SPEED AND SUPPLY

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 86, 8 October 1943, Page 5

SPEED AND SUPPLY

FEATURES OF CAMPAIGN

Rec. 1 p.m. SYDNEY, October 8. Speed, and supply have been the main features of the Australian campaign in the Markham arid Ramu Valleys of New Guinea. For the rapidity of the Allied advance through difficult country the campaign already hears the marks of an important victory over the Japanese. Together with the earlier fighting in the Lae area it has wrested from the Japanese vast territory over which the enemy had exercised control for nearly two years. For small loss of life and material the Allied forces have defeated the Japanese, smashed their supply lines, and destroyed or captured great quantities of stores and equipment and driven the scattered enemy army into the hills. It is less than three weeks since the Australians were landed from planes at Kaiapit in the Markham Valley. Their subsequent advance of more than 40 miles has entailed crossing the divide which separates the headwaters of the Markham and Ramu Rivers. The Japanese have not offered serious opposition to the Australian drive since Kaiapit was captured. LARGE-SCALE CO-OPERATION. These heartening gains have been achieved only by the co-operation of the land and air forces on a scale never previously attempted in the Soiithwest Pacific. The Australian progress has also been greatly assisted by the amphibious operations at Lae and Finschhafen, where the primary credit for the land victory goes to elements of the famous Ninth Division, veterans of the Middle East, who fought through terrible upland country from the north and north-west. War correspondents report that the retreating Japanese are burning native villages as they pass. Hard pressed by the swiftly advancing Australians and.precariously short of supplies, their only hope of escape is to reach their comrades in the north. Stragglers among the Japanese sometimes make a suicide stand. One wounded soldier removed his boot, put a grenade in it, and then pulled the boot on his head. The grenade blew his head off. The work of engineers in the campaign is reported to be beyond all praise. In one day a party of engineers marched ten miles and built five bridges. It is now possible to travel for an hour over a road conjured out of wilderness, a distance which struggling infantry formerly took days to cover. Members of the Australian Advisory War Council have expressed appreciation of the magnificent efforts of the Allied forces in New Guinea. Mr. Curtin said the council realised that the achievements made were not only due to sound planning, but also to the admirable discipline and great heroism of. the forces.