HARDSHIPS OF AUSTRALIANS

Southland Times, Issue 25024, 9 April 1943, Page 5

HARDSHIPS OF AUSTRALIANS

FIGHTING IN MUBO , CAMPAIGN '

(Special Correspondent, N.Z.P.A.)

(Rec. 7.35 p.m.) SYDNEY, April 8. During the Papuan campaign a great deal was heard of the arduous nature of the war across the Owen Stanley Ranges. Little, however, has been told of the rigours of the Mubo campaign, where the Australians continue to press relentlessly against the distant island outpost positions of the Japanese northern New Guinea supply bases at Salamaua and Lae.

Almost three months have gone by since this campaign began with the heavy defeat of the Japanese forces attempting to capture the Allied aerodrome at Wau. In the fighting which has followed along the trail from Wau to Mubo Australian troops have endured all the hardships of the Owen Stanley trail, except that there have been fewer large-scale clashes.

“Physically this country is so similar to the Kokoda trail that any part of either zone could be interchanged without the soldiers trudging through the mud even noticing it,” writes a war correspondent. “Scrub overhangs the sodden track and there is the everpresent menace of Japanese snipers hiding in the trees. Both sides have made many ambushes, but the relative successes gained are indicated by the steady advance of the Australians. A section of the Wau-Mubo trail leads around a sheer mountain side with a drop of 200 feet into a ravine below. In many places the troops have to scramble up the steeper pinches on all fours. Landslides are a continuing danger. TRACK A QUAGMIRE The incessant rain is turning the track into a quagmire and has made it necessary for level sections to be corduroyed. The hardships endured by the men in fighting here are equal to those of the Owen Stanleys. Sixteen native carriers are normally allotted to attend each wounded soldier. Eight men wounded in one patrol engagement required 216 natives to transport them to an advanced field hospital. The wounded had to be passed from hand to hand over the most difficult parts of the trail. The field aid posts in this area are long grass huts. Wood must be dried by fire before it will burn. The beds are blankets secured to wooden frames by jungle vines. “A medical officer who has returned from the forward areas states that the Australian soldiers have four enemies to fight before they meet the Japanese. They are the arduous nature of the country, which is cold and wet, with the men having to wear the same mudcaked clothing for days on end, the scrub, typhus and malaria, which some have contracted in other areas, but which often breaks out again when the troops undergo severe hardships and the nervous strain of war in ambush country. “However, the Australians in this area have one great advantage over those who took part in the early Owen Stanley fighting Their diet is immeasurably better. An improved ration has been issued in a tin containing three balanced meals. The food consists of dehydrated meat, vegetables, wholemeal biscuits, dried fruits, salt, sugar, chewing gum, tea and chocolate. '