ALLIED SUCCESS AT MILNE BAY

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23743, 15 September 1942, Page 5

ALLIED SUCCESS AT MILNE BAY

SOLDIERS DESCRIBE FIGHTING (Special Australian Corresp., N.Z.P.A.) (Rec. 1.30 a.m.) SYDNEY, Sept. 14. Wounded Allied soldiers who to.ok part in the battle of Milne Bay have arrived at an Australian port by hospital ship. They told graphic stories of the Allied victory when the Japanese landing troops were taken by surprise. The place where the enemy landed was held mainly by Queensland troops. A corporal said that this unit made a magnificent stand and inflicted heavy casualties on the Japanese. They delayed the enemy until strong. Allied reinforcements moved into position. One Australian patrol of 14 men wiped out 100 of a group of Japanese marching down a road. The early success of this patrol had a stimulating effect on the morale of the defending troops. , . , The Japanese usually stayed fairly quiet during the day. but made heavy attacks at night, “They gave themselves away by making a lot of noise, ’ said one man. “Apparently they thought they could frighten us with the row. Their camouflage was excellent. They would scale trees like moneys to fire from the cover of branches. Our aircraft did a great job. They certainly heartened the troops.” One wounded soldier was stabbed in the back by a stalking Japanese. He turned and caught his opponent by the throat and throttled him. “The unarmed combat training came in handy that time,” he remarked. The returned men claimed that they had defeated the enemy in his own type of war. Though the Japanese was a tough opponent, he could be beaten. “I still think one Australian or American is as good as four Japanese,” declared one ’soldier. JAPANESE ATTACKS IN SOLOMONS NINETY-SIX PLANES LOST IN ONE DAY NEW YORK, Sept. 13. “Ninety-six Japanese aeroplanes were shot down on August 24 when the Japanese attempted a counter-at-tack in the Solomons," says Mr Clark Lee, correspondent of the Associated Press of America, who watched the battle from a ship’s bridge. “It was a field day for the American pilots. Navy flyers shot down 47 of the enemy, Marines and Army pilots 21. and anti-aircraft guns 28,” he said. “American losses were only eight pilots missing. The most encouraging feature of the battle was that the Japanese pilots definitely were inferior to those met in previous fights over the Pacific.” CONSCRIPTION IN U.S. PROBABLE CALL ON MEN WITH CHILDREN (Rec. 8 p.m.) NEW YORK, Sept. 13. General L. B. Hershey, director of the Selective Service System, indicated that the United States Army would be forced to conscript married men with children in 1943. He said the Army might eventually total 13,000,000 men. There were not sufficient single or childless men available. REVOLUTIONARY PLOT IN NICARAGUA (Rec. 1.30 a.m.) MANAGUA. Sept. 14. Thirteen persons, including several conservative generals, were held for investigation when the Nicaraguan Government obtained evidence of an Axis-sponsored revolutionary movement. The plotters are alleged to have been aided by local Nazi and Fascist sympathisers.