AUSTRALIAN SUPPLY DIFFICULTIES

Southland Times, Issue 24870, 9 October 1942, Page 5

AUSTRALIAN SUPPLY DIFFICULTIES

PURSUIT OF ENEMY IN OWEN STANLEY RANGE (Special Australian Correspondent, N.Z.P.A.) (Rec. 9.40 p.m.) SYDNEY, October 8. ' “The incredibly difficult Owen Stanley range of mountains presents almost insuperable complications in the maintenance of supply lines to troop units of any size,” declares the latest communique from General Douglas MacArthur’s headquarters. “The enemy, as we expected, has discovered that his supply problems, aggravated by our constant air attacks, were impossible of immediate solution. His dislodgment at his farthest point of advance and the pursuit of his exhausted forces have been accomplished with practically no loss to our troops up to the present time. The same difficulties of terrain are now progressively slowing down the advance of our ground troops.” This is the full statement of today’s South-west Pacific headquarters communique. There has been no offensive activity by the opposing air forces. Allied planes made reconnaissance flights on Wednesday, but targets, so plentiful during the Japanese advance and subsequent retreat across the ranges, appear to have become scarce. For 30 days our air forces maintained an unbroken offensive against the enemy’s north Papuan base at Buna and his supply line over the ranges. The headquarters spokesman said today that the Australian advance was continuing, but progress was warily slow. The possibility of a Japanese trap for too venturesome attackers is not being overlooked. Some observers suggest that there are still at least small parties of enemy troops in the area of the Gap, but this is not officially confirmed. |

Native carriers who deserted from the Japanese say the enemy troops were in a sorry plight after weeks in the ranges. They were short of food and supplies and were suffering a high incidence of tropical diseases. While it is generally conceded that difficulties of terrain have been the greatest factor in forcing the Japanese retirement, The New York Times New Guinea correspondent, Byron Darnton, pays a tribute to the Australian troops who have “obliterated the myth of Japanese invincibility in mountain and jungle,” but he points out that, the enemy withdrew in good order and took with them a large amount of their equipment. „ „ Talk of the so-called “mystery surrounding the whereabouts of the Japanese forces is no doubt prompted mainly by the reticence of General MacArthur’s headquarters to release prematurely, information which may have been gathered from aerial and ground patrol activities. The only certainty at the present juncture of the campaign is that the Australian forces are wisely bent on establishing their forward positions and securing their supply line before moving further forward and they will not be lured into a helter-skelter chase after an unpredictable enemy. PACIFIC WAR COUNCIL “Theatre Relatively Quiet” (Rec. 7.25 p.m.) WASHINGTON, October 7. President Roosevelt told a meeting of the Pacific War Council that the Pacific theatre was relatively quiet. He added that although the situation was stationary the outlook was encouraging. The New Zealand representative, Mr W. Nash, stated after file meeting that the council had studied the Guadalcanar position, but there was no big news. There was a lull in the whole thing. The Canadian representative, Mr Leighton McCarthy, said the news from the Solomons was satisfactory, although not dramatic. ATTACK IN CHEKIANG (8.0.W.) RUGBY, October 7. The Chinese, attacking the twin cities of Kinhwa and Lanchi in Chekiang, drove a wedge in the Japanese lines in the eastern suburbs of Lanchi, says a Chungking communique. They are also cutting a spur of the railway between the two cities, thus making more precarious the position of the garrison of Lanchi, which is already hard pressed 'by the Chinese attacks, which have driven into the immediate outskirts.