CONFIDENCE IN NEW GUINEA

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23745, 17 September 1942, Page 5

CONFIDENCE IN NEW GUINEA

STATEMENT MADE BY GENERAL BLAMEY ENEMY IN CONSIDERABLE FORCE (Special Australian Corresp., N.Z.P.A.) SYDNEY, Sept. 15. Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Blarney, Commander-in-Chicf of the Allied Land Forces, told a press conference after his return from the New Guinea front that he doubted whether the Japanese could take Port Moresby without artillery. “The further I got away from Australia and the closer I got to the front the more confidence I found about the position in New Guinea, I found the commanders in a most optimistic mood and quite happy, and the morale of our men high,” he said. The Japanese were trying to reduce their supply problems by using coolie labour. They had managed to get a few light mountain guns over the ranges. While the Japanese were in considerable force in the forward area, the numbers of Allied troops involved in the fighting were not yet large, chiefly because of supply limitations. The Americans and the Australians were working in complete harmony together. Among the heroes of the campaign were the native stretcher-

bearers. Five men to a stretcher, these men had carried Australian wounded back through many miles of jungle and over arduous mountain trails. The wounded described them as being “as gentle as mothers.” In a national radio talk, General Blarney paid a tribute to the courage and strength of the Australian forces opposing the Japanese in New Guinea. Not only were they fighti.ig the Japanese, but they were also righting the country itself. They were building roads over mountains formerly crossed only by difficult tracks. They were also building aerodromes. The combination of circumstances had forced these men on to the defensive, but they did not intend to allow this position to continue long. Their outlook was entirely offensive. , . “I would not like you to form the idea that the New Guinea campaign is going to end quickly,” said General Blarney. “The Japanese is a grim, fanatical barbarian, a determined fighter, who has been told that he will be murdered if captured. What I do desire to convey is a message of confidence from our men in New Guinea. They are confident about the outcome. They have been undergoing intensive specialised training. “There has been far too much optimism, and far too much depression among us. I would like to impart to everyone some of the strong-hearted determination I met everywhere in New Guinea. This nation has to endure much before the sun shines high again. The struggle is to the death Two things are demanded —constant courage and self-abnegation.” Japanese officers at Milne Bay shot their own badly-wounded soldiers through the heart to prevent them becoming prisoners, according to an Australian officer who has just returned from New Guinea. He told war correspondents: “The Japanese is the toughest jungle fighter ever bred. He fights until he has no strength left to press the trigger. His code is battle to the death. At Milne Bay, dead Japanese tied to tree-tops were found still clasping their machine-guns. They were suicide squad snipers, left behind to cover the withdrawal of the main forces.” The Japanese were full of tricks and unbelievably persevering. Frequently in the Owen Stanley battle they had offered themselves as ‘‘liv bait” in ruses to disclose Allied positions. Sometimes when the Australians dashed forward, the Japanese “bait” would drop to the ground and the Australian troops would run into withering ma-chine-gun fire from concealed positions. Sometimes the Japanese fired into the tree-tops merely to attract the Australians’ fire. Then they opened up with heavy mortars on the areas from which fire came. Japanese had stood up to their necks in a creek all day, just for the chance of killing one Australian.