HARASSED JAPANESE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXII, Issue 301, 19 November 1942, Page 5

HARASSED JAPANESE

POOR SUPPORT FROM AIR. (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, Nov. 18. The Japanese have attempted to bring air support to aid their harassed land forces in Papua.

Their gesture has proved expensive, costing seven bombers and eight fighters—l 4on the ground

in a surprise raid on Lae and one which attempted interception.

The raid on Lae aerodrome was a sharp retaliation for a coastal attack made by 18 Japanese aircraft in the Buna sector on Monday, when two of our trawlers were sunk. Attacks were also directed against Allied ground troops. Meanwhile both the Australian and American ground forces continue to advance toward Buna without opposition. The Allied forces are stated to he moving toward their objective by jungle trails as well as by roads leveled and regraded by Japanese engineers. An effective air supply line from Port Moresby is maintaining the flow of vital stores and equipment. The Japanese forces under Lieut.-General Tomatore Horii are reported to be seriously disorganised. Horii, a former infantry commander of the Japanese 55th Division, was transferred to the command of the Nankai South Sea detachment, with which ho occupied Rabaul in January. He organised both of the enemy’s successful drives against Port Moresby. It is now revealed that lie took a regiment, the equivalent to a British brigade (about 2600 men), across the Owen Stanley Ranges in his second abortive thrust. It is. evident that the majority of this force lost their lives, malaria and other tropical diseases assisting to mount the toll of those killed in action. No largescale contact has yet been made with Horii’s remaining forces, although Australian troops are believed to have caught up with and disposed of a few stragglers. Allied air forces continue to attack the retreating Japanese without respite. Our marked air superiority should give considerable added value to the occupation of Buna, which has areas suitable for aerodrome construction. Apart from Buna’s value as an operational base against Lae, Salamaua, and Rabaul, the Allied occupation of the area will enable us to obtain more accurate information for air operations.