IN S.W. PACIFIC

Grey River Argus, 22 December 1943, Page 5

IN S.W. PACIFIC

Successes Reported IN THREE SECTORS. (Special to N.Z. Press Assn.) (Rec. 9.45). SYDNEY, Dec. 21. Three spectacular successes formed the highlight of to-day’s news of a mounting Allied offensive in the South-west Pacific war theatre. In easily the heaviest bombing attack, ever made in the Southern Pacificarea, the Japanese base at Cape Gloucester, in New Britain, has been devastated with four hundred and fourteen tons of explosives; American invasion troops on New Britain have now seized the Lupin airstrip at Arawe, and have already driven a mile beyond it; and the Australian troops on the Huon Peninsula, New Guinea, have smashed Japanese resistance north of Masaweng River' (twelve air miles from Finsohhafen), and are now pushing enemy remnants.

All of these developments are reported in General MacArthur’s latest communique, and they underline the new offensive phase of the Pacific war. No important Jananese counter activities either in the air dr on land are reported. The great raid on Cape Gloucester was made bv two waves of Liberators and Mitchell bombers, with a strong fighter escort.- The Japanese, however, did not attempt air interception. The whole area was systematically plastered with bombs weighing up to one thousand lbs. The central objective was a target hill which the Japanese had heavily fortified with anti-aircraft batteries The raid brought the aggregate tonnage of Allied bombs dropped on Cape Gloucester since December 1 to nineteen hundred.

At Arawe, on the south coast of New Britain, the American invasion troops, after capturing the Lupin airfield, are steadily expanding the perimeter of their beach-head. They have encountered no organised ground opposition. In the face of Allied fighter support, Japanese air attacks are dwindling. American invasion forces on New Britain are approaching the air strip about four miles east of Arawe plantation. The strip was formerly a civil emergency landing. The field SU overgrown with weeds and was little' used by the Japanese. It is on an elevated tongue of land & about 600 yards long. The Americans are working at high speed to fortify their beach-head from Arawe to Umtingalu village. . On Huon Peninsula, New Guinea, Japanese troops in the coastal sector have been swept back to within a few hundred yards of the Masaweng River, about 12 miles north of Finschhafen. Japanese are still trying to escape. Trapped remnants of the enemy force have made suicide stands. More than 300 dead Japanese have been counted in the past fortnight in this sector. War correspondents in the area point out that casualties in jungle warfare rarely give any indication of the intensity of the fighting or the number of troops involved. It is regarded as certain that heavy artillery and aerial bombardments of retreating Japanese have inflicted several hundred casualties above th e number killed in the closer combat.

The Australians driving against the Japanese north of Massaweng River routed one enemy strongpoint at the point of the bayonet. The enemy is fleeine in disorder, with mortars, flame-throwers, mountain guns, and other equipment littering the path of hi s retreat. Strong artillery and tank support has enabled the maintenance of a speedy Australian advance. Motor torpedo-boats and aircraft are« supporting the Australian drive, and destroyed fifteen enemy barves, while the Japanese aerodrome at Madang has been pounded with forty-fhree tons of bombs. In the Solomons, heavy air attacks have been made in the Buin-Faisi area, south of Bougainville, where more than one hundred of Admiral Halsey’s torpedo and dive-bombers destroyed numerous buildings, an ammunition and two bridges. The Japanese made no reply to these air attacks. x „ The Japanese now have about nve hundred planes in the New GuineaSolomons area, according to Mr. Lewis Sebring, the “New York Her-ald-Tribune’s’’ correspondent at General MacArthur's headquarters. This is more than fifty per cent, fewer than they had six months ago 11ns reduced number, 'says Mr. Sebring, probably accounts for a surprising decrease in recent Japanese fighter interceptions, while the Allies, with clear air supremacy, now drop new record bomb tonnages almost daily.