PAPUAN BATTLE

Timaru Herald, Volume CLIII, Issue 22474, 8 January 1943, Page 5

PAPUAN BATTLE

Japanese Hold One Point Final Assault Being Prepared N.Z.P.A.—Special Australian Correspondent (10.20 p.m.) SYDNEY, Jan. 7. The Allied Air Force is still softening up the enemy position at Sanananda, the sole remaining Japanese strongpoint in Papua. Our land forces have not yet launched their drive against this last segment of the reduced BunaGona beach-head fortress area. The Japanese aerodrome at Gasmata was again raided by our heavy bombers, while an enemy twin-engined bomber was destroyed on the ground when Lae airfield was attacked by Mitchells and Havocs. Four anti-aircraft positions were also destroyed by direct bomb hits. This is the total operational activity reported in General MacArthur’s communique to-day. No further news have been released of the Japanese armada at Rabaul, where 150,000 tons of enemy shipping has been destroyed in 10 days. “Much depends on the ability of the Allies to continue these raids with vigour and regularity,” declares the political correspondent of the Sydney “Daily Telegraph.” “Unless this is possible there is grave danger of the enemy armada leaving its anchorage for its ultimate destination, which may be the Southern Solomons, Port Moresby or Northern Papua. The retention of all three areas is essential to the consolidation of the Allies’ hard-won position in the near north. It is emphasised in official quarters that if General MacArthur’s forces can inflict such damage on the enemy with the equipment now available, it is certain that, with another 500 planes, they could blast the Japanese clean out of the Solomons, New Guinea and Timor.” Japanese Claims A Tokio communique claimed that Japanese naval and air units destroyed an Allied air base under construction at Merauke in Southern New Guinea. Recently Merauke had been reported as having been attacked by enemy medium bombers. Discussing the Papuan campaign, the “New York Herald-Tribune” says editorially: “The Japanese soldier in New Guinea may have shown himself as suicidally devoted as before, but iLe Japanese army as a whole has been roundly beaten in a way suggesting recklessness, stupidity, rigidity of strategic conception and unawareness of the true forces involved. The Papuan campaign marks a costly Japanese failure, possibly as significant for the future as Midway and Guadalcanal. The Papuan battle shows that our fight against Japan will be hard. It also shows that we are learning while the Japanese are not. The Allies won their first clear victory over 'he Japanese land'army and there t’iii be more.”

Numbers of Japanese who csca >ed when the Buna Mission fell to the Allies are hiding in swamps and dense jungle or are trying to join their comrades at Sanananda Point. There is a real danger of them linking into active guerrilla bands and raiding Allied supply dumps and outpost positions, according to war correspondents in the area.

Additional guards have been disposed, and servicemen travelling trails have been instructed always to carryarms. Now that the wet season has set in it is expected that the terrific tropical rains will force these Tananese out of the swamps on to high ground, where they can be dealt with more readily. Grim stories of ill-treatment are told by captured Korean coolies. They were beaten brutally if their work was slow, and some were beheaded. * At Giro Point, a formidable Japanese stronghold, an effective method was found of driving the enemy out of strongpoints. After petrol had been poured over coconut logs, of which the shelters are mainly constructed, they were fired with incendiary bullets and the occupants soon scurried into the open.