FIERCE AS EVER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 December 1942, Page 3

FIERCE AS EVER

FIGHTING AROUND BUNA SOME FURTHER ALLIED GAINS. TANKS HINDERED BY SWAMPY GROUND. (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY. December 28. Fierce local actions are marking the Allied efforts to breach the last Japanese defences at the end of the main Buna airstrip and around the Buna mission station in New Guinea. General MacArthur's communique describes the fighting as "sanguinary.” Gains have been made. In the airfield area important gun emplacements were captured, while a wedge was driven into the enemy defence system around the mission. A slight advance was made near Sanananda, which has been described as the "core of the Japanese beach-head fortress.” One reason contributing to the slow Allied progress is that our offensive plan is aimed at the complete annihilation of the enemy and is designed to keep our own losses to a minimum. With adequate supplies and superiority in all arms, our forces arc intent on battering and starving the Japanese out of their holes rather than forcing the issue in costly infantry attacks. Nevertheless, the gains have not been cheaply made. With the Japanese garrison remnants gradually being split up into smaller pockets, the battle scene at Buna is becoming confused. The Australians and Americans have now fought their way to the government station garden south-east Of the mission. This is a substantial bite into the supply line and defence chain linking the two central points of Japanese resistance at Buna—-the airfield and the mission. > DRIVE TOWARDS COAST. Another slanting drive is aimed at reaching the coast cast of the mission. The success of this drive will bring the beachhead campaign at Buna to the mopping-up stage, leaving the enemy only a 300-yard strip of fortress. But the advances are proving difficult. The Japanese fortifications are planned in depth and by avoiding one strongpoint our men have frequently found themselves under fire from a covering strongpoint. Many of these are so stoutly constructed as to defy our artillery fire. Their own fire is directed by snipers posted in trees. Often the 13-ton General Stuart tanks, which are the effective answer to these emplacements, have been defeated by the swampy nature of the ground. A, human limit is also placed on the tanks’ accomplishments by the hot steamy climate of Papua. War correspondents report that Christmas Day for our front-line troops attacking the fortress area was “much the same as other days.” The men will have to wait for the inevitable end of the Buna campaign for their promised comforts.