ISLAND DEBACLE

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

ISLAND DEBACLE

ENEMY RELIEF FORCE SMALL PART GETS ASHORE (N.Z.P.A. Special Aust. Correspondent) (Rec. 10.30 p.m.) SYDNEY. Dec. 16. The remnants of the Japanese landing parties in the Mambare and Kurnusi Estuaries are still being attacked heavily by Allied aircraft. The shattering of the latest enemy attempt to reinforce the Northern New Guinea beach-head is dramatically described by reports coming to hand. It is confirmed that only a small part of the enemy force reached the shore safely, and the larger proportion was killed in the water or on the beaches. Japanese soldiers swimming out to sea in a desperate effort to salvage floating supplies were killed by our strafing aircraft. The beach area was also bombed and raked with Are in an effort to wioe out the remainder.

Again on Tuesday the aerial “ time table schedule ” of the previous day was in operation. On Monday our planes made 112 sweeps, and the latest attacks against the beach area were on an equal scale. Many of the Japanese were incinerated when our aircraft set fire to seven-feet high grass on one of the islands of the Mambare Delta, and the village of Mamba, at the river mouth. They also raided 20 motor boats, four IKeboats, and a number of rafts which were used to bring the enemy troops ashore and these are believed to have been completely destroyed. Supplies well lashed together with petrol drums to support them floated ashore, but many of these floating dumps were destroyed, while others were carried out to sea. When our planes completed their destruction the sea was dotted with blazing patches of oil and petrol. The water near the shore Is described as “ thick with the bodies of slaughtered Japanese.” Mambare, rather than Kumusi, appears to have been the chief enemy landing point, and the beach there is fringed with a strip of dry land 500 yards wide, backed by treacherous swamps. There is no further news of the Japanese cruiser and destroyer convoy, which, it is believed, fled for Gasmata, in New Britain, Liberators and Fortresses on Tuesday attacked targets in this area, and of 12 Zeros which engaged the Fortresses three were shot down and two heavily damaged. No reliable estimate can yet be formed of the size of the problem which the latest enemy landing north-west of Buna presents to the Allies. It is felt, however, that the Japanese will have to land more troops and more supplies if they wish to establish an effective new barrier in the way of an eventual Allied drive to the north against Lae and Salamaua. The heightened security given to the movement of naval forces during the rainy season makes it likely that further landings will be attempted during the next few months.