TANKS LANDED WITH TROOPS

Southland Times, Issue 25347, 26 April 1944, Page 5

TANKS LANDED WITH TROOPS

Aitape Operation

(Special Australian Correspondent, (Rec. 10 p.m.) SYDNEY, April 25. The troops landing at Aitape were guided to their destination by huge fires lit the previous day among' enemy stores,by American bombers. The fires ■were visible for 40 miles out to sea.

Armoured amphibians and tanks'were landed with the first waves of invasion troops and are now heading the inland drives.

In the Hollandia area are three airstrips—Hollandia, Sentani and Cyclops. Now pock-marked with bomb craters and strewn with the wreckage of enemy planes, they were once a concentration point for the chief Japanese air strength in New Guinea. Aitape has two airstrips and the Japanese were interrupted in their efforts to build a third.

A R.AA.F. works unit with bulldozers. tractors and graders went ashore with the American troops at Aitape and early reconstruction and use of the now captured Tadji

airstrip can be expected. This is regarded as vital to the operations at Hollandia where 14,000 Japanese

troops are expected to offer grhn resistance.

The small Japanese forces at Aitape were quickly overcome. Only from 500 to 1000 enemy troops are believed to remain in this area.

The main Japanese strength is believed to be at the by-passed base of Wewak, about 90 miles south-east of Aitape, where it was estimated 30,000 to 40,000 enemy troops are concentrated. These troops comprise the bulk of the remnants of 'the Japanese 18th Army, once intended for the invasion of Australia.

To move barge-borne troops from Wewak to Aitape would take two days—with the probability of shattering losses inflicted by Allied sea and air forces, which hold undisputed supremacy in the area. To make the expedition by coastal road would take from six to 10 days—by which time it is estimated that the Allied beach-heads will be thoroughly consolidated against possible enemy counter-attacks.

Although the initial operations were almost bloodless, bitter fighting is expected, particularly around Hollandia. Here a large Japanese garrison is boxed' in by Allied forces thrusting from the east (Aitape) and the west (Tanahmer Bay), and by rugged mountain ranges in the southern Hinterland, War observers point out that Japan now faces the unpalatable alternatives of reacting violently by throwing in heavy reinforcements

in an attempt to drive the Allies

out,, or she must withdraw, abandoning vast numbers of men to starve or to fight until they are exterminated. It is believed that as in the Bismarcks and Solomons she will follow the latter course. ENEMY PLANE LOSSES Carrier-based aircraft supporting the invasion shot down 13 Japanese planes and destroyed 88 on the ground. The principal damage was done at Hollandia, says a Pacific Fleet communique. Here 67 planes were destroyed on the ground and 13 were shot down in combat. West of Hollandia at Wake Island and Sawar, 21 enemy planes were destroyed on the ground and 17 others wer.e damaged by naval aircraft. Cruisers and destroyers also bombarded Wake and Sawar airfields. The New York Times says that the landings at Aitape and Hollandia mark “the beginning of the end of the New Guinea campaign and set the stage for the battle for the Philippines.” Jack Turcott, who represented the combined Allied Press aboard the cruiser from which General MacArthur directed the operations, reveals that following his earlier visits to the two Hollandia beach-heads the commander went ashore at Aitape. He inspected the captured airfield at Tadji, where three runways are now being made ready for Allied aircraft. Turcott says that about 25 Japanese were killed and eight captured when the Americans went ashore at Aitape. The remainder of the enemy garrison, estimated at 1000 strong, fled inland. He discloses that the invasion forces Liberated Javanese impressed labourers found in the Hollandia area.