JUST BEGINNING

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXII, Issue 256, 28 September 1942, Page 5

JUST BEGINNING

BATTLE OF THE SOLOMONS NEW YORE, Sept, 26.

The Battle of the Solomons is just commencing while the marines who recently received supplies and reinforcements are tenaciously clinging to their beach-head on Guadalcanal, says the New York Times military expert, Major Hanson Baldwin, in a dispatch from "somewhere in the South Pacific".

Against the only airfield in the Southern Solomons the Japanese are concentrating their attacks shouting, "American marines, you die!" They are bombing from p! r mes and shelling from submarines.

The Japanese are deceitful, cunning, ruthless, and well-equipped. They are the best jungle fighters in the world. They use all sorts of tricks, particularly at night, to entice the enemy to reveal his position. For example, they use the "musical trap". Some Japanese whistle the Marine Corps' hymn or the American reveille, while others in the dark jungle call "Smith", or even the correct name of the directing American officer. If the marines incautiously expose themselves in compliance to the supposed orders of their superiors they are immediately killed. The Japanese also imitate bird calls and animal _ noises in covering the rustling of their progress through the jungle. On other occasions they inch their way through the grass almost noiselessly, wait patiently for hours lashed to trcetops or neck-deep in swamps. Japanese equipment on Guadalcanal is well adapted to the warfare of the green hell. They do not possess artillery and tanks but automatic rifles, knives, and an ingenious little grenade-throwing mortar which one man can carry. Their grenades are much more effective than ours.

Although tough and confident the Japanese show at least one great weakness on Guadalcanal —regardless of the circumstances or the hopelessness of a particular plan of action, regardless of the opposition, they stubbornly and fatalistically adhere to the plan of sneaking infiltration, being completely unable to improvise a new plan. Tliey keep coming until they are dead. That is the reason why the Japanese casualties on Guadalcanal are extremely high. In a speech after decorating 36 airmen aboard a .ship of the Pacific fleet, Vice-Admiral W. Halsey said: "Daily shifts at home from optimism to pessimism do not reflect the true course of the war. We who do the fighting appreciate that the complexion of the vast Pacific effort cannot change overnight. By no means have we got the enemy on the run. Wo know that the hardest fighting is still ahead " U.S. BOMBERS' ACTIVITIES.

The special Australian correspondent of the Press Association cables that the Flying Fortresses' bombardment of Gizo Island, in the New Georgia Group, and an attack against enemy installations at Rekata Bay, on the northern coast of Santa Isabel Island on Monday last are described in a United States Navy communique. Army bombers again attacked Rekata Bay, when docks and buildings were damaged and one small float plane was brought down. The following day Army bombers attacked, a force of enemy transports near Shortland Islands. The attack was opposed by about 20 Japanese fighters. Three hits were scored on transports and one enemy fighter was brought down. Marine patrols on Guadalcanal have been active in attacking scattered enemy units. These operations were supported by navy and Marine Corps dive-bombers which bombed and strafed enemy-held villages and other points of resistance. AN AMAZING STORY.

An amazing story of heroism and endurance by a native policeman in the Solomons has reached Washington. A retired sergeant-major of police, he was engaged on a secret mission when he was captured by the Japanese. They did everything they could to make him divulge the whereabouts of American troops. Ho was bound to a tree and jabbed in the arm, the shoulder and the face with a bayonet. Then he was stabbed in the stomach and left for dead. When he revived, he crawled back to the American lines, and before he was rushed to hospital insisted on making a full report.