SKIRMISHES IN NEW GUINEA

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 14, 12 October 1942, Page 5

SKIRMISHES IN NEW GUINEA

Australians Cross Top Of Ranges

SLOW PROGRESS (By Telegraph.—Press Assn. —Copyright.) (Special Australian Correspondent.) (Received October 11, 10.30 p.m.) , SYDNEY, October 11. Advance Australian troops have been skirmishing with. Japanese patrols in central Papua. The encounters occurred in. the Myola-Templeton’s Crossing area of the Owen Stanley Ranges, just north of Hell’s Gap. Today s communique from General MacArthur's headquarters, however, says that no further contact has occurred with the enemy in the past 24 hours. The Australians’ drive in New Guinea has now crossed the summit of the ranges. Myola is 10 miles beyond the Gap, and only 15 miles from the Japanese-held airfield at Kokoda, at the

northern foothills of the ranges. War correspondents say that the Australian advance is still progressing slowly. Enemy patrol’activity at the summit of the ranges was on a small scale, and according to the headquarters spokesman had no special significance. The presence of a large enemy force in the area could not be concluded. This was the only organized Japanese activity encountered in 11 days—since the opposing forces clashed at loribaiwa, the first position reoccupied by the Australians in their z drive across the ranges. No reports have been received of large enemy concentrations. - Allied Bombing. Along the Kokoda trail, Allied aircraft continue to attack “targets of opportunity,” but the presence of enemy personnel has not been revealed. At the foot of the steep northern slopes of the ranges, the Japanese earlier constructed fortifications near Kokoda. There is no indication that the Australians have yet begun the descent of these slopes. Nineteen miles north of Kokoda, where the Wairopi bridge crosses the swift-flowing Kumusi River, is increasingly nominated by war commentators as the most favourable and likely point for any Japanese stand. No further Allied air attacks have been'made on this repeatedly-damaged bridge which, according to the New Guinea correspondent of the. “New York Times,” (Byron Darnton, earlier “gained too great a reputation for durability,” because of the rapidity and persistence with which it was repaired by Japanese engineering units.