SATELBERG VICTORY

Grey River Argus, 30 November 1943, Page 5

SATELBERG VICTORY

NOT THE END Further Finschhafen Campaign (Special to N.Z. Press Assn.) (Rec. 6.30) SYDNEY, Nov. 29. The capture of Satelberg by the A.I.F. last Friday is not the end of the Finschhafen campaign in New Guinea. The survivors of the Japananese garrison of Satelberg are now revealed to have made an orderly withdrawal, and they will have to be pursued and mopped up. Fresh enemy defences are believed to be concentrated at Wareo. Which is about four miles north of Satelberg. Wareo is already threatened by Australian artillery. In losing Satelberg, however, the Japanese have lost the of their mountain defence system, and their pbsition has been further jeopardised by a daring outflanking movement, on the part of Australian troops; who have cut their main escape route.-. This Australian force, advancing, along the north-east New Guinea coast from Finschhafen, captured Fino Hill, which dominates a trail linking Wareo with Bonga on the coast. Bonga has been an unloading point-. for enemy beiges carrying supplies for the enemy forces in the area. War correspondents say that torrential rain held the Australians within one hundred yards of their final objective at Satelberg for 36 hours. After eight fine days, sudden rains turned the track into a quagmire, and prevented the use of Matilda tanks, which, contributed so importantly to the speed of the earlier advance. - Enemy . snipers covered the approaches to Satelberg, and they picked off any Australians who ventured around a final hairpin bend. According to the correspondents, the success ,of the final assault was. in a large measure, due to the courage and daring of one man, Sergeant T. C. Derrick, D.C.'M.; of Adelaide, who “virtually took hjmself.”" Derrick (who won the D.C.M. in the Western Desert), although he was ordered to withdraw from a bullet-swept ridge, destroyed a J'ananese strongpoint, and breached Satelberg’s defences. He was given the honour of raising the victory flag, a historic Australian blue ensign, which already had been raised at Kokoda, Buna and Lae. After viewing the fighting around Satelberg, the leader of the British Military. Mission to the South and South-west Pacific areas, General Lethbridge, said that he believed there were vast possibilities for the use of tanks in jungle warfare, particularly in Northern Burma, which, with its savannah belts, lent itself to tank warfare to a much greater extent than New Guinea.

WEWAK RAIDED

GROUNDED JAPANESE ’PLANES ATTACKED. (Rec. 8.0.) SYDNEY, Nov. 29. Mitchell medium bombers escorted by Lightning fighters, struck aginst the Japanese aircraft concentration at Wewak on Saturday. They heavily poundetx both the Boram and Wewak fields. Five grounded aircraft were set on fire. About twenty-five others were bombed and strafed, the results were not observed. Five supply laden barges were also destroyed Other harbour craft were damaged. In spite of the enemy’s known fighter strength in the Wewak area, there was no air interception Japanese anti-aircraft fire brought down one Allied ’plane.

Japs Lose Fighters

IN FINSCHHAFEN RAID (Rec. 8.0) SYDNEY, Nov. 29 Ten' escorted medium bombers attempted to raid Allied positions at Finschhafen, in north-east New Guinea. Eight enemy fighters were shot down. Seven others were probably destroyed. Airacobra and Kittyhawk patrols intercepted the raiders. Probably they wiped out the entire Jap fighter escort.

ARTILLERY DUELS

On Bougainville LOSSES ON BOTH SIDES. (Rec. 8 p.m.) "stDNEY, Nov 29. , A report from Admiral Halseys Headquarters says: Over one thousand Japanese have been hilled at Empress Augusta Bay, west Bougainville, during the past ten days, bringing the total of enemy _ c^ since the Allied landing on the island on November 2 to more than two thousand. , , , . American dead and wounded in Augusta Bay operations number about one thousand. Of these three hundred were killed in artillery duels. The latest ground activity at Empress Augusta' Bay has been limited to patrolling.

JAP ’DROMES

RAIDED IN SOLOMONS. (Rec. 8.O.), SYDNEY, Nov. 29. In the Solomon Islands, Admiral Halsey’s aircraft battered Japanese air bases at Buka and Buin, more than a hundred tons of explosives being dropped on the former field, where five grounded aircraft were damaged, and a motor pool of twenty trucks wa s thoroughly strafed. Allied pilots report that one of the grounded aircraft at Buka bore the Nazi Swastika insignia on its tail.

TREASURY ISLES

OCCUPATION BY N.Z.E.F. (N.Z.E.F. Official Correspondent) TREASURY ISLANDS, Nov. 27. The Union Jack, the symbol of British protection and sovereignty, again flies over Treasury Islands. They had been occupied by the Japanese for the last 18 months. When New Zealanders had made good their foothold on Mono, the main island of the group, the Union Jack was hoisted by a representative of the native inhabitants in the presence of Major D. C. C. Trench, who landed with the fiphting troops there to represent the Resident Commissioner of the British Solomons Islands protectorate. Native appreciation of the return of the British colonial administration which served them well since 1900, when the Treasury Islands formed part of a group of islands handed to Britain by Germanll' in return for a British withdrawal from Western Samoa. has been shown by warmness of their appreciation of New Zealanders and their co-operation in fighting against the .Japanese.