IN DIFFICULTIES

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 75, 30 March 1943, Page 3

IN DIFFICULTIES

JAPAN'S GARRISONS Relentless Allied Pursuit In New Guinea N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent SYDNJSY, Mar. 29. The position of the enemy garrisons in the Lae-Salamaua-Mubo area in New Guinea is being steadily made worse by increasing pressure from Allied ground forces. Australians are maintaining the patrol initiative in the Mubo area. Other Allied forces have made .an arduous push along the North New Guinea coast from Sanananda, and are now close to Morobe. ' '-'--'■ The forces have reached the fastflowing Waria River, about 90 miles north-west of Sanananda, after a hard fighting trek through some of the worst country in New Guinea. Since the Sanananda fighting ceased only on January 22, this constitutes excellent progress. In their advance, the Allied forces have killed or captured hundreds of Japanese, but they hav.e not encountered any large-scale organised resistance. Between Morobe and Salamaua the country is partially without tracks and-is almost uninhabited. It forms a dense , rain forest between the Bowutu Range and the sea. Morobe itself is on a peninsula running into Eware Inlet, which is a well-sheltered harbour. Once a Government station, Morobe had the reputation of being New Guinea's worst disease spot. Enemy Suffers From Hunger The successful Allied air action over Oao Bay is a further heavy blow to Japanese attempts to retrieve their air position in this theatre. The virtually unchallenged Allied air supremacy in Northern New Guinea has resulted in the semistarvation of the Japanese garrisons in the Lae-Salamaua-Mubo area. Supplies reaching these bases by submarines which have run the Allied air blockade have been totally inadequate. One submarine already has been destroyed by Allied bombing. In their efforts to relieve the hardpressed garrisons, the Japanese have developed an overland supply route from Madang to Lae, about 200 miles by trail. This route leads through the Markham Valley, and its-use was begun following the destruction of the Lae-bound convoy in January.