BEHIND ENEMY LINES

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23588, 16 March 1942, Page 4

BEHIND ENEMY LINES

MALAYAN GUERRILLA FIGHTERS • NEW ZEALANDER TELLS STORY (P A) WELLINGTON, March 15. Probably the first man to return to New Zealand after the fighting JB Malaya is one who had the unusualexperience of engaging in guerrilla ing behind the Japanese front, fought as a sergeant of Malayan volun teers, and for 14 years before the wM was a member of the Malayan Government Survey Department m wmcn many New Zealanders are employed. Nearly all the sergeant’s five wed® of active service was in the northern part of the Peninsula. He said that 8 guerrilla unit would consist of about 30 men. The method was to go up the coast or a river in a launch and lan with the object of holding up the / enemy’s traffic 40 or 50 miles behmd his advancing troops. Armed with gren ades and tommy guns they would Ois embark at 3 a.m. in swampy country under'cover of mangroves, attack tne light Japanese forces they could nno. that ß day and the .next day and depa on the ‘third night. Some of the raws, were very successful and he believed a Japanese brigadier was captured ny one party. ■ . The New 1 Zealander took part three such raids. He was wounded oy a sniper in a tree during the fiS&.unf on the Palembang front. He described most of the country as swampy an® covered with jungle, and added that tne Japanese were particularly good av warfare in places where there wa® such cover. They were quite goon fighters and were fearless. “We found they were generally pretty rotten shots r with a rifle, n® said. “They used a .27 calibre rifle, handled mortars very effectively, ana were able to knock out Britisn armoured cars with them. I did not see British tanks in action against the invaders.” The sergeant scouted suggestions mav Malaya had proved unreliable. T{J® Malay forces fought well, and. tne volunteers who were really civilians, were even better than the Malayan regulars. Ten days before the fall of Singapore the New Zealander's unit was diS* banded and the men were told to get out of the country as best they could. Most of get away, although Singapore was being bombed heavily when he left. Normal life was continuing and shops and offices were still open. It was there that he saw air warfare and he said that the JaP al 'l®f® Air Force was definitely good. The Messerschmitt fighters that were there • would be of Japanese make, althougn he believed there were some German ones, and they seemed superior to British Bruster Buffalo lighters, l r \ The sergeant said that if nese attempted to land in Austral!* they would encounter quite different conditions to those in Malaya where there was plenty of food and the invaders could land with nothing more than their arms for transport. They stole the Malays’ bicycles, and one might see several hundred Japanese coming down the roads on bicycles. It would not be so easy to live off the country if they invaded Australia.