JAPS WEAKENING

Grey River Argus, 20 June 1945, Page 5

JAPS WEAKENING

ON OKINAWA The American Commander Killed [Aust. & N.Z. Cable Assn.] (Rec. 5.5). WASHINGTON, June IS. Lieutenant-General Buckner, the Commander of the United States 10th Army, on Okinawa, was killed in action on Monday. While he was observing an attack by the Marine Eighth Regimental Combat Team, says Admiral Nimitz’s communique, General' Buckner met bis death as the result of a burst from an enemy shell. His death was instantaneous. The communique states: Major-Gen-eral Roy S. Geiger, of the Marine Corps, assumed command of the 10th Army. . General Buckner’s death occurred as enemy resistance on Okinawa was breaking. .Japanese troops were fleeing towards cliffs at the southern end of the island. Tenth Armv troops broke through Japanese defence lines in all sectors of the front during Monday against stiff resistance, which was crumbling and diminishing by nightfall. On Monday the Eighth Marine Regiment moved into attack before dawn, and bv nightfall reached the area of the Nagusuqu-Makebe highway on the left bank. First**Marines seized high ground south-east of Mezado. The 96th Division gained up to a thousand yards against Are from caves and pillboxes. Some troops are in the vicinity of Medeera, within three thousand yards of the southern coast. The 7th Division, employing tanks, advanced from 300 to 700 yards, and reached a point 1000 yards north of Mabuni. Marine observers in the western area of the island reported that a force of approximately one battalion of the enemy, moving southward in the open, north-east of Kiyamu, was brought under artillery fire. United States carrier planes on Sunday attacked air installations in the Sakishima group. Liberators on Sunday sank two small cargo ships off the west coast of Paramushiro, and attacked Cape Minam, on Shimushu, and Suribachi on Paramushiro. General Geiger, who is sixty years of age, succeeds General Buckner as Tactical Commander on Okinawa, but he does not command the Tenth Army. It was General Buckner’s wish that General Geiger should take over from him should the occasion arise. General Buckner is the sixteenth United States General, including Brigadiers, killed in action. In addition, five are listed as missing. Nine were killed in plane crashes. One died in a Japanese prison camp. Another died from pneumonia, due to exposure in action. General Buckner won the D.S.M. for the organisation of the Alaskan defences, where he was credited with doing a ten years’ job in eighteen months, enabling American planes to break up a Japanese invasion fleet headed towards a Dutch harbour General Buckner won fame for the toughness of the training tasks that he set the troops in Alaska, in which he also participated, frequently carrying additional pack weapons to inspire the men.

Luzon Advances

CONTINUED BY AMERICANS.

(Rec. 9.50). WASHINGTON, June 18. All our columns in northern Luzon Island are continuing to advance, says General MacArthur’s communique. Our 37th Division, in the eastern sector, driving along the main Cagayan highway, is approaching Naguilian. In the centre, our 6th Division advanced four miles against an enemy delaying action to within seven miles of Miangan, an enemy base. Our 33rd Division, on the west, occupied Bakod. Our 10th Corps continues mopping up in Mindanao Island. JAP REPLY TO MR TRUMAN. (Rec. 10.40). NEW YORK. June 19. Replying to President Truman’s twice-made assertion that the war against Japan could be ended only by Japan’s unconditional surrender, a Japanese spokesman broadcast a reply in English to the United States. He said: ’’The Japanese-American war can be terminated only through a ghastly landing operation of American forces on the homeland of Japan, where they will bury the mountains and rivers of Japan with dead bodies, and also .paint the reaches crimson with their own blood. Our homeland defence forces are anxiously awaiting the opportunity for action in decisive battles which may take place within a few months.”

A.I.F. CAMPAIGN. SOLOMONS AND NEW GUINEA. SYDNEY, June 4. Australian troops in the Solomons and New Guinea have made further important gains against fanatical Japanese resistance. The latest army bulletin says that confirmed Japanese dead in the South-west Pacific since the Australians took over from the Americans last November total nearly 10,000. This figure does not include the finding at Wewakr (New Guinea) of caskets containing the ashes of 7,000 Japanese killed in these and other operations. In addition, large numbers of enemy troops are known to be incapacitated through sickness and wounds. The Japanese are believed still to have more than 60,000 troops in New Guinea, the Solomons, New Britain, and New Ireland, and almost all of them are expected to die in the defence of their present holdings. In the last six months only 220 Japanese have surrendered to the Australians in all these theatres. On Bougainville (Solomons) the main interest has switched from the south to the north of the island, where the Japanese sealed off within the Bonis Peninsula are now making bold attempts to break through the Australian defence line. All their counter-attacks have been beaten off. Inland from Wewak (New Guinea) a battle is developing for complete control of the ridges and tracks from which the Japanese are able to interfere with the Australians’ development of the Wewak base. Enemy troops have converted the ridges into fortress defences, heavily tunnelled and bunkered. Australian artillery units with barrages of from 2,000 to 3,000 shells are reducing these bunkered areas to shambles and easing the task of the attacking infantry. In New Britain the situation remains static, the Australians having made-no large-scale contact with the enemy forces trapped in the Rabaul area. ,