UNDER-ESTIMATED

Timaru Herald, Volume CLIII, Issue 22491, 28 January 1943, Page 5

UNDER-ESTIMATED

Japanese Strength In Papua

New Light Thrown By Number Of Dead

By Telegraph—N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright (Rec. 8 p.m.) SYDNEY. Jan. 27. “Throughout the campaign in Papua, I am afraid, I under-estim-ated the Japanese strength. It is only now, when we have the horrible job of burying the enemy dead, that we realise in what force they were.”

Making this statement in an interview at his headquarters in New Guinea, Lieutenant-General Robert Eichelberger, who was seniox- United State officer in the field during the -campaign, admitted he had not been prepared for the rapid cracking of the Japanese defences at Sanananda. In the final stages of the fight the enemy had been thoroughly whipped up. The Allied casualties had not been light, but the proportion of Allied killed to wounded was fax' lower than that of the enemy. Tile majority of the American and Australian wounded would recover and come back for future fights.

The two enemy hospitals In the Sanananda area had been real horror places, declared General Eichelberger. Contrary to their general practice the Japanese had not burled their dead fox- many days. Although some Japanese in the more inland section of the Sanananda front had been in a nearly starving condition, with their uniforms and equipment badly knocked about, the main body of the enemy in this area had been fit and well-equipped. General Eichelberger paid a tribute to the Australian troops and their commander (Brigadier George Wootten) who made a break-through to the coast at Sanananda in a “victorygiving” manoeuvre.

Brigadier Wootten, -who is aged 49. fought in the Middle East and was largely responsible for the Japanese repulse at Milne Bay. He graduated from the military college at Duntroon. He served with distinction in the last war, reaching the rank of major, being admitted to the -Distinguished Service Order and being four times mentioned in despatches. He retired from tlie permanent forces in 1922 to become a solicitor. He was awarded a bax- to the D.S.O. in the Middle East, and for services in Papua he lias been decorated with the American Distinguished Service Cross.