PACIFIC CAMPAIGNS

Greymouth Evening Star, 22 November 1943, Page 5

PACIFIC CAMPAIGNS

HGHTING IN NEW GUINEA

AUSTRALIANS GAINING GROUND

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

SYDNEY. November 21. Australian Troops are forcing the Japanese back yard by yard to the Satelberg township, their last stronghold on the Huon Peninsula, New Guinea. Attacking from three sides, the Australians have formed a semicircular line about a mile from the town. Fighting is bitter through heavy jungle up the steep slopes, with enemy machine-gun nests and foxholes commanding all the jungle tracks. The Japanese are also employing artillery to give support to their entrenched troops. These enemy positions are being incessantly attacked by Allied aeroplanes, which during the four days’ fighting have blasted a path for the Australian ground forces. Australian 25pounders and American rocket guns are also supporting advance. However, much of the fighting is taking place at close quarters, with the Australians driving lhe Japanese from strongpoints by the use of. hand grenades. , Although the enemy has a substantial force in and around Satelberg, the supply problem may limit his ability to fight a long campaign. The Australians are numerically superior and the close air support which thev are receiving must be a big factor in the battle now raging. This new Australian offensive began last Wednesday. Dense jungle has prevented any assessment of Japanese casualties, but, Australian casualties have been light. . | Tank formations are supporting the Australian infantry pressing against the Japanese at Satelberg. It was revealed to-day that heavy Matilda tanks have been operating since the beginning of the present drive. In spite of dense jungle and the treacherous, muddy terrain they have had considerable success. 'Phe Tokio radio, reporting the fighting at Satelberg. claims that the Japanese repulsed an American tanksupported attack. It says the Americans left four tanks and 500 dead and lhe Japanese losses were eight killed and seven wounded. The Japanese retreated to the Satelberg hills when the Australian Imperial Force troops captured Finschhafen, 10 miles to the southeast, on October 2. Later m the month the Japanese attempted to drive to the coast but were repulsed with heavy losses. TANKS AS SURPRISE. CAPTURE OF RIDGE. (N.Z.P.A. Special Australian Correspondent) (Rec. 11.40 a.m.) SYDNEY, Nov. 22. Twenty-eight-ton British Matilda tanks were a big surprise weapon used by Australians in their drive against" Satelberg, which began last Wednesday. It was the first time that heavy tanks have been used in New Guinea. Smashing through the jungle, the Matildas quickly drove the “Japanese from their last strongpoints on the vital Cocoanut Ridge. 'l’his ridge commanding the mam track 3000 yards from Satelberg had seriously hindered the A.I.F. advance. ‘Our troops are now less than a mile from the town. Elaborate precautions were taken to ensure that the tanks would be a complete surprise to the enemy. After being landed from barges, the Matildas were concealed in cocoanut plantalions. They were later moved up to the Satelberg track, after the bridges on the coast had been strengthened. A heavy artillery barrage provided sound cover to conceal, the noise ol the tanks’ movements. Again they were hidden, this time in thick bamboo to await the launching of Wednesday’s attack. Australian war correspondents who watched the offensive say the tanks moved out towards Satelberg just before dawn. Then the Australian 25-pounders poured shells into the first objective, Cocoannt Ridge, an area roughly 300 by 150 yards, studded with enemy defence.

U.S.A. “ROCKET” BOMB. American rocket guns firing a selfpropelled fragmentation bomb, being used for the first time in New Guinea, joined with the 25-pounders. Under this barrage the tanks moved forward and in a few minutes their cannon and machine-guns were blazing away at the first Japanese bunker lying across the trail. Then lhe Australian infantry took a hand and shortly afterwards our Air Force went into action. United States Lightnings provided cover for R.A.A.F. Vultee Vengeance divebombers and Marauder medium bombers, which pounded the entire area. After this the tanks . moved along Cocoanut Ridge, blasting out stubborn enemy pockets of resistance, followed by the infantry, which completed the mopnihk up. The condition of the ridge after its capture testified to the accuracy, and hitting power of the Allied artillery and aerial bombardment. Many strongly-built defences were destroyed. The fragmentation bombs from the American rocket guns achieved devastating results. Again on Thursday and Friday Australian troops enlarged their gains. Satelberg now towers 1200 ft above them. Despite the ferocity of the lighting our casualties are . described as “incredibly light.'’ However. hard battling lies ahead before Satelberg falls. The Australians first used tanks in New Guinea in the Buna and Sanananda campaigns. They played a decisive role in crushing resistance. The Japanese attempted to use tanks when they landed at Milne Bay more than a year ago. but they became bogged down in the jungle swamps and had to be abandoned. BOMBERS OVER JAVA. SYDNEY, November 21. Before dropping their bombs. United States’ Liberators spent three hours over Java on Thursday trying to find their targets through thick cloud. The bombers, which were m the air for 15 hours, flew about 2400 miles to make their third and heaviest raid of the month on Java. They unloaded 27 tons of bombs, including several 10001 b bombs. The mam targets were important oil refineries at Tjepoe, 70 miles west of Sourabaya, and the Tankoeng Perak aerodrome, the main airfield at Sourabaya. Liberators also struck at the Den Pasar aerodrome, Bali, for the first time since the outbreak of war. Bad weather prevented the observation of results. All aircraft returned to the Australian mainland. NORTHERN SOLOMONS JAP. DROMES POUNDED SYDNEY, Nov. 21. General MacArthur’s Saturday communique reported that in the northern Solomons Admiral Halsey’s bombers were relentlessly pounding Japanese aerodromes in an effort to keep them out of commission. The communique reported the destruction 1 of 18 enemy aeroplanes in the Solo-. mons. Six of the 18 were shot down ’ when Corsair fighter patrols interceded a force of about 35 escorted

torpedo aircraft and dive-bombers attacking Allied shipping south of the American beachhead at Empress Augusta Bay. The Allies lost two Corsairs in this air battle, but the pilot of one has been saved. Admiral Halsey has announced that Major-General Ralph Mitchell, of the * United States Marine Corps, has relieved Major-General Nathan Twinin? of the United States Army, as commander of all aircraft in the Solo- . x mons. This was in conformity with the policy of rotating arduous frontline commands. Admiral Halsey paid a tribute to Major-General Twining s work in directing the airmen who neutralised Japanese airfields on Bougainville and destroyed /00 aircraft. The United States Navy has announced the -loss of the destroyer transport McKean, as the result of an enemy aircraft attack off Bougainville on November 17. A destroyer transport is a heavily armed transport ship. JAP. CENTRAL BASES WASHINGTON, Nov. 20. American bombers on Friday carried their offensive against the Jap-anese-held Gilbert and Marshall Islands into the seventh successive day. says the Tokio radio. Five new at- ' tacks on Wednesday and Thursday have been announced by the commander of the United States Pacific Fleet (Admiral Nimitz). -Carrierbased aeroplanes also dropped 90 tons of bombs on Nauru Island, west oi the Gilberts. This continued offensive suggests the softening up of enemy island bastions preparatory to a future Allied invasion. The latest raids announced by Admiral Nimitz were:-— , ' “Carrier-based aeroplanes raided Betio Island, in the Tarawa group of the Gilberts, starting large tires. Land-based Liberators struck at the barracks, aerodromes, runways, and oil dumps on the Mill! atoll, one of the most southerly of the Marshall group. Liberators also bombed the Malodai seaplane base, just to the north. Other Liberators raided Mill! and Tarawa. Carrier-based aeroplanes made Thursday’s raid on Nauru, causing fires on aerodromes, destroying several grounded,aeroplanes and setting fire to a ship.'” The Tokio radio says the latest Allied air attack, made on Friday, was on the Gilberts. Raids on central Pacific enemy-held islands announced last week included two heavy attacks on Jaluit, in the Marshalls, and another attack on Tarawa. in the Gilberts. U.SIA. TROOPS LAND. (Rec. 2.20) NEW YORK, Nov. 21. United States troops landed on Makin and Tarawa Islands (Gilberts). MACARTHUR’S SUPPLIES WASHINGTON, November 21. 'l’he United States Senate Military Affairs Committee may hold an inquiry to find the amount of war supplies being sent to the South-west Pacific. An inquiry has been proposed by Senator Arthur Chandler, who recently toured the war zone. The “New York Sun” columnist (David Lawrence) says that the quantities of supplies being sent General MacArthur are the results of the decisions bv the American Joint Chiefs of Staff. He adds; “The impression that General MacArthur is not getting a fair deal must evidently prevail at his headquarters, because Press dispatches from there seem to convey scepticism and doubt.” The “Christian Science Monitor” correspondent (Joseph Harsch) says that probably the best tip for an eariy conference among Mr. Roosevelt, Mr. Churchill, and Mr. Stalin is General MacArthur’s latest reminder of insufficient forces. “Preceding each . Roosevelt-Churchill conference there are little flurries of Press statements emanating from General MacArthurs headquarters.” says Harsch. “They always say the South-west Pacific is insufficiently supplied—so when it came a feW days ago observers concluded that General MacArthur knew another big strategy conference was impending.” The Secretary oi the Navy (Colonel Knox) told a Press conference that the Allies were ahead of schedule in their campaign to drive the Japanese from the South-west Pacific. He discounted the likelihood that Japanese fleet units were on the way to the southern Pacific, declaring that no enemy surface forces had been encountered in the area since November 2, when American marines landed on Bougainville. CLOSED PORTS WASHINGTON, Nov. 21. How the United States, five years before the Pearl Harbour attack, had unsuccessfully tried to learn whether Japan had fortified her mandated islands was revealed in a State Department publication dealing with American-Japanese relations. It stated that the United States had long permitted two Japanese ships to enter closed ports in Alaska and the Aleutian Islands to allay any Japanese suspicion that these ports might have been fortified in violation of the Washington Naval Treaty. The U.S. Ambassador. Mr. Grew, in 1936, requested permission for American destroyers to visit closed Japanese mandated ports. The Japanese Foreign Office did not answer this, or subsequent requests. Finally the State Department dropped the effort, informing Japan that a Japanese training ship, the’Shinotoku Maru, then cruising in American waters, would be forbidden to enter any Hawaiian port not listed as a port of entry.