A TENACIOUS ENEMY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25101, 17 December 1942, Page 4

A TENACIOUS ENEMY

Finis has not yet been written to the long, arduous campaign in North-east New Guinea, but, with the occupation of Buna by theAliied forces it is reasonable to hope that the end is in sight. In defence of this area the Japanese displayed once more that suicidal tenacity which makes them, in certain circumstances, a troublesome enemy even when small hope remains of military advantage rewarding their sacrifices. The Gona-Buna positions represented a bridgehead in an important strategic field, but attempts to reinforce the garrisons there were consistently frustrated by the Allied air forces. Accepted merely as a desperate delaying action, with annihilation as the ultimate price, the Japanese stand was still, as some commentators have observed, not without value. The north-eastern territory of New Guinea requires to be cleared- of the enemy before operations are advisable against the north-western New Guinea footholds at Lae and Salamaua, and it is desirable that these, in turn, should be reduced before the offensive out of Australia and from the lower Solomons can be directed against the main enemy forward base and concentration area at Rabaul. In turning the point of the Japanese spearheads the Allies have made haste slowly, and it is certain that the enemy has not been wasting time while the difficult operations have been in progress. Nor is his strategy at any period merely defensive. While he has, presumably, been strengthening Lae and Salamaua, Rabaul and his positions in the northern Solomons he has also been busily pursuing an infiltration policy elsewhere. On Timor, which is about 300 miles fi;om Darwin, he is entrenched in some force, and since the initial landings on this island last February he has occupied many of the smaller islands in the Arafura Sea. Coincidently with the last stand that is being made at Buna mission, Japanese troops have been put ashore farther along the New Guinea coast, at Kumuri Mambare, and the prospects are that General MacArthur will have to divert forces from his main strategic objectives to deal with this further irruption. While many, possibly ah. of these enemy activities are merely in the nature of nuisance tactics, they must to some extent fulfil their purpose of prolonging the Allies’ operations against outposts at the expense of their major offensive plans. Japan does not allow the grim fact to become obscured that the prosecution of the war against her will be a long and tricky and exacting task, even if the enemy is, through material losses and the incapacity to replace them, and to maintain full lines of communication, condemned to ultimate defeat by exhaustion.