STILL FULL OF FIGHT

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 283, 26 August 1944, Page 7

STILL FULL OF FIGHT

Japanese On By-Passed Islands (R.N.Z.A.F. Official News Service.) BOUGAINVILLE, August 23. The Japanese divisions in the Bougainville, New Britain, New Ireland triangle are among the most harassed troops in the world, but they are still capable of fight. It is known that any let-up in the Allied bombing and strafing offensive would be quickly taken advantage of by the enemy. A small force of the enemy recently attacked the outer defences of the Allied perimeter at Empress Augusta Bay, Bougainville, but. American artillery tire brought his efforts to a sudden and costly end. Obviously the Jap was probing the perimeter in the hope of finding a weak spot through which his patrols might infiltrate into the Allied area. On this occasion he came closer to the Allied forward lines than at any other time since his fierce and disastrous attacks of last March. Outside the perimeter also there are occasional ground skirmishes, when Allied and Japanese patrols clash along the jungle trails, with both sides suffering casualties. This is clear evidence that the time has not yet arrived when the bombing and strafing of enemy concentrations can be abandoned. American and New Zealand squadrons are being kept busily on the job, and though they miss the more exciting days of aerial combat their routine assignments of searching for and destroying the enemy wherever he can be found are an essential part of_ the Allied campaign which is preventing large enemy forces in the by-passed areas from hampering the thrust toward the heart of the Japanese empire.