ENCIRCLED ARMY

Grey River Argus, 11 August 1944, Page 5

ENCIRCLED ARMY

JAPS IN NEW GUINEA ; Lose Another 1000 Men l (Special to N.Z. Press Assn.) (Rec. 8.30) SYDNEY, Aug. 10. Frontline troops of the Japanese Eighteenth Army encircled near Aitape, British New Guinea, are being annihilated. Since July 11 last | the total of known enemy dead on , this front has increased to 7007. An j additional 1072 were counted on Monday. Only 77 Japanese prisoners , however, have been taken. The cas- j ualties of attacking Amer'cans have been light. Two American columns in a co-ord ! nated pincers movement closef] on the rear of enemy forward elements, cutting them off from main Japanese forces. Country in which enemy units are trapped is difficult fighting terrain. Large patrols might pass within a short distance of each other without making contact. The greatest bomb load dropped in one day by a med um bomber unit in any war theatre is claimed for a R.A.A.F. Beaufort group operating against General Adachi’s 18th Army. In 69 sorties in a single day they dropped 128,500 pounds of bombs. Ground crews average only ten minutes in refuelling and re-bombing machines between landing and take-off. A second Allied strike into the Philippines area was recorded by General MacArthur’s communique today. This was a night bombing attack on a two-thousand ton freighter off Davao, on the southeast coast of Mindanao, on Monday. The only previous Allied raid in the Philippines sector since early m 1942 "was the sinking of a 100 ft. coastal vessel by a South-west Pacific Liberator 70 miles off Mindanao on July 22. Medium bombers attacked Morotai Islands in the Halmahera group, 250 miles from the forward Allied base of Sansapor, Dutch New Guinea and a stepping stone to the Philippines. The Allied sea blockade has been extended rapidly to remaining Japanese bases at the western end of Dutch New Guinea. Patrol torpedo boats have been reported near Sorong, 60 miles west of Sansapor, where they harassed coastal shipping.