ENEMY TRIUMPHS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 August 1942, Page 4

ENEMY TRIUMPHS

MADE POSSIBLE BY OUR MISTAKES PERILS IN PACIFIC STRESSED BY W. M. HUGHES. CRITICISM OF ALLIED COMMAND.. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) SYDNEY, August 5. Giving a warning that Australia would suffer the same fate as Malaya and the other countries overrun by Japan unless our military leaders adopted an offensive strategy, Mr W. M. Hughes, member of the Advisory War Council, said tonight, “Gona and Buna must be retaken without a day’s delay. The situation in the Pacific is full of menace and is growing worse every day. From the first day that Japan entered the war she has swept everything before her and in record time. Every day Japan draws nearer to our vital centres, and so far she has never failed to reach her objective. “Japan needs only to occupy Australia to make her conquest of the Pacific complete, and if she is to hold what she has won she must attempt a major invasion of our country. There has been a lamentable lack of vision, initiative, co-ordination and control by our military leaders; they have failed to anticipate the enemy’s movements, and a spirit of the defensive has infected their spasmodic offensive strategy. They have don 6 too little or moved toe. late, and the occupation of Buna and Gona brings this home to us with startling emphasis. It is difficult to understand why the Japanese were allowed to occupy these two strategic points without opposition. “Given the right kind of control, coordination and leadership, we can not only hold Australia but also drive Japan out of the islands round our northern shores. Nine-tenths of the enemy’s triumphs have been made possible by our own mistakes, and we are still making them. Unless we are to wait like cattle in the pithing pen for the death stroke we must go out and sweep the enemy from his vantage ground.” ' NEW GUINEA WAR JAPANESE INFILTRATION TACTICS. TROOPS TRAINED FOR JUNGLE FIGHTING. (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, August 5. In their advance to Kokoda and beyond, the Japanese forces in Papua have employed the successful infiltration tactics which have marked every campaign in which they have fought. Details of the Papuan land fighting are now being revealed. Where small allied patrols have made a stand in the narrow . jungle passes the Japanese have declined to make a frontal assault, they have fanned out into the jungle, cutting paths with axes and bush knives, till they have enveloped the Allied positions, forcing our men to retire. Their troops, which are now believed to have been reinforced considerably, are excellently equipped for the type of warfare in which they are engaged, their arms and personal accountrements being much lighter than those of our soldiers. The enemy troops evidently had been specially trained in jungle warfare, but Australians who have been in many patrol clashes say they are hopeless rifle shots, with a marked distaste for concealed fire, which causes them to panic and retire. In spite of the momentary cessation of the fierce air and land encounters, there is every indication that fighting on a much larger scale is in early prospect. . Stressing the growing seriousness of the enemy move and urging “war till victory,” the Sydney “Sun” declares that Australia must abolish all lethargy. The “ugly tale of murder and cruelty for mere delight in it” in the enemy submarine attack on the Australian fishing trawler is quoted as evidence that there can never be any compromise with Japan. “If we lose we die, or we live so that dying will be a pleasure,” the paper says.