COMMANDO UNIT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25240, 1 June 1943, Page 2

COMMANDO UNIT

AUSTRALIANS IN NEW GUINEA REMARKABLE EXPLOITS (N.Z.P.A. Special Aust. Correspondent) (Rec. 7.30 p.m.) SYDNEY, May 31. Fighting against odds of never less than 40 to 1, an Australian commando unit which harried the Japanese for several months in the Lae-Salamaua-Mubo area (New Guinea) killed more than 500 of the enemy for the loss of only 12 of its own men. This unit, commanded by a 25-year-old West Australian, Lieutenant-colonel Norman Fleay, made a remarkable raid on Salamaua last June. With the announcement that Colonel Fleay has been awarded the D.S.O. for resource, daring. and devotion to duty, the story of the unit's exploits has now been released. Colonel Fleay, after his return from service in Libya, Greece, and Crete with the Sixth Division of the A.1.F., took his independent commando company to Wau in March of last yejar. Before the Salamaua raid he led a reconnaissance party of five officers, who crept into the town and counted the Japanese there. “We then took a picket detachment of 70 Bren and tommny-gunners into Salamaua at 8 o’clock one night," says Colonel Fleay, telling the story of the raid. "For five hours we hid under houses listening to the Japanese walking above us. At 1 o’clock I fired my Verey pistol as a signal for the attack. Simultaneously every Japanese sentry was shot dead. Then we threw grenades into every enemy-occupied house. Each Japanese who came out was killed. We fired 300 rounds from our mortar. “ By dawn we held the place absolutely, but the Japanese could bring reinforcements quickly from Lae, and so I decided to move out. We had killed 100 Japanese without loss to ourselves, and captured many valuable documents. Within half an hour of our departure Japanese fighter planes began to search for us, and we hadMo uodge them for hours. One of oui party was missing, but turned up two days later. He had not heard the signal to withdraw because he was hunting for souvenirs.” Colonel Fleay’s unit raided Mubo on several occasions. Once a scqut went into a village with a box camera and photographed the Japanese garrison lined up for a mess parade. These commandos fought a lone campaign, almost to the time the enemy made their recent unsuccessful bid to capture Wau. Then they shared the work of driving the Japanese back from Mubo. Only after this was done did their leader return to Australia on leave.

Apart from 500 of the enemy killed, this independent unit cost the Japanese a considerable number of casualties. Once Colonel Fleay himself was missing for some days. When a junior officer was wounded he held off the pursuing Japanese and took to the bush after killing three. On the fourth day he reached food supplies, and that night encountered a party of his own men who had set out to search for him.