FRESH OFFENSIVE

Grey River Argus, 4 July 1944, Page 5

FRESH OFFENSIVE

IN NEW GUINEA Americans Blast Noemfoor Island (Special to'N.Z. Press Assn.) (Rec. 8.55) SYDNEY, J'uly 3. Japanese defences on Noemfoor Island, in Geelvink Bay, Western Dutch N.'ew Guinea, were pounded in daylong air and sea attacks on Saturday. Strategically situated only 55 miles west of |Biak Island, which is now firmly in Allied hands, Noemfoor was also a target for heavy bombing raids on Friday. Planes of the Fifth and , Thirteenth United States Air Force, which recently wdre amalgamated under General Kenney’s command, on Saturday, combined to attack troop and supply areas with 230 tons of bombs. Their strikes lasted, throughout the day. They were concentrated on the north-west corner of the island. Later, under cover of darkness, Allied light naval units bombarded possible enemy gun positions in the same sector. No Japanese air opposition was encountered. P'ersistent Allied bombings have driven enemy planes of Noemfoor's three airfields Noemfoor. lying midway between Biak and Manokwari, at the western tip of Geelvink Bay ,is. an oval-, shaped Island about 15 miles long by 12 miles wide. Its three airfields are Kamiri, Korasoren and Namber. The first two are only three miles apart. They are both 5000 ft long, but are capable of extension. Namber, on the south-west coast is 4000 feet long. American ground forces in this sector are still mopping up enemy pockets of resistance. On Biak Island they have killed 177 more Japanese, bringing the total of enemy dead in this campaign to 3055. In the nearby Sarmi-Maffin Bay area, Japanese are holding stubbornly to two airstrips. There 347 more enemy troops have been killed in local fighting, bringing the Japanese losses to 2763, including thirty prisoners.

Liberator bombers, operating from New Guinea bases, made their first strike against Boeroe Island, in Banda Sea, just 250 miles east of the Celebes Group. Big fires followed the dropping of 58 ' tons of bombs on barracks and an airfield. Three parked planes were destroyed. An intercepting fighter was shot down. West of Boeroe, a 1000-ton enemy cargo vessel was sunk with a direct bomb hit.

The Aitape-Wewak sector of the British New Guinea coast, where elements of three Japanese divisions are trapped, is being attacked from the sea and the air. Destroyers last Thursday night fired a thousand shells into targets in the area. Six barges were sunk at Wewak, and a number of small ships damaged.

Forced to accompany Japanese troops retreating from Madang to Hansa Bay, in British New Guinea, Chinese residents captured in the area were beaten with swords to make them travel faster. Dysentery and malaria exacted their toll, and at. least sixteen Chinese failed to survive a 120-mile ordeal. Two are stated to have been killed by Japanese because they were too ill to keep up with the main party. Seventy survivors later were abandoned, and were left without food, by the Japanese. They were discovered by Australian patrols. Their number, included infants in .arms, as well as aged and enfeebled men and women. Some Japanese also felt the strain of the gruelling trek, and a number of men desperately sick and weak were given grenades with which to commit suicide.