Nelson Evening Mail. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1942 CAUGHT IN A TRAP

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 1 September 1942, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1942 CAUGHT IN A TRAP

( WHEN Australian newspapermen wrote their dispatches describing j the situation in the Milne Bay area ■ i 0.l Papua as “grave they were unI aware of what the Allied defenders had up their sleeves. If the Japan- « esc could land and go on landing j troops in this big bay on the south- ! j eastern tip of New Guinea without < ! effective opposition then clearly they < ! were opening up a new threat to j Port Moresby. But the Allied leaders evidently remembered Lawrence p of Arabia. Anticipating that the j - enemy would come to Milne Bay they! , prepared for his reception with I < great secrecy. They did not dis- j 1 turb operations to begin with but ' when the position looked so bad that! the correspondents became agitated l , about it, unleashed a surprise blowjl which administered a severe rebuff p to the nicely-calculated Japanese; enterprise. We do not yet know the: I full story of this excellently co-ordi-j Mated land and air stroke but it is; , well summed up by a sentence in ;1 General MacArthur's communique: ' < The enemy fell into a trap with}’ disastrous loss to himself. , 1 Those troops landed which were not, 1 able to get away again by sea have ' been or are being liquidated. This sharp local defeat of still j i another enemy attempt to get within! 5 striking distance of the last big Allied; ] base in New Guinea is encouraging, i It would be easy, however, to exag-j 1 gerate its importance and we canfj applaud the cleverness in conception i , and execution without believing thati 1 Milne Bay settles the issue in Papua, j 1 Of course it does not, but it is a further revelation of the resourceful- 1 \ ness of Allied troops and the readi-! < ness of their commanders to exploit! the cunning which the Japanese' have used so well in their amphibi- i ous warfare. The goal of all their;’ efforts in Papua is clearly Port.’ Moresby. Since they captured the ( bases of Lae and Salamaua on thej< j opposite side of the island they have : < I used the river valleys to penetrate 1 inland as far as Kokoda, towards the foot of the Owen Stan-j, ley range which runs like a back- i bone down the centre of south Pa- 1 5 pua. The mountains are a formid- ■ able barrier, but after what the Jap- 1 anese have accomplished elsewhere jj in difficult country, it would be folly , to assume that they are impassable, j, The difficulties of this cross-country! < route to their chosen objective were l apparent when they forsook it tem- ; porarily and made a bid by sea | to reach the opposite coast. Then. I ensued the battle of the Coral Sea ( and, wherever the Japanese were j bound for when that action was,j fought, it put an effective stopper toil j their plans. Lately activity round 1 Kokoda and Bulolo has been increas- , ing. This may have been a feint. At any rate the latest sea-borne ex-j 1 pedition planned to ignore the Owen ; j Stanley range by going round it., ( Milne Bay is some 200 miles from J Port Moresby. The route between ' the two has many lakes and rivers I ( which would offer obstacles to an ad- . vance. The Japanese knew this but. < once safely ashore at the Bay in < force, they would probably plan to J filter , up the coast by a combination •; 5 of land and sea advances such as i they used to outflank the defenders!’ along the Burma coastline. Or they j might have judged their strength , sufficient for a land advance. The \ particular scheme has fallen through j ? because intelligent anticipation fore-. 1 saw its design and prepared a coun- 1 ter. Biding their time Australian soldiers and American and Austra-; \ lian airmen fell upon the invaders s and destroyed most of them, together! l with’ their equipment, including;, tanks. 1 c In the complete narrative of the: ' wider Pacific war it is unlikely that.,] the Milne Bay episode will have more. 1 than a brief mention. Yet it is im- j f portant at this time both as a wel-' come example of the rewards which. 1 come to initiative and as a set-back 1 ; to enemy ambitions. These have j ; already been dealt smarting blows in j j the Solomons; Milne Bay will fur-! c j ther shake confidence and act as a ] portent of how the tide is beginning;, to flow against Japan through her It island conquests. Strategically the j £ action throws into bolder relief the : 1 significance of Port Moresby as a j ! base and the Japanese realisation j i ! that it is one of the main obstacles j * v to a further southward advance. This j 1 sharp set-back will not prevent them! j. from trying again, but in future they' , w ill probably be more careful to! f

| guard against the Kangaroo in amI bush in the jungle when outwardly . everything appears to be proceeding : according to plan.