OIL CENTRE TAKEN

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24624, 21 July 1945, Page 7

OIL CENTRE TAKEN

Allied Advance In Borneo BASE AT BALIK PAPAN (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 7 p.m.) WASHINGTON, July 19. "Elements of the 7th Australian Division have secured Sambodja, an oilfield centre 28 miles north* east of Balik Papan, and our forces have pressed the enemy deeper inland in all sectors,” says a communique issued to-day at General MacArthur’s headquarters. Australian engineers have begun the long-range job of tranr "orming Balik Papan into a formidable base. It is expected that its normal life, including the operation of a narrow-gauge rail-

way, roads, telephones, water supply, and electricity, will be resumed within two months. The engineers have already landed 10,000 tons of stores and equipment Their task involves work comparable with that required to move a mediumsized city to Borneo. The engineers are abl» to make an early start with the construction of the base, as a result of the rapid completion, without serious casualties, of the biggest job of mine clearing yet encountered in the Pacific. When the Australians entered Sambodja at noon on Wednesday they found only two Japanese, who were quickly dispatched. Other Australians are fighting along the inland highway towards Samarinda, a second major oil centre 36 miles to the north. They have smashed an enemy attempt to infiltrate their lines, and cut the Japanese to ribbons. Dutch troops repulsed a Japanese counter-attack south of Soengawain.' North of Balik Papan, the Australians across the bay have knocked out a Japanese platoon, and have occupied the village of Sapari, five miles west of Cape Penadjam. The general condition of the oil wells of Sambodja is unknown, but reports of fires indicate that the Japanese set the* fields'on fire, as did the Dutch in 1942 when the Japanese overran Borneo.