacked by our aircraft during the last two days. Encouraging Gains The Australian forces have climbed ridges 4000 ft high. While these gains are decidedly encouraeing it is generally expected that stubborn Japanese resistance will soon be encountered. It appears that our sudden counter-offensive left the enemv without time to construct adequate defences at Isaoro and that he has preferred to fall back to an area where his supply problems will be less difficult and where he will have an opportunity to dig in. The Australian tactics are to maintain close contact with the enemy thus keeping him continually on the run, but the Japanese has still more than 60 miles to go before he is pushed back through Hell's Gap and to the northern slopes of the mountains. Steep ridges already recaptured are known to th<s Australian troops as Hell's Backache. Our forces found that the principal part of the Japanese defences at loribaiwi comprised primitive log palisades constructed across the main path and across every jungle bv-pass. These appear to have been designed more to give warning of the Australians'! approach than to halt any determined advance.

With the close support of Allied aircraft, the Australian drive in the Owen Stanley Range must carry right to Hell's Gap Pass if the Japanese back door threat to Port Moresby is to be averted, says the Sydney Morning Herald in a leading article. The New Guinea situation is assessed as "giving every cause for satisfaction, although it is too early to assume that the initiative has been decisively wrenched from the Japanese."

It is pointed out that the Australian forces in their earlier retirement found no satisfactory- defensive position between the Gap and the southern foothills, so there is every hope that the present advance may be pressed 60 miles to Myola, at the highest point of the pass. The New York Daily Mirror declares that both General Mac Arthur and Admiral Ghormley have their problems. These have" so far been overcome by friendly co-operation, but the paper warns that "Their commands are overlapping now and may eventually collide. A unified South-west Pacific command is necessary."

The means of victory is a supreme war council and a unified Allied command, says the New York World Telegram, instead of "the humiliating, insidious and critical conflicts which are producing open disunity."