READY FOR JAPS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 232, 1 October 1943, Page 4

READY FOR JAPS

N.Z. TROOPS IN PACIFIC ( MOVE TO FORWARD AREA (Official War Correspondent—N.Z.B.V.) Guadaicanar. Sept. 28. - The New Zealand Division >n the Pacific is on the move. It left its lon"-he1d base at New Caledonia for battle islands of the forward area, where the fit. well-trained soldiers now wait a chance to come to grips , with the Japanese. Only a few weeks ago Major-Gen-eral H. E. Barrowclough. D. 5.0., M.C., told the men of his command: “The A chance for which you have waited so B long is coming soon.” His words put f new life into the Dominion troops and added zest to the men’s training and keenness to their anticipation, so that ' by the time the first elements moved . from the southern island their spirits 1 were higher than they had been for I many months, and the results of training were evident in the bronzed fit- 1 ness of all ranks.

The voyage north proved uneventful. as did the landing on shores that had been the scene of earlier fighting in this Pacific war. A burned-out tank B rusted by exposure and corroded b; ■ salt water, lay partly buried in the sand. Abandoned landing craft sprawl- ' eci a 100 yards or so away. Wire entanglements lay twined in the vines of the short-fringed jungle, and here and there a New Zealander found rusty booby-traps which might or might not have lost their potence. The "might not” had it and the booby trans stayed where they lay. Evidence of war lay bare to the view at many points. Barren trunks of coconut palms had had their foliage blasted by shell. Bomb-seared trees - noked gauntly through the green jungle where some explosion had occurred months ago. Now and again bulldozers brought unexploded sheila to the surface, anfl sometimes a helmet. binoculars or clips of Japanese cartridges.

The New Zealanders marched or drove to camp sites along wide, smooth roads, cut among the palms. They pitched camps among hills and valleys to catch the cooling breezes that tempered the heat, and smartly dug foxholes for shelter in case of an isolated Japanese air raid. Officers and men lined up in queues for a hastily but well-cooked and welcome meal, and in the cool of the evening were re’dy to climb under the protection %f mosquito nets for a night's rest. Unexpectedly the mosquitoes are less prevalent than in New Caledonia, and were it not for the chance that an. odd malarial type might zoom in, the nets would have been superfluous. The noble art of face-slapping so keenly developed in the southern island found no outlet for its play. There are. of course, a few snakes, smallish ones about the thickness of a man's thumb and up to three feet long, the scurrying iguana, and hordes of tiny inserts. Such inconveniences passed b-nrely noticed in the bustle of administration, the roar of trucks and stores from the beaches shifted to inland dumps. Terraces carved from the hillsides formed roads for the traffic, and level stretches for tents. Rations of tinned goods piled quickly up, and fresh bread from the New Zealanders’ own bakery was turned out at the rate of more than 100 loaves an hour. With customary thoroughness the New Zealanders had transplanted their home to a new location. They were ready to move again at a moment’s notice, ready to strike whenever and wherever the call should come. The boredom and seeming futility of garrison duties had passed. A future worthy of the name lay ahead. They would meet it as their friends and brothers had done in the Middle East, with skill and determination.