JUNGLE WARFARE

Timaru Herald, Volume CLIII, Issue 22470, 4 January 1943, Page 4

JUNGLE WARFARE

New Guinea Campaign

Savage Fighting Vividly

Described

SYDNEY, December 15.

Wounded Australian soldiers, many from the Buna-Gona front, have arrived in Sydney with stories of some of the war’s most savage fighting. Men who have fought in Libya, Greece and Syria declared that the worst in those campaigns could not compare with the horrors of the New Guinea jungle. Some, wounded by Japanese explosive light machine-gun bullets, dragged themselves miles through sopping, festering jungle to reach aid. Use by the Japanese of explosive bullets is a breach of international law. The bullets, which explode after penetration, cause shocking wounds.

The wounded arrived in a special hospital train. Three nursing sisters and 40 male hospital orderlies worked night and day on the train attending them. Meals were cooked and served on the train. Doctors performed several minor operations during the trip. More than 30 military ambulances were waiting on the platform of a suburban railway station near the base hospital to which the men were taken. A crowd of local residents met the men at the station. For many they were the first women and children, except for the nursing sisters, seen for many months. Many of the men were stretcher cases. One woman, after watching these injured men being gently lifted into the ambulances, immediately left, declaring she intended to invest all her savings in the Austerity Loan. “If all Australians could have seen those boys, the Austerity Loan would have been over-subscribed by double what was asked,” she said. Hospital Bombed Private E. Archer, of Sydney iwounded by shrapnel), who was sick in Soputa Hospital near Buna when it was bombed by the Japs, said: “The bombtag was callous and deliberate The hospital consisted of a large number of tents close together. It was plainly marked. There were no fortifications near it. Jap Zeros several times flew over the hospital, and when they left us alone we thought they would respect the hospital. But they sent dive-bombers at us. The divebombers came in low over the jungle, only 80 feet up. I heard someone shout, ‘Here come the —— Japs.’ Manv of the patients jumped out of bed and bolted for slit trenches. I started to follow, then decided to take my chance. The first bomb landed fair among tents crowded with soldiers too badly wounded or sick to reach cover. It was sickening slaughter. Two doctors who had been attending the men were also killed instantly. The next bomb lobbed in the tent next to mine. My tent was ripped to ribbons with shrapnel, and I don’t remember any more. The men at Buna have vowed to avenge Soputa.” Like Wild Animals Sergeant Jim Coy, wounded fighting on the beach 1000 yards from Gona, said: “The Japs are more like wild animals than men. Even when they have been cut off and have no hope of escaping, they refuse to come out till you blast them with bullets or grenades.” Coy was shot in a shoulder by a sniper at night while talking to his commanding officer. He has souvenlred the bullet. He said the Japs use luminous paint on the sights of their guns so they can shoot at night. Coy was shot in the other shoulder in Syria. Private Don Thomas, of Cullen Bullen, New South Wales, described the effects of the Japanese explosive sub-machine-gun bullets: “The bullets exploded when they hit the trees. Most men hit by the bullets were killed, but those who survived had dreadful Injuries.” Thomas lost one leg. He dragged himself some distance on his back through the jungle. New Guinea natives carried him through slush and thick jungle for two days. “We love those fuzzy-wuzzy angels; many of us would not be alive if it had not been for them,” he said. “They hate the Jap worse than we do. Our fellows found out why. They found the outraged and mutilated bodies of native women near the Jap camps. The natives could not fight with their primitive weapons, but they know we can, and that’s why they help us. We Australians should do something big for those fuzzy-wuzzies after the war to repay them." Private George Edwards, of Bega, New South Wales, was also wounfed while on jungle patroL He said: “Eight of us were slushing along v-Lh our weapons slung on our backs. The corporal told us to check the safety catches on our rifles. The moment we moved our weapons to do this a Jap machine-gun opened up and got the lot of us. Those Japs had infiltrated behind our lines and were hiding. They thought we had discovered them when we moved our weapons. I got mine in the thigh. Though the eight of us were within feet of each other when hit, the jungle was so thick we did not see each other again till we reached the dressing station. Though we were all wounded, thanks to the carriers none of us died.”

“One Hell of a Battle” Private N. Davidson, of Sydney. veV* >z eran of Libya, Greece and Syria, saw a continuous fortnight in action against the Japs till badly wounded by a sniper in the Battle of Oivi. “Oivi was one hell of a battle,” he said. "The Japs were dug in everywhere, behind trees, logs and were even up the trees. We felled snipers out of the trees by spraying them with Bren bullets. But I think the Australian soldiers are now just as cunning in jungle warfare as the Japs. Men who had the benefi* ct special jungle training have been brilliant in beating the Japs at their own tactics. The best feature is our air control. We always knew, without looking up, that the planes flying above were ours. It is the first campaign in which I have taken part in which we have had such complete aerial supremacy, and it has made a big difference to the boy’s. Our equipment is better than we have had to fight with before. The Japanese casualties have been many times heavier than our own. After one skirmish I counted 49 dead Japs. In that engagement we lost three killed and 14 wounded. That was a fair sample of the ratio of losses.”