BRILLIANT WORK

Timaru Herald, Volume CLV, Issue 22791, 15 January 1944, Page 5

BRILLIANT WORK

Australian Patrol Units

Roaming Behind Enemy

N.Z.P.A.r-Special Australian Correspondent

(Rec. 8.30 p.m.) SYDNEY, Jan. 14. Brilliant patrol work by a selected Australian unit is proving an important factor -in speeding up the war in the South-west Pacific.

For months one special force in Ramu Valley (New Guinea) has been detached from the main body of the Australian forces and has operated behind the Japanese lines. Supplies have been dropped to them from the air. These are the men who, early in the war against Japan, won renown as the famous commandos of Timo’’. For many months they made harassing raids from a secret base in the hinterland of that island. Their activities provoked the Japanese to offer lavish rewards for their betrayal. In recent months the unit has roamed behind the Japanese lines in New Guinea. As well as gaining invaluable reconnaissance information, its men have killed about 100 Japanese With small loss to themselves. Their s. outs were the first to supply information about th dispositions in the Finisterre Ranges. These enemy positions are now under attack by the main Australian force. One of the most notable patrol exploits of the unit has been to cross the Finisterre Ranges and reach within a dozen miles of the important Japanese coastal supply base of Bogadjim, only 20 miles below Madang. The patrol took a month to accomplish its mission.

Way Prepared for Invasion News of a brilliant patrol in the South-west Pacific Sea (just released) tells how four nights before United States Marines landed at Cape Gloucester (New Britain) on Boxing Day, an Australian naval man landed on a Japanese-held beach. He is Lieutenant Eric Howitt, of Brisbane, formerly captain of the Adminstration yacht operating from Rabaul .and. now attached to an American patrol tor-pedo-boat unit as pilot. To prepare the way for the invasion at Cape Gloucester, Lieutenant Howitt led a convoy of torpedo-boats to a boint near the airstrips, where one landing was later made. For three hours during the night members of the convoy took soundings and located hidden reefs. The accomplishment of their mission was largely responsible for the bloodless nature, of the initial landings. It is officially reported that the total American casualties at Cape Gloucester since the landings are 400 killed; wounded or missing, compared with 2400 counted Japanese dead and a great number of wounded.