PAINSTAKING UPHILL FIGHT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 25 June 1945, Page 5

PAINSTAKING UPHILL FIGHT

MOUNTAINS NEAR WEWAIt AUSTRALIANS BATTLE ON Melbourne, June 24. Australian troops are waging a painstaking uphill fight on crests and spurs leading to Shiburangu mountains dominating Wewak. In this region they are fighting some of the fiercest engagements of the entire New Guinea campaign. Devastation is being left in the wake of the Australians’ advance around Koigin. key inter-communication centre in the Shiburangu foothills, says an Australian Army Headquarters release. Heavy air strikes and concentrated artillery barrages are blasting the way for infantrymen who are employing flamethrowers as well as automatic weapons. Extensive defences with Japanes bodies littering the bunkers have been overrun, the enemy’s casualties giving testimony to the weight and accuracy of the preliminary air and artillery bombardments. Although the Australians have driven fairly deeply into the foothills the Japanese have still to be ousted from the whole of their mountain fortress of Shiburangu before command of the high ground can be wrested from them. N.Z. AIR SUPPORT New Zealand Corsairs have flown many hundreds of sorties in supnort of the continued advance of the Australians in southern Bougainville. The Japanese were subjected to a record mortar hammering on the Hari River before their defences were cracked and Australian armoured spearheads forced a crossing and pressed on against sporadic opposition to the Ogorata River. This obstacle was forded by two separate Australian forces, who have now reached the Mobia River, where Japanese resistance is stiffening considerably.