FOOD RUNNING LOW

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 139, 9 December 1942, Page 5

FOOD RUNNING LOW

ENEMY LAND FORCES

(By Telegraph—Press Association--Copyright.) (Special Australian Correspondent.) • SYDNEY, December 8. "This has to be a knock-out fight. You can't win on points. You have to be physically tough and intensively trained. The Japan* ese is a stubborn soldier. Perhaps he hasn't as much to live for as we

have."

This doctrine of "war against the Japanese has been expounded to his troops by the A.I.F. commander in Papua where the enemy's 10 miles of Buna-Gona beachhead has now been split into four separate pockets which may -be reduced singly. Heavy local fighting must still take place before the entire fortress area is in our hands, but the enemy's chances of staging even a protracted delaying action are dwindling close to vanishing point. The chief Japanese centres of resistance are in Buna village and the air strip areas where there has been heavy fighting. Today's communique from General Mac Arthur's headquarters reports intermittent clashes in all sectors. ISOLATED GROUPS. The "Battle for Buna" began on November .19 and the remaining strength of the Japanese garrison", has now been shepherded into isolated groups at Gronav Sanananda, Buna, village, and the Buna mission (including the air strip). War correspondents in New Guinea say that the Japanese have practically no chance of breaking out of the Allied encirclement and regrouping for a final stand. The effective spearhead drives made by both Australian and. American units are expected to keep down combat losses in the final stages of the campaign. With Japanese food supplies presumably running low, the Allied Command seems to refrain from a premature all-out drive. Australian war commentators, reviewing Japanese losses in ships, planes, men, and materials in defence of their Papuan beachhead, are unable to discover any direct strategic reason for the grim stand.