FANATICAL ENEMY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25101, 17 December 1942, Page 5

FANATICAL ENEMY

THE PAPUAN FIGHTING TERRIBLE CONDITIONS (N.Z.P.A. Special Aust. Correspondent) SYDNEY, Dec. 15. Commenting on the fall of Buna after an exhausting jungle campaign of 77 days, the Sydney Morning Herald, in an editorial, declares: “ There is a nightmarish quality in the Papuan fighting that the public would do well to absorb.” The paper adds: “ The difflculites of expelling the enemy from iSlew Guinea by ground and air action alone are becoming so painfully apparent as to counsel a re-examination of the strategic problems involved. If the Japanese succeed in getting any considerable number of men ashore at the Kumusi and Mambrae Estuaries 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 Mac Arthur faces a long and costly fight in New Guinea,” says the Daily Telegraph. "The Japanese suicide stand in Papua was made to divert the Allied effort and delay the attacks on Lae and Salamaua. Thus the enemy gained time to strengthen these northern bridgeheads considerably. In Gona and Buna the tough fanatical Japanese soldiers were ready to die hopelessly rather than surrender. 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.” “ The daily communiques recording the final assault on the Japanese strongholds in Papua have fanned out into a full-length serial story,” writes Mr Hugh Dash, the Daily Telegraph war correspondent, “ But the reasons for the slow'pace of the concluding stages of the campaign should not be construed as alibis. The Allied forces on the North Papuan beach-head have been numerically superior and have had heavier arms and stronger air support than the enemy. Compared with the final of the present campaign, the 120-mile trudge over the Owen Stanley gorges and ravines was a pleasant week-end hike. The marshes, quicksands and swamps virtually created a malarial minefield around the Japanese positions. Behind the swamps the Japanese had burrowed into the mud trenches like an army of soldier crabs. After being blasted for weeks, any normal garrison would have accepted the inevitability of defeat and surrendered, but the mission of the Papuan Japanese is to kill and die. The cause —fatalism, fanaticism, or just 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 bridgehead will be fought at Sanananda, which has been carefully prepared as the core of the Japanese defence structure in the Buna-Gona area. ENEMY LOSSES AT BUNA LARGE FORCE ANNIHILATED (N.Z.P.A. Special Aust, Correspondent) (Rec. 11.45 p.m.) SYDNEY, Dec. 16. According to war correspondents’ reports, Japanese troops believed to number at least 300 were annihilated when American troops captured Buna village. Fierce fighting still rages in the area of the Japanese Papuan beach-head. General MacArthur’s communique to-day reports “heavy pressure in all sectors.” One New Guinea correspondent states that the Allied troops are supported by 14 Bren gun carriers, the arrival of which on the battle scene proved an unpleasant surprise for the enemy. The swampy nature of the ground, however, restricts the offensive use of these light armoured fighting vehicles

Allied progress is said to be proving most difficult at Sanananda. While enemy e.fforts to prolong the Papuan, campaign are likely to meet with some success in this sector, it is improbable that the Japanese in the Buna mission air strip area can long withstand the Allied pressure. The only communication between these two remaining enemy salients is by water at night. While Allied aircraft again attacked Lae, Port Moresby had its ninety-third Japanese raid. This was made by a single enemy night bomber, and no damage was done.