INEFFECTIVE RAIDS

Marlborough Express, Volume LXXV, Issue 254, 28 October 1942, Page 5

INEFFECTIVE RAIDS

NO CHANGE IN NEW GUINEA ENEMY CLINGING TO POSITIONS..

P.A. Special.

SYDNEY, Oct. 28.

More extensive though ineffective Japanese air activity in the South-west Pacific area than for several weeks is reported in the latest communique from General MacArthur's Headquarters. Enemy aircraft were over Darwin, Port Moresby and Milne Bay on Sunday night, but only minor damage was done. Little significance is attached to this increased air activity. It is probable that the Japanese have merely taken advantage of the raiders' moon to maintain "face" while the crucial struggle is developing in the Solomons. Allied planes made four raids against the enemy's three. Targets at Koepang, Lae, Salamaua and Kokoda were attacked. The same formation of American B25s bombed Lae and Salamaua, Heavy anti-air-craft fire was encountered at both places, but there was no interception. Havocs and Kittyhawks strafed the trail from Kokoda up the Owen Stanleys. No change has occurred in the grcund situation. The fighting has been described as desultory. The Japanese are still clinging tenaciously to prepared positions near Alola village, only 11 air miles from Kokcda. They are fending Allied thrusts with artillery and mortar fire. Our advancing troops in the Owen Stanleys have found bullet-riddled and burned out huts in every village previously occupied by the Japanese. The discovery of dead enemy soldiers in the jungle is evidence of the effectiveness of the Allied air attacks. A Japanese soldier gave himself up to a native woman and a ten-year-old boy at Milne Bay on Friday. He was one of a party of 20 which -escaped in the bush last month.