USUAL PRICE REVERSED

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 106, 29 January 1943, Page 5

USUAL PRICE REVERSED

Papuan Campaign (Received January 28, 9.50 p.m.) SYDNEY, January 28. Two Japanese soldiers have been lost for every Allied soldier who fell in the Papuan campaign. The Allied figures losses take into account not merely the men killed aud wounded, but also those who were withdrawn from the battle because of sickness. In the air our losses, compared with those of the Japanese, were even lower than those on land, and at sea our casualties were negligible. This satisfactory balance-sheet for the Papuan campaign is part of today's communique from General MacArthur s headquarters. No actual figures of the losses are given. The official statement declares: these figures reverse the usual results of a ground offensive campaign, specially against prepared positions defended to the last, when the losses of the attacker are usually several times those of the defender. Two factors contributed to this result: (1) There was no necessity to hurry our attack, because the time element in this case was of little importance. (2) For this reason no attempt was made to rush the positions by mass and unprepared assault. “The utmost care was taken with the conservation of our forces, with the result that probably no campaign in history against such a thoroughly prepared and trained army has produced such complete and decisive results with a lower expenditure of life and resources.” The total number of Japanese killed who were counted in the Sanananda area of Papua has reached 2952, with an estimated additional 1090 dead from tropical diseases. These figures do not inelude those buried by the Japanese, nor does it embrace enemy losses in the other section of the Buna-Gona beachhead. The total number of prisoners taken in the Sananauda area, including Korean coolies, was 120. One of the last Japanese casualties at Sanananda was a colonel, who tried unsuccessfully to shoot an Australian artillery brigadier some days after the fighting had ceased.