TWO TO ONE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 January 1943, Page 3

TWO TO ONE

JAPANESE LOSSES OF MEN IN PAPUA REVERSAL OF THE USUAL RESULTS. OF GROUND OFFENSIVE CAMPAIGN. (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) SYDNEY, January 28. Two Japanese soldiers have been lost for every Allied soldier who fell in the Papuan campaign. The Allied figures of losses take into account not. merely the men killed and wounded, but also those who were withdrawn from the battle because of sickness. In the air our losses, compared with those of the Japanese, were even lower than those on land, and at sea our casualties were neglible.

This satisfactory balance-sheet for the Papuna campaign is part of today’s communique from General MacArthur’s headquarters. No actual figures of the losses are given. The official statement declares: “These figures reverse the usual results of a ground offensive campaign, specially against prepared positions defended to the last, when the losses of the attacker are usually several times those of the defender. Two factors contributed to this result: (1) There was no necessity to hurry our attack, because the time element in this case was of little importance. (2) For this reason no attempt was made to rush the positions by mass and unprepared ..assault.

“The utmost care was taken with the conservation of our forces, with the result that probably no campaign in history against such a thoroughly prepared and trained army has produced such complete and decisive results with a lower expenditure of life and resources.”