JAPS. IN PAPUA

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 174, 25 July 1942, Page 5

JAPS. IN PAPUA

FIVE ALLIED RAIDS

Invaders Lose Heavily During Landing Operations

Special Australian Correspondent.

SYDNEY, July 24. Allied aircraft are hitting hard at [anriintP ane '? e force . w hich made a landing early on Wednesday morno" Pa'oua ? U nli' " n the north coast ot Jr-apua. To-day s communique from General Mac Arthur's Headquarters discloses that five fierce attacks were made against the remainder of the convoy and against landed troops. A direct hit was scored on a 5000ton transport believed to have been loaded with gasoline. The ship was ablaze. This transport is now stated to have been the third either sunk or damaged since our reconnaissance first located the convoy. On Tuesday a direct hit on a transport was claimed. On Wednesday a 10 000ton transport and a landing barge were sunk.

No official details of the size of the convoy have been given, but it is known to have been escorted by warships, including cruisers, destroyers and minesweepers. The Allied communique states that medium and dive-bombers, as well as fighters were used in Thursday's attacks. Allies Use Dive-Bombers Allied dive-bombers are mentioned for the first time in the raid on Gonna. At the same time fighters silenced an anti-aircraft battery and attacked other enemy installations. A small enemy vessel was attacked by other fighters north of Salamaua. "The dangerous fallacy that the Japanese would remain static in the Pacific has been exploded." says the Sun in an editorial article. "The essence of her strategy is offensive action." Admitting that the latest enemy move may be of an offensive-defen-sive kind, the Sydney Morning Herald declares it to be "none the less challenging and dangerous. It increases the need for Allied haste in preparations to seize the initiative in the South-west Pacific and drive Japan from the island bases which she is steadily consolidating." The Australian Prime Minister, Mr. Curtin, commenting on the Japanese landing at the Papuan port of Buna, and the resulting threat to Port Moresby, said that it shows that since the Coral Sea and Midway Island battles the Japanese had been working like beavers to build up their strength. "There can be only one answer," he added. "We must work like beavers, too. We had a breathing space, but the menace to Australia, which is a constant menace, will not disappear until the Japanese have been utterly defeated."