LANDING BY JAPANESE

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23803, 24 November 1942, Page 5

LANDING BY JAPANESE

Relief Attempt In New Guinea ALLIED FORCES CLOSING IN (Special Australian Corresp.. N.Z.P.A.) (Rec. 11 p.m.) SYDNEY, Nov. 23. Japanese reinforcements have apparently been landed in the Buna-Gona area of New Guinea in a desperate attempt to relieve Lieutenant-General Horii’s besieged troops. Bad weather and darkness covered the landings, preventing attacks by the Allied air forces, but during daylight on Sunday a Japanese destroyer and two landing craft were sunk by our bombers. The probable size of the Japanese reinforcements has not been indicated, but it is believed that they are small. They may have been landed from the destroyer which was later sunk. The force of four Japanese destroyers sighted earlier has withdrawn to the north. This convoy could have transported not more than 2000 troops, ,and that number would be substantially reduced if equipment was also carried. “The risks of landing so small a force

are out of proportion to its potential value, and out of line, too, with the well-established Japanese policy of never sending a boy to do a man’s job,” comments the war correspondent of the “Sydney Morning Herald.” The Australian and American troops continue their drive against the enemy, and to-day’s communique from General MacArthur’s headquarters says that they are “steadily closing in on all sides of the enemy’s dwindling position.” The Australians and Americans are smashing through the Japanese triangular perimeter defences in the Buna, Gona, and Soputa area. The Allied forces have captured Soputa, the inland apex of the triangle, and are now attacking the enemy at five points within their narrow beachhead. Soputa was heavily defended with mortars, machine-guns, and fixed antiaircraft defences, but it fell after two days of heavy fighting. The Japanese defenders there have withdrawn to link up with their main force at Buna, where the Americans are attacking at three separate points. The Americans are now on three sides of the Buna airfield, and its capture is regarded as imminent. American troops have captured a new airstrip south of Buna, where the fighting is fiercest, and they are launching heavy assaults on the main airfield. The Allies have now brought up 25pounder artillery in reply to the Japanese field-guns. It will be recalled that the 25-pouhders played an important part in the initial stages of the Australian drive across the Owen Stanley range. Australian units are believed to have forced their way to a position which threatens the fall of Gona. Allied Air Superiority Intensified Japanese air efforts, perhaps supported by further landing attempts, are expected, but war correspondents say that the Allies’ air strength is now at its height. Given favourable operational conditions the Allied air forces should be capable of making heightened Japanese efforts exorbitantly expensive. The fact that our troops are now using 25-pounder guns, indicates that the supply difficulties have been largely overcome. In the air as well as on the ground the Allies continue to hold the advance in bitter fighting. A day of ceaseless Allied bombing and strafing and dogfights cost the Japanese 19 aircraft. Only one Allied aeroplane was lost. An enemy formation of 12 divebombers escorted by 20 Zeros attempted to attack Allied troops, but was broken up by our fighters and forced to abandon its mission. It is revealed that on Saturday the Japanese suffered a heavy pounding from the air. More than 100 American and Australian bombers and fighters harassed the closely-knit enemy positions, dropping more than 20,000 nounds of bombs and firing many thousands of rounds of cannon and machine-gun fire. Wave after wave of these aeroplanes struck, principally at the Japanese positions in the Buna area. Flying conditions on Sunday were considerably better. Flying Fortresses, North American bombers, Havocs. Beaufighters, and Airacobras took part in attacks against the enemy. Japanese aeroplanes made one sortie in which several of them were shot down, and others which returned to the Lae aerodrome were destroyed on the ground when Beaufighters made strafing attacks. The Japanese hemmed in on the narrow Buna-Gona beachhead were attacked from the air without cessation on Sunday, being forced to endure the heaviest strafing of the Papuan cam-

paign. AMERICAN PILOT’S RESCUE

NEW YORK. Nov. 22. Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, the former United States air ace, and the crew of his aircraft, who were rescued from the Pacific, are now making satisfactory recoveries at a south Pacific base. Stretching his bandaged hands to rub his badly swollen'eyes, Captain Rickenbacker told his first interviewer: “This is the fourth time I have been very close to death.” A member of the Medical Corps who nursed Captain Rickenbacker and the other survivors told reporters that he heard that one day on the raft a seagull alighted on Captain Rickenbacker’s head. All the survivors agreed that that raw seagull was very tasty indeed. Captain Rickenbacker corroborated the story, adding: “I did not eat much raw bird nor the raw fish we caught, but all the yothers ate them and were sick. However, there were no disturbed stomachs after the first two or three days, because no one had anything in his stomach.” Captain Rickenbacker said that he never doubted that he and his companions would be rescued. Lieutenant Whitaker, a World War veteran, who was on another raft with Lieutenant Dengelis and Sergeant Reynolds, revealed that they had only an orange each during the 22 days.