ALLIES CAPTURE SALAMAUA

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 24053, 15 September 1943, Page 5

ALLIES CAPTURE SALAMAUA

Pursuit of Enemy

PRESSURE ON LAE INCREASING (K.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 11.30 p.m.) SYDNEY, September 14. The capture of the Japanese base at Salamaua, New Guinea, is announced in to-day’s communique from General MacArthur’s .headquarters. The Allies are pursuing the remnants of the enemy’s disintegrating forces along trails in the direction of Lae. Cut off from supplies and with no hope of reinforcement, the Japanese are in a desperate plight. Little opposition was encountered in the capture of Salamaua. The Australians, after crossing the flooded Francisco river, rapidly advanced north over the isthmus and peninsula. The enemy fled from their positions, abandoning much equipment. r Salamaua had been in Japanese hands since March 19,1942. Its fall marks the end of one of the bitterest and most difficult campaigns in New Guinea. The campaign began at Wail last January, when the 7th Brigade, one of the most famous fighting units of the A.1.F., drove the Japanese back from the aerodrome.

Pressure on the Japanese base at Lae, which is invested from two sides by Allied troops, is being steadily increased. In support of the ground operations heavy bombers, escorted by fighters, yesterday dropped 49 tons of explosives' on defence installations round Lae, causing extensive damage. Several gun batteries were silenced arid a bridge on the' maift road along the Markham Valley was destroyed. This bridge/was used by the Japanese to bring supplies from their north-east coast base at Madang. The Australian forces are now aligned along the Busu river, about four miles from Lae, and the first real battle for this enemy base is likely to be joined soon.

In the advance on Lae the enemy has so far offered no resistance worth mentioning. Our casualties, in proportion to the numbers of troops and the equipment involved, have been small. In the Markham Valley the Allies are rapidly building up strength for an all-out drive on Lae from two sides. Allied bombers and long-range-flghters on Sunday destroyed five loaded Japanese barges and a power launch in a coastal sweep in the New Britain area. The aerodrome at Cape Gloucester, at the western end of New Britain, was again pounded. One Allied aeroplane failed to return from an attack on enemy installations on Gasmata Island, New Britain. In New Guinea 10 enemy divebombers with fighter escort attacked the harbour at Morobe, 65 miles southeast of Salamaua, causing minor damage and casualties. Anti-aircraft fire shot down two of the dive-bombers. “The New Guinea campaign has been most successfully carried out on the principle of enveloping and cutting the epemy off from his supply lines,’’ said General Sir Thomas Blarney, Commander of the Allied land forces. “Our

ruse in feinting at Salamaua was more effective than we had hoped, for Sala-, maua became a magnet drawing enemy manpower,- munitions, and supplies while the Allies built up their forces for an attack on Lae.” General Blarney added that the Allied estimate of the size of the Lae garrison had been pruned. The feeble resistance encountered at the outer defences showed that the strength of the base was waning. The garrison at Lae was doomed. The Japanese should never have allowed the Australian troops to cross the Busu river, four miles east of Lae. If the Japanese had been in considerable force they would have attempted to hold the Australians.