JAPANESE IN PAPUA

Waikato Times, Volume 131, Issue 21910, 14 December 1942, Page 3

JAPANESE IN PAPUA

FEROCIOUS FIGHTING poundincTby ALLIES (United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright) (Special Australian correspondent) SYDNEY, Dec. 13 The Japanese forces are maintaining their desperate stand at Buna and are fighting with undiminished ferocity from an intricate system of underground defences. Strongpoints ingeniously connected by tunnels pour out a hail of fire against Allied attacks. The whole area is under ceaseless pounding by Allied artillery and air bombardment, as well as infantry assaults. Small Allied gains were reported on Friday before heavy tropical rains temporarily halted land activity. Japanese troops surrounded on the Sanananda trail made a vain effort to burst a way out. According to General MacArthur’s communique they were repulsed with severe losses by combined American and Australian forces.

Four miles to the east in the Buna area Horrii’s besieged force has been split in two. Allied troops penetrating between Buna village and Buna mission are developing strong offensive positions. But the enemy network of underground defences, coupled with the swampy nature of the country, slows down the Allied task of routing out the Japanese. The siege of Buna is in its 31st day. While Allied 25-pounders and 105millimetre howitzers are shelling fortres§ strongpoints, Australian Wirraway dive-bombers and American Marauders have been destroying Japanese supply dumps, antiaircraft and artillery emplacements. Allied bombers on Saturday also attacked the aerodrome, runways and dispersal areas at Salamaua. At Lae Allied crews saw many wrecked Japanese planes hit in earlier raids. Ghastly Carnage War correspondents who have inspected the Japanese fortress area at Gona write of the ghastly carnage which was revealed at the end of the long and difficult siege. In the final day of the grim slaughter fanatical Japanese, who had endured incredible hardships, committed suicide rather than surrender. An official announcement that 638 Japanese were killed in the final stages of the battle represents only the number of dead actually buried by Allied soldiers. Many more lie along the beach and in coconut plantations. Allied patrols scouting among the swamps west of Gona surprised a group of the enemy who had escaped from the village and wiped them out. “Over the grimness of this horrible scene Shone the gallantry of the Australian soldiers,” says the Sydney Sunday Sun’s correspondent. “Each man fought not only the enemy, but mud, fever and shortage of food.”