THRUSTS PARRIED

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 255, 28 October 1942, Page 3

THRUSTS PARRIED

JAPS. NEAR KOKODA Effectiveness Of Allied Air Strafing Special Australian Correspondent SYDNEY, Oct. 27. No change has occurred in the ground situation in the Owen Stanley Range. The fighting is described as desultory. The Japanese are still clinging tenaciously to prepared positions near Alola village, only one air mile and a half from Kokoda. They are fending off Allied thrusts with artillery and mortar fire. Advancing Allied troops in the Owen Stanley Range have found bullet-riddled and burned-out huts in every village previously occupied by the Japanese. The discovery of dead enemy soldiers in the jungle is additional evidence of the effectiveness of Allied air strafing attacks.

A Japanese soldier gave himself up to a native woman and a 10-year-old boy at Milne Bay last Friday. He was one of a party of 20 which escaped into the bush after the enemy's invasion of Milne Bay was smashed early last month. More extensive, though ineffective, Japanese air activity in the Southwest Pacific area than for several weeks past is reported in the latest communique from General MacArthur's Headquarters. Enemy aircraft were over Port Darwin, Port Moresby and Milne Bay on Sunday night, but only minor damage was done.

Little significance is attached to this increased enemy air activity. It is probable the Japanese have merely taken advantage of a raiders' moon to maintain "face," while the crucial struggle is developing in the Solomons. Allied planes made four raids as against the enemy's three. Targets at Koepang, in Timor, and at Lae, Salamaua and the Kokoda areas in New Guinea, were attacked. The same formation of North American B2s's bombed Lae and Salamaua. Heavy anti-aircraft fire was encountered at both places, but there was no interception. Havocs and Kittyhawks strafed the trail from Kokoda up to the Owen Stanley Range.