STRANGE FIGHTING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 August 1942, Page 4

STRANGE FIGHTING

IN NEW GUINEA JUNGLES ON SKIRTS OF OWEN STANLEY RANGE. GOOD WORK BY AUSTRALIAN PATROLS. , (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, August 21. „ “Our patrols have been active. . . . Behind this prosaic line in Soutn-ucsi Pacific headquarters communiques lie stories of hardship, of heroism, of cheerless struggles against the exhausting terrain, of silent journeys and sudden actions. After weeks or skirmishing in the northern foothills oi New Guinea’s Owen Stanley ranges, tales are now being told of strange fighting in this strange land. . Much of the actions'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 whicn merge with the background), the story of the campaign puts the Australian patrols well on the credit side m 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. YOUNG SOLDIER’S EXPLOIT. The latest Jungle Fighting Command story tells how a 22-year-old West Australian killed at least five of the enemy in a northern New Guinea forest clash. He escaped with a bullet in his shoulder. While other members of his patrol were having a midday meal, he was one of the guards posted in the thick undergrowth. “I was holding my position when four Japanese, led by a native, approached within about ten feet,” he said. “Previously I had counted more than a dozen moving through the forest. I did not move, as my job was to gain information of enemy strength but, unfortunately, my tommy-gun rustled the leaves and the quick-eared native heard. He swung around and pointed where J. was hidden. I knew 1 had to act fast. I fired from thhip, letting the Japanese have the full magazine. They were so close that I could hear the bullets thud into them. All four fell dead. -Quickly other Japanese began to close in. I was seen and shot in the shoulder. I jumped into a creek and into bush on the other side of it. Two of the enemy chased me with fixed bayonets. I fired my revolver at them. The leading one fell back into the water—but I couldn’t wait to see what happened to the other. At any rate, no more came after me and I got away.” JAPANESE METHODS. 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, a rolled raincoat-ground-sheet, and either a sub-machine-gun or a light bolt-action rifle. With uniforms of daik green cloth, they wear close-fitting steel helmets daubed with green paint, and brown canvas rubbersoled boots. In such large parties, mortars are normally included among the offensive weapons. Natives scout ahead of the patrol. AUSTRALIAN PATROLS. Australian patrols usually number six soldiers, with two or three police boys as scouts. It is their practice to wait in ambush for the larger Japan- . ?se patrols, taking up positions alongside the track or around jungle clearngs. After a devastating surprise atack the Australians made no effort to hold their positions. They retire immediately to hide in the darkest jungle recesses where they await the an 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 them bnqn Although they have been more frequent recently, such encounters 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 that 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 figiit against the Japanese was almost incidental —a few minutes of blind action when patrols met, by chance or design, to contest some trivial path, or when some long and arduously prepared raid against enemy strongholds, flashed into climax; at most a jumbled hour of gunfire, grenade-throwing, kill-as-kill-can.”