LANDING IN PAPUA
MADE BY JAPANESE TROOPS AT NORTH END OF TRACK ACROSS COUNTRY. NEW THREAT TO PORT MORESBY. (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, July 23. Japanese troops have made their first landing in Papuan territory. A force estimated at about 2500 men have been put ashore from a convoy at Gonna Mission, near Buna. Buna is the northern terminus of the only track across Papua to Port Moresby, by way of the 7000 ft. pass through the Owen Stanley Range. The landing, which is believed to have been made early yesterday morning, is seen as a grave new threat to Port Moresby. Allied planes inflicted heavy casualties on the disembarking troops, and one large transport and a barge were sunk. ENEMY TRANSPORT SUNK. This convoy is the one that was referred to in yesterday’s Allied Headquarters communique. It was sighted by an aerial reconnaissance unit and attacked by our bombers late on Tuesday afternoon, and bombing and strafing attacks were maintained throughout yesterday. Today’s communique reveals that the transport which was previously reported to have received a direct hit was sunk. The enemy landing was made at a point not occupied by our troops, but our planes made the operation expensive in men and materials. Shorebound barges filled with troops were bombed and raked with machine-gun fire and one was sunk. An enemy floatplane was shot down in combat. Two of our fighters are missing. Buna is 130 miles east of Salamaua, where the Japanese landed on March 9, and within 200 miles of the important island port of Samarai, on the eastern tip of Papua. Some observers believe the Japanese will try to occupy Samarai. This would complete thei control of the northern coastline of New Guinea and also enable them to dominate a section of the southern coast. Buna’s small harbour is suitable as an advanced base for submarines, and an air base could readily be built in the area, bringing fast Japanese bombers within 30 minutes’ flying time of Port Moresby, 110 miles away. In the north-western sector yesterday an Allied air unit on a reconnaissance flight made a light bombing attack on enemy barracks at an undisclosed base in Timor. CONTINUING MENACE FEDERAL PREMIER’S COMMENT. ON LATEST ENEMY MOVE. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.17 a.m.) RUGBY, July 23. The Australian Prime Minister (Mr Curtin) commenting on the Japanese landing at the Papuan port of Buna, and the resulting threat to Port Moresby, said: “It shows that since the Qoral Sea and Midway Island battles the Japanese have been working like beavers to build up their strength. There can be only one answer. We must work like beavers too. We have had a breathing space, but the menace to Australia, which is a constant menace, will not disappear until the Japanese have been utterly defeated.”
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Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 July 1942, Page 3
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470LANDING IN PAPUA Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 July 1942, Page 3
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