ARTILLERY’S PART

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 21, 20 October 1943, Page 5

ARTILLERY’S PART

N.Z. Victory On Vella Lavella (Official War Correspondent, N.Z.E.F.) VELLA LAVELLA, October 11. Perspiring gunners of a New Zealand artillery regiment pumped 251 b. shells at the rate of more than five rounds a minute into the Japanese lines at one Stage of the campaign that pushed tho enemy off Vella Lavella. One gun in the short 13 minutes of the barrage got 72 rounds away, an amazing performance in the slipperiness of the mud and sweat. Artillery played a big part in the New Zeaian'ders’ victory. Unable to make more Hhan painstakingly slow progress against an enemy well concealed in the jungle, the infantry called for artillery support on the second day of the action to drive the enemy from the slopes of a gully where mach-ine-gun nests had inflicted several casualties on New Zealand patrols. “Machinegun Gully,” as it is known, lay right in the path of our advance, and though we had- it surrounded, the prevalence of snipers threatened to make the task of its capture a long an'd expensive one. Shells Plaster Slopes. Late in the afternoon, a gunnery officer crept to the head of the gully and registered the guns while Japanese bullets flew perilously close to his observation post. Tie then retired. All that night shells were hurled at. intervals of a few minutes, plastering the slopes, and .in the morning 30 (lend Japanese were found when the infantry moved in. Batrages from the big guns assisted in clearing the enemy from each successive position he took up, gave him little time to consolidate, and shattered his hopes of posting snipers in trees flanking the jungle tracks. Exploding in the high topis of the forest, shell fragments smashed trees and scattered shrapnel through the undergrowth. The Japanese had only one course open—to beat a retreat.