SOME ALLIED GAINS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 September 1942, Page 3

SOME ALLIED GAINS

t IN RECENT NEW GUINEA FIGHTING No Progress Made by Japanese in Last Ten Days ON SLOPES OF OWEN STANLEY RANGE CONSTANT AIR ATTACKS ON ENEMY BASES AND COMMUNICATIONS LONDON, September 27. The Japanese have now been held up for ten days in the Owen Stanley Range, in New Guinea. Australian patrols are getting the upper hand in day to day clashes. Constant Allied air attacks on Japanese bases and communications are not doing anything to ease the supply difficulties of the enemy. War activity in the south-west Pacific during the past two days has established a. satisfactory credit of Allied successes, a special Australian correspondent reports, Japanese forward troops have been forced to withdraw from some of their ad-, vanced positioans in the Owen Stanley Ranges. Though the slight Australian advance is regarded as. significant as a knoll of some strategic importance was occupied in Friday’s drive, no change has occurred in the general location of the fighting, which is still in lorabaiwa.

A further land success in another sector in New Guinea has been scored in the Bulolo Valley, where Australian troops counter-attacked vigorously against Japanese moving inland from Salamaua, winning back a position south of Mubo village, about 12 miles from the coast.

Allied heavy bombers did considerable damage to Japanese shipping at Rabaul. On Friday a direct hit was scored on a medium-sized cargo vessel. On Saturday a 1000 pound bomb struck another transport amidships, and three possible hits were scored against a third vessel.

Another Japanese transport was sunk when it was attacked by oui bombers on Saturday off Trobriand Island. A direct hit was scored and fires broke out, gutting the vessel. Before our most important land success on the Owen Stanley front, Australian patrols on Thursday night found the Japanese dug in near lorabaiwa. At dawn on Friday, supported by 25-pounder artillery, strong Australian forces moved to the attack. Blinding rain and heavy mist hid their advance, restricting visibility to a few yards. During the past few days, rains have turned the jungle mud into a quagmire. Our troops forced their way forward through mud sometimes almost knee deep. These rains herald the approach of the wet season which reaches its height fin November. Australian-made 25-pounder guns “softened” the Japanese positions for our infantrymen. These guns are heavier than any used by the Japanese in this sector. The enemy 75-milli-metre gun fires a shell weighing 15 to 18 pounds. The Australian guns had to be dragged up the mountain ridges from Port Moresby, and those of the Japanese were carried in sections over the longer trail from Kokoda. Our 25-pounders are not guns which can be taken to pieces for porterage convenience.