STUBBORN BRAVERY

Evening Star, Issue 24324, 13 October 1942, Page 2

STUBBORN BRAVERY

THE JAPANESE SOLDIER KEEPS SHOOTING THOUGH WOUNDED (N.Z.P.A. Special Aust. Correspondent) SYDNEY, Oct. 11. “ Before tho peculiar hand grenade used by the Japanese in New Guinea is used, the thrower has to blow it,” says a wounded Australian soldier now back from the fighting in the Owen Stanley Ranges. “The Japanese thought our grenades worked on the same principle. One ■ day we saw an enemy party with some or our grenades which they had captured. One Japanese soldier removed the pin and began blowing into tho grenade. It blew him to pieces.” Stories of almost incredible hardships along the precipitous tracks of the New Guinea mountains are told by sick and wounded troops returning to Australia. They tell of nights spent in the open lying in the mud under drenching rain, of the devotion of the natives, and of the stubborn bravery of the Japanese soldiers, some of whom are more than Gft tall. The properlytrained Australian commando is superior to the Japanese, these returned soldiers claim. They base tlieir opinion on the fact that the Australian casualties in a series of harassing raids on the enemy bases at Lae and Salamaua have been practically nil. Most of tlie Australian raids in this area wore made at night. “We would watch an enemy post for days,” one soldier explained. “Wo would learn tlie strength of the enemy force and its routine. Each of our men would be given a certain job to do. Then we would hop in, clean the place up, and disappear in the jungle.” “ You have to kill the Japanese to stop them,” declared another man. •“ You can wound them severely, but they still keep coming even if _ they can only crawl, shooting all the time.”