PACIFIC AERIAL FORCES

Greymouth Evening Star, 10 April 1943, Page 5

PACIFIC AERIAL FORCES

JAP. RAID FAILURE

BOTH SIDES REINFORCED

NEW YORK, April 9.

The Japanese force of 50 bombers and 48 Zeros was one of the strongest ever sent against the American positions in the Solomons, says the Washington correspondent of the United Press. The communique announcing the raid did not disclose whether any American shipping was damaged, but the decisive victory gained by the American Air Force is regarded as indicating that the enemy failed to gain any notable success against surface ships. The big aerial battle was the climax to two days of exceptional activity by both sides. “This large-scale Japanese raid on Guadalcanal shipping is apparently an indication of the enemy’s dogged determination to continue attempts to harass and punish the American forces in Pacific theatres regardless of cost,” comments the Washington correspondent of the “New York Times.” “In spite of the loss of many hundreds of aeroplanes and tremendous losses in shipping and troops in both Admiral Halsey’s and General McArthur’s territories, the Japanese are continually reinforcing their air strength and boring in for attempted blows, which thus far have ended disastrously. After the fall of Guadalcanal, the Japanese seemed deficient in bomber strength, but the latest raid indicates that this arm has also been reinforced. Mr. Stimson and Colonel Knox recently gave warning of the growing Japanese strength in the Pacific, but the result of this raid shows the American forces also have been strengthened.”

BOMBINGS CONTINUED

SYDNEY, April 9. To-day’s communique from General MacArthur’s Headquarters is:— Dutch New Guinea: At Timika, one of our medium units bombed the airfield. At Kaukenau, one of our reconnaissance bombers sighted and attacked a group' of enemy supply barges with a patrol boat escort, moving east of the coast. Direct bomb hits were scored, and the entire flotilla was strafed for an hour. Fires were started on the armed escort vessel and on three of the barges. The remainder were severely damaged. Aru Islands. —One of our medium units strafed a number of enemy coastal vessels in the Arafura Sea. Tenimber Islands: At Saumlakki. one of our medium units bombed and strafed the jetty area.. New Ireland: At Kawieng. one oi our heavy units bombed and strafed enemy installatioins at Ulamona. New Guinea: At Finschhafen, one of our heavy units bombed and strafed the area.

BATAAN ANNIVERSARY.

SYDNEY, April 9. On the first anniversary of the fall of Bataan yesterday, General MacArthur issued the following statement: “A year ago to-day the dimming light of Bataan's forlorn hope fluttered and died. Its prayers by that time —and it prayed as well as it fought—were reduced to a simple formula rendered by hungry men through parched lips: ‘Give us this day our daily bread.’ The light failed and Bataan was starved into collapse. The wrecks of what were once our men and women groan and sweat in prison toil. Our faithful Filipino wards —16,000,000 souls — gasp in the slavery of . the conquering soldiers. I was the leader pf a lost cause and from the bottom of my seared and stricken heart I pray that meriful God may not delay too long their redemption, that the day of salvation’ be not so far removed that they perish and that it be not again too late.”

MEDICAL SERVICE

WORK UNDER DIFFICULTIES

(N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent)

SYDNEY, April 9

“Probably never in the whole history of the war have medical men worked under such conditions. Seldom has it been demonstrated so forcibly that sheer skill and improvisation rather than elaborate equipment are the main factors in saving life.” This comment is made by the “Sydney Morning Herald’s” New Guinea war correspondent discussing the splendid record of the Allied Army Medical Service in the New Guinea campaigns. Throughout the fighting, surgeons in the forward areas have worked in canvas “threatres” on floors inches deep in mud and with incessant rain dripping through the leaking tents. Lighting has been from Jeep headlamps around which a myriad insects have flown, but despite the primitive conditions it is claimed that no cases were lost which would have survived in the aseptic atmosphere of the most modern hospital. With only native bearers to transport wounded men, it was found necessary to establish a field hospital right behind the shifting battle line. The native grass huts which served as hospitals were cool in the daytime but at night usually became infested with rats. In the high country the nights are bitterly cold. With the heal of the day followed by cold nights, and with clothing always wet and usually unwashed, many soldiers had to be treated' for skin complaints. In the heavy fighting around Buna surgeons did their work at field dressing stations within sound of the actual battle.

At one such small station 338 wounded men were operated on. Every case was serious- and urgent. The medical personnel were divided into day and night-shifts, but usually the pressure-of-work v/as such that shifts overlapped 'heavily. Many ol the staff suffered from malaria. Perhaps the worst night recorded at this station was on January 21,. when ten inches of rain fell. Thirty battle casualties were admitted after dark. During the storm a large tent containing twenty ' seriously wounded men collapsed into mud that was inches deep. Within two hours the tent had been re-erected and the wounded made comfortable with dry bedding and clothing. By morning despite the storm and the additional interruption of two air raids, all thirty battle casualties had been operated on. Blood transfusions were given at such stations to patients too weak for injections of blood serum. The donors were likely to be suffering from malaria but as this disease takes ten days to develop and the patients would certainly have died without transfusions the risk of infection had to -be accepted. The percentage of men who died of wounds was extraordinarily low-. While much of the medical equipment was of the “makeshift” variety, supplies of essential stores'Were always adequate, and no difficulties were permitted to interfere with the passage of these supplies. Medical men who to-day are analysing the lessons learned in. the campaigns declare that the regular supply of stores was vital to the success attained.

GERMAN-DESCENT HERO ’SYDNEY, April 7. In 1931 Hermann Bottcher left Singleton, New South Wales, and went to America. He could speak only halting English. To-day Captain

Hermann Bottcher. D.S.C., Purple Heart of the United States Army, is back in Singleton on convalescent leave. He is the first man in the American Forces in the South-west Pacific area to be promoted from Sergeant to Captain on the field of battle. Hermann Bottcher came to Australia from Germany in 1929 when he was 20 years old. In 1937 he sailed from America lor Spain to fight in the International Brigade, winning the Cruz de Valor at Barcelona. Back in America# he enlisted again the day after Pearl Harbour. The last days of 1942 found Sergeant Bottcher in the lighting around Buna. Throughout the campaign he performed prodigious feats of valour and was mainly instrumental in dividing the Japanese forces by cutting a passage to the beach. For a whole week a small party under his command fought off vastly superior .numbers of the enemy, inflicting heavy casualties. He was promoted in the field and recommended for the decorations which he now holds.’ Subsequently wounded in the fighting, Captain Bottcher contracted malaria after he reached the Australian mainland. One of his outstanding impressions of the Buna fighting was the way in which the Australians shared their comforts and parcels with the Americans.

Captain Bottcher’s father, fighting with the German forces, v/as killed in France by the Australians in the last war.

PAPUANS DECORATED

(X.Z.I’.A. Special Australian Correspondent)

SYDNEY, April 8

About .3000 Papuans walked up to 50 miles to attend a ceremony near Milne Bay when five native men and one woman were decorated with the Australian award for loyal service. The woman -was a nurse who saved the life of an Australian airman on the north-east coast of Papua. The presentations were made by an Australian General, and afterwards the festivities continued throughout' the night. The Army presented the mall ves with three bullocks, hundreds of Ims of bully beef, an dsacks of flour. The loyal service award is a large medal of white metal, with the Australian coat of'arms on one side, and the words “For Loyalty,” and the (recipient’s name on the other. The imedals, hung on steel chains, are ; placed around the necks of those decorated.