BEATING JAPANESE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 57, 4 September 1943, Page 7

BEATING JAPANESE

NECESSARY TACTICS

Rec. noon. . SYDNEY, Sept. 4. Patience and encirclement tactics are required to overcome the Japanese in jungle fighting, according to MajorGeneral S. G. Savige, who has been in command of the operations m the Wav and Salamaua areas for,, five months. The enemy has been taught that encirclement is all-important and soon becomes defeatist when this method is turned against him, the general said.

The invincibility of the Japanese soldier is a myth. His screaming in battle is intended not so much to frighten his opponent as to keep up his own courage. He has no desire whatever to join his ancestors, but when he gets into a foxhole he does not know what to do and acts rashly.

The Japanese soldier is a slow thinker, and even if he had his rifle to his shoulder when an Australian spotted him, the Australian would probably shoot him first. "Our men are better bushmen than the Japanese," said Major-General Savige. "In the Wav and Salamaua campaign our troops have had the utmost contempt for the enemy. As an example of Japanese stupidity," the general said, "once when Australians mischievously set up a din with tins it startled the Japanese on a neighbouring hillside so much that they stood up and fired in all directions, exposing their positions.

"Another time, in an ambush near Mt. Tambu, two Japanese were found skulking in foxholes within 10 yards of some bitter hand-to-hand fighting. One was munching a biscuit, the other was whittling a stick. Neither appeared greatly concerned about the outcome of the struggle."