DRIVE CONTINUES

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20907, 6 October 1942, Page 3

DRIVE CONTINUES

NEW GUINEA HILLS JAP’S FAST RETREAT THEORIES ON RETIREMENT (By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Special Australian Correspondent.) „ (10 a.m.) SYDNEY, Oct! 6 Forward detachments of Australian troops are beyond the entrance to Hell’s Gap which crosses the highest point in the Owen Stanley range. Our advance is proceeding cautiously in anticipation of encountering a stubborn stand by the Japanese. If this does not eventuate within the next 48 hours, it is almost certain that our troops will be able to drive down the steep northern slopes of the mountains to Kokoda without opposition. The immediate Australian objective is Kagi, about six miles beyond Efogi and the last village of the range’s highest point. The latest communique from General MacArthur’s Headquarters says: “Our drive still continues and AllieKittyhawk fighters are stafing and harrying key points along the enemy’s line of retreat.” If the Japanese do not give battle in the Kagi-Myola sector, it is increasingly felt that they are likely to withdraw to the rolling country well beyond the ranges on the northern side of the Kumusi River bridge at Wairopi, the fatal bottleneck in the enemy supply, line. The Australian lines of supply might then be so attenuated that our forces would be unable to push the enemy further back. However, since General MacArthur’s Headquarters earlier described the advance as a “limited offensive,” it seems possible that the present drive is intended to do no more than dispossess the Japanese of the ranges and reoccupy our previous defensive positions with our forward posts near Kokoda and our main line along the summit of the ranges. No Organised Rearguard Action The Pacific General Headquarters spokesman, in a cautions appraisal of the situation, said that isolated groups of Japanese had offered slight resistance to our advance, but so far the enemy has made no organised attempt to fight a rearguard action The Australian forces continue tc move carefully .to avoid ambushes, with units deployed to protect their flanks. The Sydney Morning Herald war correspondent says that if the Japanese do not make their stand in the present area of the Australian advance they are “likely to withdraw altogether from the Buna area,” bul he points out that such an evacuation after that at Milne Bay would be a great loss of face. Too much speculation at this stage on the reasons for the withdrawal, which has evidently been made at a faster rate than the enemy can be pursued, would not be prudent. Some observers, however, now suggest that the Japanese, are finding the New Guinea and Solomons campaigns too much to handle at the same time and they may temporarily abandon the former in order to concentrate all their strength against the American-held islands of the south-eastern Solomons. Heavy Loss of Enemy Planes Supporting this .theory, the Sydney Morning Herald war correspondent suggests that the reason for the enemy’s possible abandonment of the Owen Stanley front might be traced as far back as the last week in August when our heavy destruction of fighter planes on the ground at the Buna airfield proved the impracticability of their trying to hold that area as a counter-base to Port Moresby. The present Japanese withdrawal must result in heavier concentrations of enemy troops and supplies in northern Papua, thus increasing their vulnerability to undeasing Allied ai attacks—unless Japan can speedily muster sufficient planes for their protection.