ENEMY AT BUNA

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 2, 4 January 1943, Page 5

ENEMY AT BUNA

POSITIONS SHATTERED,

MOPPING UP NOW IN PROGRESS

(By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.) (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, January 3. Japanese positions in the Buna mission—Giropa Point area have been shattered and the remnants of the enemy forces there are now being destroyed. This important Allied success in the attenuated Papuan campaign is announced in General Mac Arthur's communique today. Tanks and artillery supported the infantry 'in the final assault which broke the back of the Japanese resistance: Belore the enemy was finally routed a second wedge to the sea was driven through his defences near Buna mission. ' ■ . This split the Japanese forces in the Buna area into three. The fighting was described as "fierce and desperate." SIX WEEKS FIGHTING. Allied forces may soon be concentrated for an attack on Japanese strong-points at Sanananda, which is the core of the enemy's beachhead fortress. Further hard fighting must be expected befo»e Sanananda falls. It is now more than six weeks^ since it was announced that Generals MacArthur, Blarney, and Kenny were "conducting their campaign from the field as Allied) troops press in on Buna." On November 20 General Mac Arthur's communique stated: "Our ground forces now pin the enemy down on a narrow coastal strip from Gonato Buna." . The approaching end for the Japanese in the divided Buna sector was signalled on Thursday when General Mac Arthur's communique stated: "In tireless local assaults ground troops are forcing the enemy into an even narrower area." It is clear that the Japanese maintained their suicide stand to the bitter end. * BLOODY OPERATION. The Sydney "Sun" war correspondent describes the slow, bitter fighting as a "delousing" operation. It had to be done, he adds, "pothole by pothole, tree by tree. The way was bloody and hard. It was like picking hundreds of splinters out of your hand with a pocketkriife." The Sydney "Sun" suggests that,"given the comparatively few planes and ships required, then Australia: (1) Would soon cease to be a worry either to -herself or her, friends; (2) would1 become an impregnable base to feed an eventual direct attack on Japan, probably by way of China; (3) would be able to release manpower and material for offensive instead of defensive fronts. Without, planes and ships the United Nations' war effort in the South Pacific would! have to contiriue the hard, bloody way, using thousands of men to do a job i that fewer could do with the right sea and air backing."