SWEPT BACK

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 302, 21 December 1943, Page 3

SWEPT BACK

JAPS. IN -NEW GUINEA Trapped Remnants Making Suicide Stands N.Z. Press Association—Copyright Rec. 11.30 a.m. SYDNEY, this day. Latest reports of land fighting on Huon Peninsula, New Guinea, reveal that the Japanese in the coastal sector have now been swept back to within a few hundred yards of the Masaweng River, about 12 miles north of Finsehhafen. The Japanese are still trying to escape, though trapped- remnants of Xfrie enemy force have rriade suicide stands. More than 300 dead Japanese have been counted in the past fortnight's fighting in this sector. However, war correspondents in the area point out that casualties in jungle warfare rarely give any indication of the intensity of the fighting or the number of troops involved. It is regarded as certain that heavy artillery and aerial bombardments of the retreating Japanese have inflicted several hundred more casualties above the number killed in the closer combat. Coastal Casualties Over 2000 The Japanese casualties in ' the coastal drive in New Guinea are now well over 2000. A few miles inland Australians advancing north of Wareo have annihilated enemy pockets of resistance. They .drove the Japanese over a steep cliff and then went after they with tommyguns blazing. In Ramu Valley another Japanese force has also suffered heavy casualties.

The Australian losses have been light and out of all jf/oportion to those inflicted on the Japanese. One night assault alone on our positions in the foothills of Finisterre Range cost the enemy 100 killed. When this attack was in progress a shrill Japanese voice proclaimed: "White dingoes over there. Honourable Japanese gentlemen over here." Australian machine-gunners were quick to accept this notification of the direciton of the attack and answered v/ith a swift burst of fire. There were shrieks, but no further comment.