STOP PRESS

Evening Star, Issue 24288, 1 September 1942, Page 6

STOP PRESS

NEAY GUINEA OPERATIONS. SYDNEY. September I. —The Japanese forces trapped in the corner of the northern peninsula of' Milne Buy are being systematically exterminated by Australian troops. 'High officers do not expect the surrender of the remaining enemy troops and believe they will offer 'bitter nsisianee to the last. Ucanmenlator.s express surprise at the ovarnatinn )’:y tho Japanese forces, ipresumaibly by enemy warships, which left the 'bay on Sunday. It is pointed out that invariably Japanese military policy is to fight to the death against any od.ds in order to gain the objective. Sonic observers connect the disappearance of warships with the battle for the Solomons and 'believe tho ships may have joined .the great enemy naval concentration which will make a hid to shatter the Allied fleet and land rcoccnpying forces on the six islands mow held by Americans. (However, whatever the reason for the Japanese departure, Milne Bay is an important strategic gain. As avail, a tremendous moral victory lias been .won by our forces. Mention of captured tanks is the first official 'revelation that the Japanese iiad landed armoured fighting vehicles in New Guinea. The use of tanks emphasises that the enemy move at Milne Bay was intended to be a major holding operation. A considerable part was played by Allied air forces in the 'Milne Bay operations. It is now (being revealed that the Australian troops who on Sunday trudged through heavy mud and dense jungle to Kobule Mission, where the enemy made the initial landing on Wednesday, found only one live Japanese. He was seriously wounded and has since died. Scores of dead Japanese were found Iby our advancing troops. LIGHTING IN RUSSIA. RUGBY, August 31.—A Soviet communique, for the fifth consecutive time, reports no material changes. Thus for two and a-half days i apparently the Germans, despite the intensity of the Stalingrad battle, have failed to advance. On, the Rjev front the Russians recaptured several localities. iAIIR TRANSPORT (FLYERS. The N.'Z.P.A.’s special London correspondent cables: Throe Now Zealand girls are now serving In the Air Transport Auxiliary— Trevor Hunter and Jane iWinstone, both of Wanganui, and Betty Black, of Dunedin. Misses Hunter and Black have both got their wings, while Miss Wihstoue, who recently arrived, is at present carrying out preliminary training. Their job is chiefly to ferry aircraft from the factories to 11.A.F. stations.