OLD METHODS MUST GO

Timaru Herald, Volume CLI, Issue 22213, 5 March 1942, Page 5

OLD METHODS MUST GO

How Japanese Won Malayan Battles General’s Advice To Australia By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright (6.30 p.m.) SYDNEY, Mar. 4. “Australia need have no fear of the Japanese if we take advantage of Malaya’s lessons,” said MajorGeneral Gordon Bennett, “but if we fail to learn from experience, there can be no other answer but defeat. “In Australia our one idea must be attack. The Japanese, from general to private, had the offensive spirit and that must be our spirit. The Japanese are not super soldiers. Impliclty was the keynote of all their tactical methods in Malaya. Our difficulty was the complicated system we have evolved in our army which operates against easy and rapid coordination. For example the Japanese found that the bicycle is an easy and a good means of transport to jungle country. Compared with our motortrucks' bicycles had the advantages that they did not need fuel, they were easy to conceal and the troops could split into sections and could move fast along tracks on which no lorry could move. The Japanese won battles by manoeuvring. They were not loaded down with complex equipment. Their main weapons were Tommy-guns, machine-guns and mortars. “The answers to Japanese tactics are aggressive inspiration from the top and brilliant junior leadership. The Australian troops in Malaya succeeded in every clash with the Japanese by throwing overboard 1918 textbook methods.”