ON HUON PENINSULA

Grey River Argus, 1 December 1943, Page 5

ON HUON PENINSULA

Aussies Close on Bonga [Aust. & N.Z. Press Assn.] (Rec. b.oU) b/DiNrs/, XN.9V. 30. Australian ground rorces on luuon Peninsula Nev/ Gumea, witn iani< support, are closing in on £>onga, tne coastal terminal 01 tne Japanese supply route inland to Wareo. n;neniy troops from Satelberg (whicn was captured by Australians last Friday,) Have been withdrawing towards Wareu, Their communications have been cut by another Australian force, which won positions dominating the Bonga-Wareo trail. Enemy positions on this trail have been attacked by the Allied aircraft which are operating in direct support of the ground forces. The Japanese have used flame throwers in an unsuccessful attempt to overwhelm the isolated Australian force which is astride their line of supply and retreat between Wareo and the sea. The enemy garrison moving back' from Satelberg had been expected to make a stand at Wareo. The Japanese attacks lasted nearly three hours, but failed to dislodge the Australians, who still occupy; positions dominating the Wareo-Bonga trail. This isolated Australian force is being supplied from the air with food, water, and ammunition. Over 1000 Japanese have been killed in the past nine weeks’ fighting around Finschhafen and Satelberg, New Guinea; more than 150 of them were killed in the battle for Satelberg. 'This figure., does not include the dead whom the enemy managed to drag back to his own lines. While no official announcement has been made, war correspondents describe the A.I.F. casualties as extraordinarily light. After viewing the fighting , round Satelberg, the leader of the British Military Mission to the South and South-west Pacific (Major-General Lethbridge), said 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. (Rec. 11.0.) SYDNEY, Nov. 30. General MacArthur’s latest communique reports that on Huon Peninsula Australian ground forces, with tank support, are closing in on Bonga from the south. Allied medium bombers, acting in direct support, blasted enemv oositions on the Wareo Trail with forty-four tons of explosives. Before the Australians drove the Japanese out of Satelberg, Bonga was the staging point in the enemy’s barge svstem. and now, on the coastal terminal, it might be a suitable place to bring in reinforcements, or to attempt an escape by barges, along the coast to the north.