New Guinea Jungle Patrols Undergo Unusual Hardships

Taranaki Daily News, 28 August 1942, Page 3

New Guinea Jungle Patrols Undergo Unusual Hardships

Stories of heroism behind prosaic words. Sydney, Aug. 21. "Our patrols have been active. . . Behind this prosaic line in South-west Pacific headquarter's communiques lie stories of hardship, of heroism, of cheerless struggles against the exhausting terrain, of silent joumeys and sudden actions. After weeks of skirmishing in the northern foothills of New Guinea's Owen Stanley ranges, tales are now being told of strange fighting in this 6trange land. Much of the action occurs in undergrowth so dense that a man can pass unseen only two yards away. Although the Japanese are using picked commando troops, with special equipment (including green uniforms which merge with the background), the story of the campaign puts the Australian patrols well on the credit side in the number of casualties registered. In such country, where opposing patrols often come upon each other around a sudden track turn, much depends upon who fires first. Australians' reactions in such circumstances have been notably and regularly quicker than those of the Japanese. Enemy in Large Parties. The Japanese invariably patrol in Large parties. between 50 and 60 strong, moving with intervals of about 15 yards between each man. Each soldier carries a haversack made of pony skin, with the hair on the outside to shed the rain, 1 a rolled raincoat-groundsheet, and either I a sub-machine-gun or a light bolt-action rifle. With uniforms of dark green cloth. I they wear closs-fitting steel helmets daubed with green paint, and bi-own canvas rubber-soled boots. In such large parties, mortars are normally included among the offensive weapons. Natives scout ahead of the patrol. Australian patrols usually number six soldiers. with two or three police boys as scouts. It is their practice to vvait in ambush for the larger Japanese

patrols, taking up positions alongside the track or around jungle clearings. After a devastating surprise attack the Australians make no effort to hold their positions. They retire immediately to hide in the darkest jungle recesses where they await the enemy's withdrawal. The Japanese system of dealing with an inferior patrol is unvarying. Their forces fan out through the undergrowth, searching the target area with a methodical arc of sub-machine-gun fire. Any man who stands his ground is sure to be shot or captured. But ultimately, after an hour or more of searching, the Japanese withdraw, taking with them their dead and wounded. Still the Australians make no attempt to move — for the enemy may have left behind snipers. Not until darkness comes do the men leave their hiding places, and move cautiously along a treacherous track to their base. Correspondent Witli Patrols. Although they have been more frequent recently, such cncounters are not the daily lot of our patrolling forces. The former New Zealand journalist Osmar White, now a Sydney Daily Telegraph war correspondent at an operational base. spent some weeks with Australian New Guinea patrols. He writes:— "The most surprising truth I found about the work of these men was tljat it was neither spectacular nor exciting. It was mainly the dull, wearing, cheerless grind of existence and movement in some of the world's most inhospitable forest and swamp-land. It was not an incessant fight against the Japanese. It was an incessant fight against exhausting terrain. climate, disease and accident. " | "The fight against the Japanese was , almost incidental — a few minutes of blind j action when patrols met. by chance or j design, to contest some trivial path. or ; when some long and' arduously prepared j raid against enemy strongholds flashed j into climax; at most a jumbled hour of j gunfire, grenade-throwing, kill-as-kill- i can."