BECOMING A ROUT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25429, 10 January 1944, Page 3

BECOMING A ROUT

THE JAPANESE RETREAT HUON PENINSULA CAMPAIGN (N.Z.P.A. Special Aust. Correspondent) (Rec. 8 p.m.) SYDNEY, Jan. 9. The fanatical fury of the Japanese charges against the American marine positions near Borgen Bay, Cape Gloucester, in Western New Britain, has prompted the belief among some observers that the enemy troops are drugged. The Japanese hurled themselves into a storm of machine-gun fire and were slaughtered. Eight miles south of the Cape Gloucester airstrip 200 Japanese attacked a greatly superior marine force. The American commander told war correspondents that from their strongpoints the marines could have held off a force of 2000 Japanese, but for three hours the enemy attacked until they were almost annihilated. Some of the Japanese were naked, wearing only a steel helmet and boots.

General MacArthur’s latest communique reports fresh gains by the marines, who are now advancing on Borgen Bay, 10 miles east of their landing point. The Japanese are being forced back into the sea. An additional 200 enemy killed have been counted after the latest fighting. Australian and American troops are making steady progress in their converging drives into the Japanese-held

northern strip of the Huon Peninsula. Each force is averaging about four miles a day through the jungle, and they have narrowed the gap between them to 65 miles. Australian forward elements are to-day reported to be nearing Scharnhorst Point, at the northern tip of the Huon Peninsula, about eight air miles from Sio.

No recent Japanese opposition to the Australian drive is reported. “It is evident that the enemy retreat is becoming a rout as all the land avenues of escape are closed, and the only possible exit for the trapped Japanese is by barges, which must run the blockade of Allied patrol craft,” says the war correspondent of the Christian Science Monitor, Mr Gordon Walker. “Reports that the evacuation from Sio has begun, however, show that the Japanese prefer patrol craft to Australian tanks and bayonets. Even an attempted evacuation from Sio,” Mr Walker adds, “ may be barred in a few days by the Australians forcing their way through the jungle.” General MacArthur’s week-end communiques report heavy destruction of Japanese barges in the Sio area. The biggest bag was made on Wednesday and Thursday, when Kittyhawks destroyed or made unserviceable 13 barges.