AUSTRALIA'S WAR

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 39, 15 August 1945, Page 13 (Supplement)

AUSTRALIA'S WAR

THE THREATENED NORTH

ISLAND CAMPAIGNS Apart from the principal assault on Japan itself, there have been two important wars on the outskirts of the enemy's vast temporary empire—the Australian war in the south, and the temporarily international and later mainly British war in Burma, which is referred to elsewhere. The counter-offensive against the Japanese began on the extreme southeast, the Solomon Islands, where U.S. marines acted traditionally as the American spearhead to drive the enemy from their most advanced airfields. One after another the islands were cleared, until all that was left were garrisons in Bougainville and at Rabaul, in New Britain, In the Solomons operations, New Zealand troops played a relatively small but honourable part, which is fully dealt with elsewhere. Australia had been under no illusions about the Japanese menace, and extensive preparations had been made to meet an invasion by way of the islands to the north. Within two months the threat had become an actuality; the Japanese were in New Ireland and New Britain, and New Guinea was heavily attacked by Japanese aircraft. - In March the enemy had invaded the north-eastern coast of New Guinea, MacAETHUE TAKES CHARGE. The enemy's conquest of the Philippines was completed by the fall of

Bataan early in April. In March, General MacArthur, whose woxic was finished there until he should return as victor, went to Australia to organise its defence with the help of American troops. The Japanese had attempted an offensive across the Owen Stanley Range to attack Port Moresby, on the south coast, but were driven back in ! September, 1942, never to return. In view of the gravity of the threat to their country, the Australian forces which had been engaged in the war in North Africa were withdrawn for home defence. j The Japanese, as they had done in the Solomons, made persistent efforts to reinforce their troops in New Guinea, and on the first days of March, 1943, suffered a very heavy loss by the annihilation of a convoy of over 20 ships, with 15,000 troops drowned. OPERATIONS SUMMARISED. The New Guinea campaign has been throughout a trial of physical and moral strength and courige under the severest test. As in all the island operations, the Japanese have had to be killed. Recent reports show that about 13,000 still remain: many thousands are dead. Six Australian divisions have been fighting the Japanese from Borneo to the Northern Solomons. BORNEO'S OIL COUNTRY. The 9th and later the 7th invaded the oil-bearing areas in Borneo and took these rich prizes from the Japanese. Tarakan Island, five miles off the east coast of Borneo, fell in the third week of June to a 9th Division unit, which landed on May 1. Other 9th Division units went ashore at a number of points in the Brunei Bay region on the north-west coast of Borneo on June 10. Ten days ]ater troops from the same division entered Sarawak from the sea, landing at Lutpng, the refinery centre for the Seria and Miri oilfields. On July 1, the 7th Division landed at Balik Papan (South-east Borneo), and within a fortnight captured the town, oilfields, air and seaplane bases, and pushed the Japanese back into a wild hinterland, populated only Tby Dyak head-hunters. ' In little more than six months, the 6th Division cleared the Japanese from the coastal area between Aitape and Wewak in Northern New Guinea, and were then engaged in the territory between the Wewak foothills and the west Sepik River, against 10,000 Japanese who had set up numerous defences along inland tracks. The 3rd Division and elements of the 11th brilliantly developed the Australian campaign in Bougainville, in,

some of the world's worst fighting country. No recent estimate of the size of Australia's naval army and air forces has been made. At the end of 1944, it was in Parliament that the effective strength would be 'about 548,000. By June, 1945, however, casualties in the first half of 1945 were lower than was expected, and the releases of Australian prisoners of war and other factors resulted in its being substantially higher. There were more than 30,000 Australians in the Royal Navy. This is the only indication of the number of men in any particular service. New Zealand's share in the land operations on the islands was terminated on the withdrawal- of the 3rd Division from the Pacific, but continued on the part of the R.N.Z.A.F., units of which carried on continuous operations against the Japanese occupation forces. An English military commentator speaking recently on the operations in the Pacific tropics said: "All these island campigns have one thing m common,- and that is the difficulty of getting a clear-cut decision, the absence of any finality. The enemy can retire into the dense jungle and can continue to exist almost indefinitely, unless you go after him, and hunting him down is not worth the expenditure in health and energy. It is tinlikely that these islands will be finally cleared until Japan itself surrenders, but we shall get what we require of the resources they produce. The Japanese can have the jungle for the present. That is the Australian war, a war against Nature as well as superior numbers."