JAPS. FORCED INTO DUTCH NEW GUINEA

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 56, 7 March 1944, Page 5

JAPS. FORCED INTO DUTCH NEW GUINEA

MAID! AIR CENTRE

Withdrawal From Wewak 220 Miles N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent Rec. 11 a.m. SYDNEY, this day. The main Japanese air concentrations on New Guinea have been pushed back 220 miles from Wewak to Hollandia. Hollandia, whose three airfields are now under attack by General Mac Arthur's bombers, is 20 miles inside the border of Dutch New Guinea. It is now the chief enemy base in the area for planes flown from Japan to the South-west Pacific.

Sustained Allied aerial assaults, resulting in the virtual elimination of Wewak as the chief Japanese air base in New Guinea, has been a severe blow to enemy strategy in the Bismarck Sea. With Rabaul. New Britain, neutralised by Allied Solomons-based aircraft, the Japanese are finding it almost impossible to provide large-scale air support for their beleaguered forces in the Admiralty Islands.

Hollandia is 450 miles from Lorengau, the main enemy base in the Admiralty Group. This is extreme fighter range. Wewak, formerly the principal enemy air base in New Guinea, is only 275 miles from Lorengau. With their main air concentrations forced back to Hollandia, the Japanese must also have increased difficulty in raiding effectively the Allied positions on the northern coast of New Guinea. Hollandia is 450 miles from Saidor, now the Allies' advance base in New Guinea. Wewak is only 230 miles from Saidor.