FIGHTING CEASES

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 20, 25 January 1943, Page 5

FIGHTING CEASES

PAPUAN ARENA

JAPANESE SMASHED

(By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.) (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, January 24. All organised Japanese opposition in Tapua has been smashed. Land fighting in the area has now ceased. The three last pockets of resistance round Sanananda were wiped out on Friday, and mop-ping-up operations were completed yesterday. The enemy who were killed in the final week's fighting are believed to number at least 1000, and more than 100 prisoners were captured. A considerable amount of equipment, including field guns, trucks, and ammunition, has fallen into our hands. The only Japanese now remaining in Papua are refugee bands hiding in jungles and swamps. The strongest of these bands is thought to be established in the delta area of the Mambare River, 42 miles north-west of Buna. An enemy landing attempt was made in this area on December 14, but only a comparatively small number of the landed troops survived the Allied air attacks. The delta has recently been heavily strafed by our attack planes. The last of the Japanese in the Sanananda area continued their suicide stand and were killed or wounded almost to a man. Heavy mortar and machine-gun fire opened Friday's final Allied assaults, and within six hours the enemy resistance had been crushed. TOUGH POSITIONS. The Sanananda area had more artillery weapons and more stoutly constructed defences than any other enemy position encountered in Papua. The first large-scale attacks by the Allies were launched following the fall of the Buna mission on January 2. In,the largest pocket of resistance more than 500 Japanese dead were counted. The bodies of many snipers were found lashed to trees. The war correspondent of the Sydney "Sunday Sun," F. C. Folkard, places the number of enemy killed in the fighting round Sanananda at 1500, but he says that in addition deaths from tropical diseases were numerous among the enemy. Summarising the offensive lessons learned by the Allies in the land fighting in Papua, another "Sun" war correspondent says that these included: (1) The need for the training of special anti-sniping units, which lately have proved highly effective.against the Japanese tree-top pests; (2) the value of close support/ from light artillery, which could be equipped with skids for movement along the muddy jungle tracks; and (3) greater use of incendiary weapons against wooden pill-boxes. The Japanese weaknesses revealed during the campaign included (1) a blind faith in fixed defences, combined with a tendency to panic when caught in the open—though the troops would always die rather than surrender: (2) the enemy equipment, particularly rifles and grenades, deteriorated in the humid tropic climate; (3) the communication services frequently broke down, leaving the garrisons short of ammuntion; and (4) the enemy artillery was inadequate and their intelligenve service was poor.