FIGHTING GROWS FIERCER

Press, Volume LXXX, Issue 24150, 8 January 1944, Page 5

FIGHTING GROWS FIERCER

Gape Gloucester Area MORE JAPANESE LOSSES .(Special Australian Corresp., N.Z.P.A.) (Rec. 11 p.m.) SYDNEY. Jan. 7. In land fighting of mounting fury, American marines on Gape Gloucester have slaughtered a further 600 Japanese in a battle in the Borgen Bay area which lasted all day. The total oi enemy killed counted at Cape Gloucester since the marines landed on December 26 is now nearly 2000. but the actual number of Japanese casualties may have been four times that figure. In their present push to drive the enemy troops back from their Borgen Bay strongholds, the marines have strong artillery and tank support as well as direct air support. The Japanese, whose strength is believed to have come from the interior, where the country is rugged and heavily timbered, are also making increased use of artillery. No reports have been received of land operations at Arawe, in southern New Britain, where the Americans who landed on December 15 are consolidating their hold of the Cape Merkus Peninsula area. Japanese Caught in New Guinea At Saidor, in northern New Guinea, where a beachhead was established by the Americans last Sunday, our patrols have made their first contact with the enemy at Cape Iris. The Australians driving up the Huon Peninsula to meet the Americans at Saidor about 70 miles distant, are now 12 air miles from Sio, the important enemy barge base. The fleeing Japanese troops are believed to be trying to reach Sio in an effort to evacuate the peninsula. All their land avenues of escape have been closed by the Allied forces on the Huon Peninsula at Saidor, and in the Ramu Valley. ' Madang, the Japanese supply base just 55 miles north-west of Saidor and nearby Alexishafen have’’ been hit with 243 tons of bombs. During the last fortnight the area has been the target for almost daily aerial attacks. Allied patrol boats have taken an additional toll of enemy barge traffic along this coast.

PUNISHING U.S. RAIDS

ENEMY IN MARSHALL ISLANDS MAINTENANCE OF AIR SUPERIORITY (Rec. 9.40 p.m.) NEW YORK, Jan. 6. “The 7th Air Force is inflicting, severe punishment on the Japanese in the Marshalls and our losses have kept well below the ‘no profit’ level,’’ said Brigadier-General Flood to a “New York Times” representative at a Central Pacific base. Brigadier-General Flood predicted that the United States would maintain air superiority there in spite of the advantageous strategic position of the Japanese who can send reinforcements almost at will by staging fighter aeroplanes to forward positions across their many island Brigadier-General Flood added: “We have the Japanese on the run here, and Lieutenant-General Kenney has them on the run in the south-west Pacific.”

Brigadier-General Flood explained that the 7th Air Force was using pinpoint navigation to find and raid infinitesimal islands which were no larger than some individual targets in Berlin.