HEAVY ATTACKS ON BUNA

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23742, 14 September 1942, Page 5

HEAVY ATTACKS ON BUNA

TWENTY AIRCRAFT DESTROYED

DAMAGE TO ENEMY BASE (Special Australian Corresp., N.Z.P.A.) (Rec. 10 p.m.) SYDNEY. Sept. 13. The Allied air forces in the southwest Pacific have made smashing attacks on Buna, base for the Japanese drive across the Owen Stanley range. During the last two days at least 20 grounded aircraft were destroyed in raids on the enemy aerodrome at Buna. On Saturday Allied heavy, medium, and attack bombers, with fighter escort, made four attacks. Twenty-six tons of bombs were dropped in the target area and 28,000 rounds of cannon and machine-gun ammunition were expended. The raids began at dawn and following the bombings, attack bombers and fighters made seven strafing runs over the aerodrome. Seventeen enemy aeroplanes were destroyed and every antiaircraft position was silenced. Heavy casualties were inflicted on enemy personnel. Fires and explosions from fuel and supply dumps were visible 30 miles away. No attempt was made to intercept the raiders and only one aeroplane failed to return. This series of raids followed two heavy attacks on Friday when three grounded aircraft and a number of trucks were destroyed. Flying Fortresses and Australian Hudsons yesterday attacked two Japanese destroyers off Normanby Island, scoring a direct hit on one, which was observed to be on fire and sinking by the stern, and probably damaging the other with a very near miss. Rafts and Japanese sailors were seen in the water near the sinking ship.

JAPANESE JUNGLE TACTICS

INFILTRATION ACROSS PAPUA (Special Australian Corresp., N.Z.P.A.) SYDNEY, Sept. 12. “The most disquieting feature of the Japanese advance is the fact that, in spite of the lessons of Malaya, Japanese jungle tactics are still proving superior, and the enemjt has shown again that the ‘impregnable’ yields to those tactics,” states the Sydney “Sun.” "This is not the first bad news that has been allowed to burst on the Australian people. For months there has been a tendency to withhold from the public news which cannot possibly affect security. Mr Curtin can do no better service to his austerity campaign than to end this soothing syrup treatment for people who can take-bad news and be stronge - for the knowledge of it.” The “Sydney Morning Herald” emphasises that any remaining “Maginot Line” complex has again been exploded by the enemy’s infiltration across the Owen Stanley range, and that no pqrely physical barrier can hold such a skilful and resolute enemy as the Japanese. 1 “It is difficult to believe that after three years of war, which have shattered many such facile assumptions, our military leaders would put excessive faith in such a barrier,” stafes the newspaper, which suggests that more comprehensive measures for the defence of Port Moresby have been planned. „ If the Japanese reach Sogeri they will be in New Guinea’s rubber country, threatening one of the last resources of raw rubber remaining to the United Nations. This is pointed out by Mr Edward Angly, the correspondent of the Chicago “Sun” in the south Pacific. . Sogeri lies at. the northern foothills of the Owen Stanley range, only 25 miles by road from Port Moresby. “With skill and hardihood the green clad, sandalled Japanese, infantrymen have scaled the mountains, not by following and fighting along the white man’s trail, but by avoiding it and slipping through the supposedly impenetrable jungle,” writes Mr Angly. Strong Fighting Spirit “By aptitude and toughness, both of body and fighting spirit, they have cut a path through the almost impassable mountains of New Guinea just as the same qualities impregnated the impregnable Singapore, scaled the unscalable cliffs of Bataan, and made tracKs through the trackless jungles of Malaya and Burma. “Australians engaged in recent fighting against the advancing Japanese say that it is impossible to see the green uniformed enemy against the jungle background. ‘We ambushed them, but the most we could do was to act as nuisance patrols,’ said one wounded soldier. ‘They seemed to come up in hundreds. As fast as we cut them down more took their places.’ “The Allied air force has strafed the enemy from tree-top height and has also wrought havoc with his supply lines. From now on the battle will develop as one of supply.” Mr Angly points out that after Sogeri the country is more suitable to the type of open warfare familiar both in the classroom and manoeuvres than to the stealthy man hunt which has enabled the Japanese to cross the Owen Stanley range. In the lowlands the invader is likely to find much more formidable firepower than the weary mountain troops could use in the jungle heights where there are no roads for either beasts or motors to haul guns or aid the white man’s heavier commissariat. The military correspondent of the “Sydney Morning Herald” says that Lieutenant-General Rowell, the commander in New Guinea, is a war proven leader whose command must inspire confidence among the public as well as in the fighting ranks. At 47, he is the youngest lieutenant-general the Australian Army has ever had. This writer supports the correspondent’s view that the greatest danger in the present situation is that the Japanese may attempt a converging movement by sea as well as land. The major threat to Port Moresby must still be envisaged as coming from the sea. American comment continues to stress the desirability of a unified command in the south Pacific. The New York "Herald-Tribune” in an editorial points out that the value of the positions at Tulagi, Milne Bay, and Port Moresby can be immensely enhanced by closer co-ordination and that their value can be destroyed or the positions lost piecemeal if they are operated in piecemeal fashion, yet the Solomons and most of the naval forces are under a command distinct from General MacArthur’s. NEW LUFTWAFFE BOMBERS CRec. 9.43 p.tn.) LONDON. Sept. 12. The Berlin radio announced that the Luftwaffe’s new heavy bombers would launch extensive raids “on an unprecedented scale” against Britain. “We shall not fail to answer our enemy’s air attacks on Germany,” the announcement said. SABOTAGE ON ITALIAN LINER CRISTOBAL (Canal Zone), Sept. 11. A jury in the Federal Court convicted the captain, chief engineer, and two memb'ers of the crew of the Italian luxury liner Conte Bianuamono of sabotage and conspiracy by damaging their ship in March of last year. The defendants said extensive damage to machinery had been caused by an accident and denied that the Italian Government had ordered the ship to be sabotaged.