FIGHTING THE JAP.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 37, 13 February 1943, Page 5

FIGHTING THE JAP.

Troops From Middle East Found Superior

LESSONS OF PAPUA N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent Rec. 9 a.m. SYDNEY, this day. Troops toughened by combat experience, even in open warfare of the Middle East, were found in Papua to fare much better in jungle fighting than those who had been previously untried. Some Australian authorities believe this fact strengthens the case for more realistic training, with greater use of noise and live ammunition in battle exercises. War correspondents also emphasise that to fight the Japanese our troops must have an understanding of the enemy's mind, and that subtlety and patience should be encouraged, in addition to nerve. "But no realist will suggest that our men attain the Japanese martial stomach's capacity to withstand revulsion," comments the Melbourne Herald war correspondent in New Guinea. "The sights and stenches among which the Japanese lived as the Allied armies closed about them in Papua would surely have driven white troops out of their minds. In the end at Sanananda they left their sick and wounded to do what they could to cover the withdrawal of the fit—and most of them perished miserably among their long-since dead."

For those who must stay on the home front, the head of British Army liaison staff in Australia, MajorGeneral R. H. Dewing, has proferred some sound advice. He had deplored the British spirit "that can gallantly face disaster and yet relax when the threat of immediate danger has passed." "What we British need," he said, "is the spirit of fanaticism such as is possessed by, and possesses, the Poles and the Czechs. We all hope the war will end this year. Hoping may do no harm —but it does not win wars."