PROGRESS IN BORNEO

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24610, 5 July 1945, Page 5

PROGRESS IN BORNEO

Australians Close OnßalikPapan GAINS ON TWO COASTS (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 11 p.m.) SYDNEY, July 4. The last ridge overlooking Balik Papan, Borneo, is now in Australian hands and the fall of the town is imminent, say Australian correspondents with the 7th Division. “Units of the 7th Australian Division in east Borneo have driven more than three miles up the coastal highway and have secured Sepinggan airstrip and town, six miles east of Balik Papan,” says today’s communique from General MacArlhur's headquarters. “Forward elements of the 9th Australian Division in the Brunei Bay sector have advanced seven miles and a half along the main railway from Beaufort towards Jcsselton, while further gains were made south-east astride the branch railways leading to Tenom. “Heavy bombers and fighters have closely supported the ground operations with attacks against enemy supply and personnel areas and aerodromes in the Balik Papan and north-east coastal areas. Other air units have swept enemy positions along the west coast. Light naval units and rocket ships have shelled enemy defences in support of cur ground forces. “Air patrols have struck at naval installations at Mako, in the Pescadores, and harassed military targets m Formosa. Heavy bombers on routine patrol of the China coast bombed fuel stores in Shanghai and radio installations near Hong Kong. They also swept Indo-China railways, rolling stock, and installations. “Our bombers supporting the operations near Balik Papan carried out day and night neutralising attacks on Celebes airfields and destroyed watercraft in the Macassar Straits. “Bombers supporting our ground forces operating in the Maprik area inland from Wewak (New Guinea) hit supply areas. Attacks were also continued on enemy positions at Rabaul and Kawieng, and on southern Bougainville.” General MacArthur’s communique does not confirm unofficial reports that the second airfield has fallen at Manggar, from which the Australians were last reported about a mile distant. It is from the Sepinggan and Manggar airfields that General Mac Arthur plans to seal off Java and Sumatra by an air blockade. Engineers are already preparing the captured Sepinggan airfield for Allied use. Beachhead Enlarged “The Balik Papan beachhead is now seven miles long and two mi es wide, says the Associated Press, The Australians have already juried 500 Japanese.” The “New York Times” corresponderit in Borneo points out that the captured Sepinggan airfield will invaders a second port where supplies can be put ashore, supplementing the narrow, stony landing beach at Balik Papan with its dangerous offshore coral reef Investigation of this beach shows that the Japanese had constructed even stronger defences than was at first believed, Besides three lines of barbed wire entanglements there was a 10-foot wide tank-trap. Patrols found a whole series of pillboxes, and emplacements for coastal defence and dual purpose anti-aircraft guns, which the enemy evidently abandoned alter the tortnight’s naval bombardment. ■ “The Japanese set fire to a native hospital and incinerated many starving and sick native labourers after driving thousands of others northwards towards the Samarinda oilfields for slave labour,” says a correspondent. “The Australians found two men who escaped from the burning hospital huddled on the side of the road near the Sepinggan airstrip. One had an unattended leg infection, from which the bone was protruding. He gasped out part of the story and then died. The other lies dying in the Nicau Hospital, unable to talk. “The Australians were told that Japanese soldiers strode into the hospital, where they kept the slave labourers who were too* weak to work, and announced that they intended to burn down the hospital and that all who were able to walk could escape. Only two managed to stagger outside. The Japanese then methodically applied a torch while the helpless patients stared from the wooden shelves on which S were lying. Nearly all sizeable ings were destroyed. “Other Australians discovered additional natives at Klandasan in a small house surrounded by dead compatriots. There were only 200 natives in this area. The others had been driven away.” MILE-WIDE FIRE BARRIER MOVE TO HALT A.I.F. PATROLS FAILS SYDNEY, July 4. The Japanese defenders at Balik Papan on Tuesday tried to halt the Australian advance with a mile-wide wall of fire. As two Australian patrols were crossing a valley 1500 yards east of Balik Papan, Japanese artillery sgt fire to a huge oil storage tank on one side of a hill. The tank exploded, erupting thousands of gallons of burning oil into a watercourse on the floor of the valley A great wall of black smoke belched three miles into the sky. blotting out the sun. , , , . . The Australian patrols had plenty of warning and they had no difficulty in escaping from the path of the flaming stream. Troops on the beach a mile away could feel the heat from the burning oil. GAULEITER CHOSEN FOR BRITAIN CAPTURE BY ALLIED TROOPS LONDON, July 3. Ernst Wilhelm Bohle, whom Hitler in 1940 appointed Gauleiter for Britain, has been captured by Allied troops, according to the Luxemburg radio. He has been imprisoned in Germany and is awaiting trial as a war criminal. Bohle, with the rank of general, was chief of all the Nazis outside Germany, and he controlled world-widc espionage and fifth column activity. He was born in Bradford, England, and is aged 42. His father, an electrical engineer, became a professor at Cape Town University. Bohle was educated in South Africa and he often visited England, where he addressed and had numerous meetings with Germans. MANY GERMANS STILL ON CRETE STATEMENT BY PRINCE PETER OF GREECE (Rec. 7 p.m.) PARIS, July 3. Prince Peter of Greece, a cousin of King George of Greece, who is on his way to China for an inspection of Allied bases, said that 15,000 armed Germans still occupied a corner of Crete, where they were fed by the British authorities and had British officers to care for them, . , He said the failure of the British to disarm these Germans was somewhat bewildering to the population. There was very little to eat on Crete, and the inhabitants would certainly like to get, rid of their German guests. ( Prince Peter added that many Greeks were wondering why the Dodecanese j had not been returned to them. I