ADVANCE ON MUNDA

Evening Star, Issue 24920, 19 July 1943, Page 3

ADVANCE ON MUNDA

AMERICANS TWO MILES FROM AIRFIELD FOUR DAYS OF MURDEROUS FIGHTING (N.Z.P.A. Special Aust. Correspondent) "SYDNEY, July 18. Some of tho Japanese garrison defending the Munda airfield appeaT to be withdrawing to the kills. The cost of capturing t'nis important base may not be so high as had been expected, says an Australian war correspondent in the area. , • , Four days of murderous fighting have brought American troops within two miles of the airfield, and Allied planes, operating in direct support of the ground forces, have attacked targets only three-quarters of a mile* from the landing strips. The Munda garrison has been variouslv estimated to number between 5,000 and 10,000 troops. The strongest resistance is being encountered by the Americans attacking from the north. They must root out the Japanese from their blockhouses and deep pill box defences. Large enemy forces have also been deployed in the jungle to tarass the steadily-advancing Americans by incessant sniping ana savage night attacks. MUNDA DEFENCES POUNDED.

Allied naval guns, shore artillery, and aerial attacks have turned the Munda defence area into a shambles. In a round-the-clock bombardment 600 tons of high explosives a day are being plastered over the Japanese.positions. " The American plan to swamp Munda with material and numerical weight seems to be working," writes the war correspondent, describing these attacks. "No sooner had the hell of tho mass dive-bomber raid subsided than I heard an express train scream as our

island batteries hurled yet another salvo of shells which landed before the last shiver of the bomb blasts had died away. Th>, I think, must be the beginning of Munda's end." DEADLY NIGHT FIGHTING. Behind the heavy barrage the opposing ground forces are engaged in a war which often remains comparatively tame by day, but becomes deadly by night. .During the day Japanese forces, deployed in the jungle, fight retiring rearguard actions-, but at night they endeavour to filter . into American ■ bivouac areas and attack savagely with knives. " The Japanese is an ugly customer to reckon with after dark," says the •corespondent. "We can whip him by day 'but we have not yet found a method of matching him after sundown., He -still has the edge on us.in this grim night fighting. As in New Guinea and. Guadalcanal, the Americans follow theii old tactics of freezing to the ground at night and shooting, anything tliat moves.".

In daylight American patrols are constantly active, creeping through the dense undergrowth and pin-pointing Japanese machine-gun nests. Larger .forces are then sent to overwhelm each position with mortars, machine guns, grenades, and bayonet, charges. The/ Japanese'fight till they die. Then, as the sun sets, the enemy begins to take his turn in the role of the aggressor. As in New Guinea and Guadalcanal, this is a war of incredible hardships. In the base areas the mud is thigh deep on the trails. _ " Ten minutes' travelling and a man is slimed to the very Hair,", comments the correspondent. • , Some of the most severe privations in the present campaign were endured by an American force which wiped out the onemy garrison and captured the heavy shore battery at Enogai Point. To make a rear assault the attackers penetrated 13 miles of terrible jungle and malarial swamp country. Their march took five days. The men were forced to jettison everything except essential figrht'ing equipment. Over far the greater part of the journey no Japanese were met, the enemy apparently believing the terrain to be impassable. Finally, when the Japanese outposts wero captured, weevily rice had to be fed to the American wounded, since the attackers by then had exhausted thoir supplies, but'they took Enogai and the shore battery of four Sin navai guns. Not the least welcome capture was the Japanese quartermaster's store, where the Americans found dry clothing, biscuit. I ', rice, tinned vegetables,- salmon, sardines, and a plentiful supply of sake.