JUNGLE WARFARE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21227, 16 October 1943, Page 4

JUNGLE WARFARE

PATIENCE NEEDED N.Z. TROOPS WATCHWORD A CUNNING ENEMY (By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (N.Z.E.F. Official War Correspondent.) (10 a.m.) VELLA LAVELLA, Oct. 1. Quickly finding that jungle warfare gives no play for dashing charges and storm tactics of the open battlefields, the New Zealanders on Vella Lavella have moulded their tactics to the conditions and developed a stoic perseverance which is bringing steady but slow success. In this their (irst Pacific campaign against a cunning and relentless enemy, our men are engaged in a dual task—that of eliminating the 500 or 600 Japanese still on the island, end that of learning from practical experience of battle conditions lessons that will stand them in good stead in future engagements. Dogged patience and thorough reconnaissance are half the battle in this type of warfare. Those who formed the small New Zealand patrols which, with native guides, pinpointed the Japanese positions during the days preceding the opening of the attack, sometimes creeping barefoot to within 25yds. of enemy bivouac areas showed the method and the .way that brought their reward and saved expensive casualties in. the? ensuing campaign. They learned their lessons from the black-skinned Solomon Islanders, without whose help and knowledge of bushcraft the task of locating large bodies of the enemy would have been proll acted. ~ After the American invasion of tins island the Japanese retired towards dhe north, drifting in small parties to a headquarters area in the hilly bush country They picked their positions v/Cll Timbala Bay has natural defences in gullies that run down to the cea in undergrowth thick with fronds of sft. or 6ft. 'high ferns, and studded with a multitude of trees from thin saplings to 4ft. thick jungle veterans. Their "camos were close to the ground, with little cover from view or fire The other camp, which has not yet fallen, was sited in the midst of the enemy’s perimeter of defence. •Every Shot Must Count Round this headquarters and within a few hundred yards of it the New Zealanders are now lying quietly and watchfully, eliminating sniper's posts and machine-gun nests one by one. ••■reening' forward a foot or two at a time" Few of the front line troops have yet seen a Japanese. Those who have been wounded saw and heard none until the bullet hit them, nerhaps the rustle of a leaf by whicn the enemy hoped to draw fire and learn the {New Zealanders position, or the waving of a boot or hat—the same tricks that brought, the Japanese such success in the early months ol the war and which the New Zealanders expected and for which they are fully prepared. , . . With the Japanese it is a case ot matching .patience with patience, so our men went towards them cautiously firing only when a target presented itself, and making every shot and every grenade count. When progress was held up, as it was once by a stubborn enemy machine-gun nesi, our line withdrew and the Japanese were .plastered for 13 minutes bj artillery fire from 25-,pounders, during (Which .time 360 rounds were concentrated into a narrow strip of jungle The Japanese were much quieter ancl a patrol pushed its way past the enemy’s right flank to Umonur Island, which was found to be evacuated. Suspense in the Rain Patience is needed most in the rain and in the dark. The. ram blots out all other noise in the jungle, makin 0 enemy infiltration a moment-to-moment possibility. A man must lie motionless then as never before, despite the torrential downpour which soaks him to the skin and'saturate*, his gear, as it did for six hours the other day. He listens in suspense foi every unaccustomed stirring. When the rain ceases he must still lie silent, for the squelch of his wet clothing will easily oe detected. He has no hope of drying out, for the sun cannot penetrate the jungle. lie waits, as he waited before, for the Japanese to lose patience first There is always the temptation to shoot m the daiK at the rustling of a rat in the bushes or the wallow of a crocodile in the mud of the coast. That must not be for one burst of fire may In a grenade, or mortar bomb, oi a bufict, to the spot front w.nich the shot conus. The suspense must be borne. Patience is the watch-word.