FURTHER JAPANESE LANDING IN PAPUA

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 203, 28 August 1942, Page 3

FURTHER JAPANESE LANDING IN PAPUA

MAY BE SHALL FORCE

420 Miles From Nearest

Port In Australia

Special Australian Correspondent

United Press Association—Copyright

SYDNEY, Aug. 27.

Japanese forces have landed at Milne Bay, on the south-east tip of New Guinea, states an announcement made by General Mac Arthur's Headquarters. Our forces anticipated the movement and have made contact with the enemy. The landing was made with heavy losses in the face of fierce attacks by Flying Fortresses, Marauder medium bombers and Kittyhawks. Extremely bad weather probably assisted the enemy landings by hampering the Allied air attacks, but the convoy has since taken a relentless hammering. Our planes have sunk a transport, heavily damaged and probably sunk a cruiser and damaged a destroyer. Six landing barges were also destroyed and fires were started among supplies ashore. Our air attacks are reported to be continuing and in spite of adverse weather they are being pressed home from low altitudes.

Milne Bay, near Samarai,. is 220 miles east and slightly south of Port Moresby, and 420 miles from the closest point on the Australian mainland.

The convoy from which the enemy landed was attacked by our fighterbombers near Trobriand Islands, 110 miles east of New Guinea, on Tuesday, when a gunboat was sunk and two transports hit. The statement that the convoy was small is believed to indicate that the enemy troops landed are not in large numbers. Sheltered Waters in Bay Milne Bay offers sheltered waters, and a move by the' enemy in this direction has been anticipated since the Buna landing a few weeks ago. Milne Bay is about 10 miles wide across the entrance and 20 miles deep. The foreshores are flat and fringed with mangroves. There are no big settlements, but the area is one of the most cultivated in New Guinea. Several crocodile-infested creeks run into the bay.

The enemy landings were made without air support. Some observers suggest this lack of an air umbrella is connected with the spectacular Allied coups against grounded Japanese fighters at Buna. Thirteen planes were destroyed in the raids on Tuesday and on Wednesday six more were added, making a total of 19 planes destroyed in two days. The fact that the Japanese have been caught off their guard on two successive days supports the contention expressed by a Headquarters' spokesman that it will be difficult for the enemy to establish an air base in this new sector of Papua in the face of our air opposition.

Our aircraft flying across the Owen Stanley Range give little warning of their approach to the Japanese, and conversely our ground forces on the northern side of the ranges are able to give adequate warning to Port Moresby when enemy aircraft are about to make attacks.