AUSTRALIAN DRIVE

Marlborough Express, Volume LXXVI, Issue 246, 19 October 1942, Page 5

AUSTRALIAN DRIVE

JAPANESE FALLING BACK HARD GOING IN OWEN STANLEYS. P.A. Special. SYDNEY, Oct. 18. Australian troops in New Guinea's Owen Stanley Ranges have driven the Japanese from their positions near Templeton's Crossing on the northern side of the Gap. This is revealed in the latest communique from General MacArthur's headquarters. The first Japanese withdrawal was on Friday, but no official Allied claims were made. The latest information makes it clear, however, that this strategie area of mountain heights is now back in Allied hands. No indication has been given of whether the enemy's withdrawal from Templeton's Crossing means that they have entirely vacated the ranges. However, it is widely believed among war eommentators that, once the Japanese were forced to return from their positions in the heights, they would withdraw at least to the flat country round Kokoda, 12 miles by trail and 5000 feet below Templeton's Crossing.

For some days before this further enemy retreat, Australian troops had been in steady contact with the Japanese and fierce fighting occurred. Loth sides employed mortars, with the Australians making strong frontal and flanking attacks. The enemy dei'enees were in considerable depth in rough, rocky country covered with jungle much lighter than on the lower slopes of the mountains. BEADLY GRENADES. The advancing Australians are reported to have found hand grenades the most effective weapon against the Japanese hidden in their artfully ooncealed foxholes. High tribute is paid to the doctors and medical orderlies accompanying th» Australian advance. Frequently, doctors have worked ankle deep in mud, operating on wounded men in grass huts lighted only by dimmed k°rosene lamps. Enormous problems of supply have also been overcome to reach an area six days' normal trail distance from the heat of the road at Port Moresby. EARDSHIPS OF THE CAMPAIGN. Commenting on this important success in the New Guinea campaign, the Sydney Sun war correspondent writes: "The early quick advance and reports of small casualties and apparent absence of Japanese in strength may have led to the belief that this has been an easy campaign. But every man who has trodden the track through the jungle, slept tired and muscle-torn in wet clothes, lived for weeks on iron rations and suffered incredible discomforts, has suffered hardships as great as those faced by any early explorers. To these have been added Japanese . tree-top snipers' active skirmishes and aggressive flank patrols' of the communiques and direct attacks against mortar and machine-gun positions." Allied aircraft have continued straflng attacks in the Buna-Kokoda area. Japanese positions near Mubo village, inland from Salamaua, have also been bombed and armed reconnaissance planes machinegunned enemy occupied villages at the mouth and in the valley of the Mambare River, 50 miles north-west of Buna. Reports of these air activities indicate some spread of the Japanese occupation of the northern New Guinea eoastline.