CLEVER FIGHTERS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 June 1942, Page 4

CLEVER FIGHTERS

JAPAN’S SHOCK TROOPS FRONTAL ATTACKS AVOIDED. VARIETY OF WEAPONS. The Japanese victories in Malaya, Burma, the Philippines and the' Dutch East Indies were not all due to superior equipment and overwhelming numbers, writes C. V. R. Thompson in the London “Daily Express.” Much credit must go to the Japanese soldier, a clever, active, ruthless product of intense industrialism. He was underestimated as much as the Italian sailor was once over-estimated. The equipment taken from Japanese prisoners shows that each man is able to fight independently for from two weeks to a month behind enemy lines. Typical equipment consists of the following: Gas-mask; green hood, which is a combination of a mosquito net and camouflage covering for helmet, face and shoulders; green corded $ net to cover the rest of the body; black wire eye-screen to guard him from, sun-glare; steel helmet, a coil of rope for climbing trees and tying himself in branches; a sin. long rice sack; a small bag of hard tack; half a pound of boiled sweets; a package of concentrated food pills. In addition, he has a tin of chlorine to purify water, mess-kit canteen, antidote for mustard gas, quinine, stomach pills, gauze pads, a roll of bandages, spare socks, gloves, toothbrush, torch with rotating vari-coloured lenses (one colour apparently pre-arranged as a recognition signal), and half a dozen spare lenses for the eyeholes of gasmasks. Weapons vary. Some men carry small 30-calibre revolvers of British make, others have a rifle. Many carry a sub-machine gun. firing 22-calibre bullets. The most interesting weapon, used with special effect in Malaya, is a 4in. mortar, which is carried on the head and shoulders. It throws the projectile 650 yards. Shock troops are extremely mobile, well-trained, well-led, well-organised and completely unconventional. They are usually strong swimmers, and even good linguists. Presumably only Japan’s best troops have yet been in contact with the Allied forces. It is doubtful if the main armies are as well equipped and organised. The crack Japanese soldier has done his best always to avoid frontal assaults. Perhaps his dislike of more classic types of warfare will eventually be his undoing.