OFF NEW GUINEA AGAIN

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 131, 30 November 1942, Page 5

OFF NEW GUINEA AGAIN

SHIPS OF JAPANESE "NAVY

(By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.) (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, November 29. Japanese naval forces are again manoeuvring off the north New Guinea coast, evidently in a further effort to land reinforcements in the Buna-Gona area. Enemy planes have been increasingly active during the past three days, and ground forces have made several counter-attacks. These have been thrown back with heavy losses.

The Japanese lines have yielded slightly to relentless Allied pressure. The latest foot-by-foot gains, 350 yards on one flank and 150 yards on the other, are important, since they give the Allies greater scope for the employment of mortars, main weapons in this campaign. The enemy, after enduring six days of ceaseless air and artillery bombardment, must be feeling the strain. The initiative on land and in the air still lfes heavily with the Allies. Despite appalling flying conditions, Allied airmen have given the Japanese no respite. On Friday Beau* fighters, Havocs, and Kittyhawks made more than 50 strafing runs over the Japanese defended area. Though continued Allied raids have heavily damaged the enemy aerodrome at Lac, the Japanese are employing more Zeros than for many months past, Eight Zeros which shot down an Allied transport plane were immediately attacked by four Kittyhawks, and six of the enemy planes were destroyed in dogfights.

The announcement that an enemy

submarine had been bombed in the Hubn Gulf with unobsen ed results raises the possibility that tb a Japanese may have been using und jrsea craft to carry supplies to their h ird-pressed Papuan base. But the biter fighting which has been waged fc'; the past four days for food and e'mniunition dumps situated in no-man's-land indicates that supplies are a vital need of the enemy. The dumps have Japanese on one side, Australians on another, and Americans on a third. The enemy made three attacks to capture them, losing heavily each time. The American Associated Press correspondent, Murlin Spencer, says that the Americans are attacking on a front only a few hundred yards wide, but the savagery of the fighting is shown by long lines of wounded coming back. The highest praise is given to the work of the medical staffs and native stretcher-bearers.