Buna Village Taken

Northern Advocate, 16 December 1942, Page 3

Buna Village Taken

(Special, 1.30 p.m.) SYDNEY. This Day. Buna village, one of the last three strongpoints in the Japanese shrunken Papuan beachhead has been completely occupied by American troops. Following a shattering mortar barrage, they burst through the enemy’s defences and, by 10 o’clock on Monday morning, the village was in their hands. No further details of the occupation are yet available, but the fall of the village weakens the enemy hold on the nearby Buna mission and air-strip area. The Japanese in this sector now have Australian troops on their left and American troops on their right, while they are further menaced by a combined Allied force noiw attacking Sanananda.

Heavy fighting continues in the Buna mission and Sanananda sectors. “Nightmarish Quality” “There is a nightmarish quality in the Papuan' fighting that the public would do well to absorb,” declares the “Sydney Morning Herald” in an editorial today, commenting on the fall of Buna after an exhausting jungle campaign of 77 days. The paper adds that the difficulties of expelling the enemy from New Guinea by ground and air action alone are becoming so painfully apparent as to counsel reexamination of the strategic problems involved. If the Japanese succeed in getting anv considerable number of men ashore at Kumusi and Mambare. the Allied ground forces will have another hard job to do when the Buna zone has been finally cleared up. Without direct naval support. General MacArthur faces a long and costly fight in New Guinea, says the “Daily Telegraph.” The Jananese suicide stand in Papua was made to divert Allied effort and delay attacks at Lae and Salamaua. Thus the enemy gained time to strengthen these northern bridge-heads considerably. “In Gona and Buna, tough fanatical Japanese soldiers were ready to die hopelessly rather than surrender,” says the “Daily Telegraph.” “In Lae and Salamaua. the going will be even harder, and we cannot attack Rabaul until we have eliminated every Japanese stronghold on the New Guinea mainland.” Malarial Minefield

“Daily communiques recording the final assault on Jananese strongholds in Papua have fanned out into a full-length serial story,” writes Mr. Hugh Dash, the “Daily Telegraph's” war correspondent. “But the reasons for the slow pace of the concluding stages of the campaign should not be construed as alibis.” Allied forces on the North Papuan beach-head had been numerically superior and had heavier arms and stronger air support than the enemy. “Compared with the finale of thepresent campaign, the 120-mile trudge over the Owen Stanley gorges and ravines was a pleasant week-end hike,” says Mr. Dash. “Marshes, quicksands and swamps virtually created a malarial minefield around the Japanese positions. Like Army of Soldier Crabs

“Behind the swamps the Japanese have burrowed into mud trenches like an army of soldier crabs. After being blasted for weeks, any normal garrison would hove accepted the inevitability of defeat and surrendered. But the mission of the Papuan Japanese is to kill and die. The cause—fatalism, fanaticism or plain fear — does not matter. The whole effect has been to make them as dangerous as a rattlesnake with a grievance.”

It is expected that the final battle for the beach-head will be fought at Sanananda, which has been carefully prepared as the core of the Japanese defence structure in the Buna-Gona area. Machine War Ends

The battle area along the coastal beachhead is stated to be “feet deep in mud and slush” following the storms of the past few days. The New Guinea wet season has now well begun and will last about four months. It presents some difficulties for the beleagured Japanese, but far more for the Allied attackers.

These rains have intensified the isolation of the Japanese strong-points, which are separated by swamp and jungle as effectively as any islands of the sea. The nossible use of armoured fighting vehicles is completely eliminated, while both air and artillery bombardments are restricted by sodden landing fields and increased difficulties of moving guns, ammunition and supplies. No news is yet available of casualties in Buna village fighting, nor whether the Japanese here duplicated their earlier Gona suicide stand. Buna village had been in a state of siege for about five weeks but the enemy was not believed to be desperately short of supplies in this area. His artillery, mortars and lighter weapons appeared plentifully supplied with ammunition, while food stores have been dropped in the area by enemy aircraft on several occasions.

Slight Allied gains have been reported near Sanananda and further shrinking of the Japanese beach-head ' reaffirms the inevitable final result of the battle though the decision may not be an immediate one.