IN BUNA AREA

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 86, Issue 308, 31 December 1942, Page 5

IN BUNA AREA

JAPANESE HOLDINGS VANISHING ALLIED THREAT TO ENEMY STRATEGY (Special Australian Correspondent—N.Z.P.A.) (Heed. 11.50 p.m.) Sydney, Dec. 30. The Japanese fortress Holdings in .the main Buna airfield area are whittled down close to vanishing point. Fierce fignting on Tuesday gave the Allies control of the territory between the airfields and the sea. The enemy still holds out at the end of the airfield. In the Buna Mission area the Allied forces also extended their control. An enemy pocket 1500 yards from the Mission, bypassed during the Christmas lignting, has now been mopped up. The Japanese, it is reveaied, are using naval pompoms in the bitter land fighting. Our artillery silenced several of these guns. The Japanese are also employing increased numbers of planes in efforts to assist the distressed remnants of their Buna garrison, but the vigilance of Allied lighter pilots prevented punishing attacks on our troops. Three Lightnings recorded an epic performance when they smashed a formation of 40 Japanese divebombers and Zeros. They dived amongst the bombers, scattering them like startled sheep, so that many of their jettisoned bombs fell on their own lines. The first escorting Zero on the scene was shot down. For about twenty minutes lhe ground battle paused to watch the aerial dogfights. Other Allied fighters joined the Lightnings and more losses were inflicted on the Japanese before the last Zeros turned for home.

In Tuesday's Allied air offensives Catalina flying-boats struck heavily at Kavieng, while Liberators bombed Gasmata and the Lae aerodrome. No fresh attacks on Japanese shipping at Rabaul have been reported, but it was revealed that an American Liberator pilot. Lieutenant James Crawford, of Illinois, waited for halt an hour over enemy territory to score the bomb hits which resultel in Monday’s probable destruction of a heavy cruiser in the harbour. When he first reached Rabaul heavy low clouds made precision bombing impossible. In the hope of an improvement in the conditions Lieut. Crawford flew to Jacquinot Bay, 120 miles away, where he waited until full daylight, when he returned to Rabaul. Clouds still hid the harbour area, but Lieut. Crawford raced his Liberator though an intense anti-aircraft barrage to score three direct hits on the cruiser from a low altitude. A fourth bomb fell close to the vessel.

“The desperate Japanese defence of Buna and their persistent attempt to operate an advanced aerodrome at Munda comprise delaying actions in-

tended to prevent the development of a direct Allied attack against Rabaul," says the New York Herald Tribune's military writer, Major Fielding Eliot. “The Japanese are fearful of a twopronged Allied drive, based on New Guinea and the Solomons, being launched before they are able to take counter-measures. Their anxiety is well founded since Rabaul is the keystone of the whole Japanese strategical fabric in the Southwest Pacific. Its loss would force them westward to Amboina Timor northward to Truk, which would become an exposed outpost position. Furthermore, the Carolines, the Marshalls and the Gilberts would be virtually surrounded and probably untenable. However, the establishment of an Allied submarine base at Rabaul would have a most important result, placing our excellent submarine lorce several hundred miles nearer the vital Japanese sea lanes an increasing tremendously the already powerful pressure on Japanese shipping resources and lines of communication. For this reason especially Japan is expected to make every effort to postpone the day when the Australian flag will be hoisted again over Rabaul s fine harbour."