SALAMAUA FRONT

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 34, 9 August 1943, Page 5

SALAMAUA FRONT

JAPANESE FORCED BACK

(Special P.A. Correspondent.) Rec. 10 a.m. SYDNEY, August 8

The Japanese forces defending Salamaua have been compelled to abandon their outer defences and fall back to their inner defence line. A general advance of almost 10 miles has been made by American and Australian forces in the past month's land fighting.

Gains have been made by Allied troops, the numbers of which at first appeared to be utterly inadequate to their task.

Discussing the formless nature of this New Guinea land fighting an Australian war correspondent says: "Warfare in this area is not a matter of fixed or planned frontal attacks, but of a series of seemingly minor patrol actions knitted in a pattern which does not become clear except by what is achieverd in the long' run.

"The object of every patrol is to find a weak spot in the enemy's line, to infiltrate, then take and hold it and proceed to the next weak spot and deal'with it in the same manner. When the shooting begins it is at close range.

"We do not know the Japanese defences, perhaps, until we are within five yards of them. The whole secret of the steady Allied advance is control of comunications and tracks. Cut the enemy's track and he must fall back."

Supplies are all important in this type of warfare. Those for the Allied ground forces ara parachuted from planes on to special dropping grounds, and transported from these to the front by carriers. Allied air forces at the same time maintain a relentless pounding of the enemy's supply lines, concentrating on his barge transport system and dumps. The success of these operations has been an important contributory factor to the Allied gains of the past month.