Timor

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23843, 12 January 1943, Page 4

Timor

The recently released news of the operations in Timor of commando units of the Australian Imperial Force, together with Dutch and Indonesian troops, reveals one of the most heartening and inspiring episodes of the war in the Pacific. The Australian public long remained unaware that the Japanese invaders were still being resisted; but the guerrilla campaign waged by these troops, for some months completely cut off from their bases, has continued undefeated. Medical supplies, equipment and ammunition, food; they have had the scantiest material aid in their defiance of the Japanese. Their resource is illustrated in the story of a young wireless operator, who patiently put together, out of scraps of material, a wireless transmitting set and established communication with the mainland. Difficulties, for these men, have existed only to be overcome. With amazing courage and tenacity, they have harried greatly superior numbers, and so skilfully that they suffered slight losses while seriously damaging and disorganising the enemy. In the result, their tactics have confined the enemy, except in large bodies, to their own defensive areas and prevented, or at least hindered, the establishment of a large enemy base. “Thus,” says the “Sydney “ Morning Herald,” “ the enemy has “ been denied most of the military “ benefits of his occupation of “ Timor.” Recent reports of the massing of enemy forces in the vicinity of Timor, which has considerable importance in the strategy of the war in the Pacific, suggest that the Japanese will make more strenuous efforts in the near future to overcome the resistance of the gallant commando troops; but their remarkable stand has gained for the Allies valuable time. The ground troops are now being reinforced and attacks from the air have steadily been growing heavier and more persistent. If Allied offensive plans include a thrust west along the island arc to Java, Timor is a key point of assault; and the men who have fought to hold, and have held, a foothold there, against incredible odds, have prepared the way for it.