JAPS WIPED OUT

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 40, 16 February 1945, Page 5

JAPS WIPED OUT

RIDGE STRONGHOLD

Australians' Three-Day Battle

On Bougainville

. N.Z. Press Association —Copyright Rec. 1 p.m. MELBOURNE, this day. Australian troops have taken Tsimba Ridge, a Japanese stronghold on the north coast of Bougainville, in the Solomons, after the bloodiest fighting of the present campaign. Tsimba Ridge was a perfect fortress and had blocked the advance of the Australians driving to the Buka Passage. . The Japanese driven from the ridge are now falling back on their base at the Soroken plantation. The bulk of the Japanese forces defending the ridge were wiped out. They were big men, well fed and equipped with the latest model weapons. The ridge which they defended is a horseshoe shaped volcanic feature, with steep jungle-covered siopes. An amazing system of trenches honeycombed the ridge, the entire area of which was covered by enemy crossfire. Australian infantry forces attacked after artillery and aircraft had blasted the ridge for a whole day, but so solid were the Japanese defences that the Australians were quickly pinned down. Further shelling and bombing was necessary before the infantrymen on the third day of the attack were able to drive the Japanese from their positions. Most of the enemy troops were driven into the natural amphitheatre m the centre of the horseshoe ridge, Where they were annihilated. ;