RECONNAISSANCE PARTIES ASHORE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 78, 5 July 1943, Page 5

RECONNAISSANCE PARTIES ASHORE

WEEK BEFORE INVASION GAUGE ON LENGTH OF WAR (Rec. noon.) Sydney, This Dal. It is revealed that a week before the American invasion of Japanese-occu-pied Solomon Islands reconnaissance parties went ashore to gather information for landings. An Australian war correspondent who accompanied the unit which landed in New Georgia tells how the party came ashore from an old destroyer at night within a few hundred yards of enemy encampments. The sound of the surf muffled the noise of their landing craft and clouds concealed the dash of the camouflaged troops across the beaches and into the jungle. Before the big invasion these men figuratively thumbprinted the entire New Georgia group, writes fie correspondent. Some of the American Navy’s most accomplished saltwater men charted new reefs and channels, rechecking and correcting inaccurate existing charts. One man of the reconnaissance force crept up to Munda where he saw Japanese riding bikes and working on the bomb-blast-ed airfield. The same correspondent says the progress of the present Solo-

mons operation is likely to provide an index by which the length of the war against Japan can be gauged. Warning that bitter fighting must be expected in difficult country, he adds that in the final analysis the battle for New Georgia, as was that for Guadalcanal will be one of supply. For this the Americans are infinitely stronger in troops, ships and planes than when Guadalcanar was attacked—but the Japanese have had a full six months to build up powerful defences—P.A. Special Australian Correspondent.