JAPS, THROWN BUCK

Evening Star, Issue 25004, 25 October 1943, Page 3

JAPS, THROWN BUCK

AUSTRALIANS RECAPTURE KATIKA ALLIED GRIP ON HUON PENINSULA j TIGHTENED (N.Z.P.A. Special Aust. Correspondent) SYDNEY, Oct. 24. The trapped Japanese forces near Finschhafen have been thrown back in their drive towards tlie coast. Iloops of the Australian Ninth Division have iiung the Japanese out of the village of Jiatika, north of Finschhafen and only a mile from the coast. The enemy left behind more than 500 killed, bringing the total of their dead since the Australians captured Finschhafen to nearly ],200. The Japanese, who number several thousands in this area, began their drive to the coast from the Statelberg Hills, north-west of Finschhafen. Xhey had retired to these hills following the fall of Finschhafen. The Australian troops retook Katika with close Allied air support and heavy mortar and artillery fire. Some war correspondents suggest that this victory implies that the Japanese have failed completely in their coastal drive and that their entire Statelberg forces are in danger of being isolated. The success certainly tightens the Allied hold on the Huon Peninsula area and our control of the Vitiaz Strait between New Guinea and New Britain. lib is through the Vitiaz Strait that relief for the beleaguered Japanese would have to come. The purpose of the enemy's coastal drive may have been to stage an evacuation or to re-establish sea communication with the other Japanese forces situated further to the north-west on the New Guinea coast.

No fresh details have been given of the ground fighting in the Ramii Valley, where other Australian forces were last reported to be within striking distance of the Japanese-built motor road which stretches back to Madang, 165 miles north-west of Finschhafen. Our aircraft have attacked the land line of supply of the Japanese troops in the Ramu Valley, wiping out a truck column, destroying two bridges, and causing a landslide in a mountain cutting. R.A.A.F. fighter pilots have been cooperating with the forward troops : in tactical, reconnaissance, and strafing flights. The total Japanese killed in the strafing raids has been considerable, and important information of assistance to the Australian drive has been gained. Most of the reconnaissance flights are made at a height of only 40ft in the treacherous down-draughts and crosswinds of the valley, but so far only one Australian pilot lias been lost.