CAMPAIGN IN NEW QUINEA

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVI, Issue 22968, 11 August 1944, Page 5

CAMPAIGN IN NEW QUINEA

Japanese Troops Being Annihilated

(Rec. 8.30 pan.) SYDNEY, Aug. 10. Frontline troops of the Japanese. 18th Army encircled near Aitape, British New Guinea, are being annihilated. The total of known enemy dead since July 11 on this front has increased to 7007. An additional 1072 were counted on Monday. Only 77 Japanese prisoners have been taken. The casualties of the attacking Americans have been light. Two American columns, in a coordinated pincer movement, closed on the rear' of the enemy’s forward elements, cutting them off from the main Japanese forces. The country in which the enemy units are trapped is difficult fighting terrain. Large patrols might pass within.a short distance of each other without making contact. Tire greatest bomb load dropped in one day by a medium bomber unit in any war theatre is claimed for. the R.A.A.F. Beaufort group operating against General Adachi's 18th Army. In 69 sorties in a single day they dropped 128,5001b5. of bombs. Ground crews averaged only 10 minutes in refuelling and rebombing the machines between the landing and take-off. A second Allied strike into the Philippines area was recorded by General MacArthur's communique today. Tins was a night bombing attack on a 2000-ton enemy freighter off Davao on the south-east coast of Mindanao on Monday. The only previous Allied raid in the Philippines sector since early in 1942 was the sinking of a 100-foot coastal vessel by a South-west Pacific Liberator 70 miles off Mindanao on July 22. Medium bombers attacked Morotai Islands in the Hahnahera group. 250 miles from the forward Allied base of Sansapor in Dutch New Guinea, and a stepping stone to the Philippines. The Allied sea blockade has been extended rapidly to the remaining Japanese base at the western end of Dutch New Guinea. Patrol torpedoboats have been reported near Sorong, 60 miles west of Sanspor, where they harassed coastal shipping.