STILL DRIVING ON

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20915, 15 October 1942, Page 3

STILL DRIVING ON

AUSTRALIAN UNITS PAPUAN MOUNTAINS JAPANESE FORCED BACK (By Teiejjrapn—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Special Australian Correspondent.) (10.30 a.m.) SYDNEY, Oct. 15. Australian troops have penetrated the Japanese positions astride the Owen Stanley Range trail south of Templeton’s Crossing, just past the summit of the ranges. They are still driving on. The strength of the enemy forces in the area has not been announced. Skirmishes in which Tommy-gun fire was exchanged occurred after opposing patrols had stalked each other on Monday. It was reported yesterday that determined frontal and flank actions finally drove the Japanese from their foxholes, trenches and machine-gun posts and that the Australians are now approaching Templeton’s Crossing, which is on the edge of the northern slopes of the ranges at the junction of alternative trails through Kagi and Myola, both of which are already in the hands of our forces. The latest report that the Australian advance is continuing encourages the belief that further good news from the New Guinea front may be expected. Most of the war commentators believe that once Templeton’s Crossing is passed, the Japanese are unlikely to offer strong resistance until Kokoda is reached, at the foot of the ranges—a drop of 5000 ft. down the 12 miles trail. No Estimate of Losses No estimate has been given of the number of casualties inflicted on the Japanese, but the Australian losses during the whole advance are stated to have been light. More men have been brought back to hospital suffering tropical diseases than from wounds. Commenting on the morale of the advancing Austi’alian troops, the Sydney Morning Herald war correspondent, writing from New Guinea, says: “I think these men went into the fray this time in precisely the appropriate frame of mind. They did not go along the track singing and happy and making flamboyant statements about their anxiety to meet the Japanese. Nobody sings and nobody can be thoroughly happy in the rain§odden, stinking jungles of New Guinea, which are infested with all those things which fly, creep or crawl and pester man during his waking and sleeping hours. Australians Angry “These fellows have gone back into battle as angry as the devil at the Japanese for having made them tramp twice through the Owen Stanley Range. They told me they would square things up when they got into action. Their thinking is right in tune with that of a senior Australian officer plugging his way through to the front line. On his way he had addressed groups of soldiers. Wherever he has met them the usual tone of his remarks has been: ‘This/ time we are going to beat the little yellow blanks, and I promise you you will not have to walk back over these mountains. You will come back from Buna either by boat or aeroplane.’ “If the High Command strategy is in tune with the spirit of this senior officer’s remarks, the Australian advance will not cease until the Japanese are driven out of their north Papuan strongholds. A campaign so far from the Allied base at Port Moresby, however, would present grave difficulties.” Evidence that the Japanese are still in some strength around Buna is found in a report from General MacArthur’s headquarters that American Havoc attack bombers, with a fighter escort, on Tuesday made a sweep oVer the Wairopi area and also strafed enemy barges on the beach. Heavy bombers made a night raid on the aerodrome at Buna with unknown results.