DETERMINED ATTACKS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 October 1942, Page 3

DETERMINED ATTACKS

PRESSED BY AUSTRALIANS IN NEW GUINEA FLANKING PATROLS ACTIVE & SUCCESSFUL. IN TEMPLETON’S CROSSING AREA. (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, October 15. There- is every indication that the Australians are making determined efforts to oust the Japanese from their posts in the heavy jungle in the Templeton’s Crossing area. The enemy vacated their forward positions in this area on Tuesday. As the Australian pressure has increased, the Japanese seem to have repeated their Milne Bay defensive strategy of withdrawing to fresh positions, becoming progressively stronger as they have retreated. An Allied headquarters spokesman said today that “our flanking patrols have been active and successful,” but there was no elaboration of that statement. It appears, however, that the initiative lies strongly with the Australians. The Japanese are stated to be using mortars, but no artillery has yet been employed by either side. On Wednesday, Allied aircraft, including American attack bombers, raided the Japanese north Papuan bases of Buna and Lae, but both raids were primarily for reconnaissance purposes. Light anti-aircraft fire was encountered at Lae. Our planes also bombed unstated objectives in the Wairopi area.

BRAVE JUNGLE FIGHTERS. A word pictfire indicative of the rigours of the present fighting in the New Guinea jungle is given by Lewis Sebring, a New York “Herald Tribune” correspondent, of the dramatic arrival of 33 Australian soldiers at an advanced camp after 44 harrowing and heartbreaking days in the Owen Stanley jungles. “The Australians,” he says, “were the remnants of a party of 50 who met the Japanese on the north side of the range late in August. Outflanked and out-numbered, they painfully traversed secret native trails to the south side, ultimately reaching a river, where they boarded native rafts for an eight-hour trip to the camp, where I watched thme land.

“Sunken eyes looked at us from bearded faces as the Australians, in tattered uniforms, painfully shifted from their sitting positions on rising to reach for outstretched hands. They seemed dazed as they stepped on to the bridge and wearily climbed the bank, clutching at personal odds and ends of equipment. “The crowd parted as the Aussies crunched up the gravel. Men who had not yet been in the fight looked m awe at those who had. Two ambulances received half a dozen wounded who had walked through the jungle with the rest. One limped from a piece of Japanese shrapnel in his back. Others had bandaged legs and arms. “A colonel, watching every move of these men, commented that, despite the condition in which they arrived, they carried all their firearms, ammunition and equipment. That is a great tribute to the leadership and discipline of these troops.”

ISLAND BOMBARDED

JAPANESE TROOPS LANDED AT NIGHT.

LONDON, October 15. Japanese warships, it was reported from Washington yesterday, carried out a night bombardment of installations on Guadalcanal* Island. Later, under cover of darkness, just before dawn, troops were landed on the north coast to the west of the American positions.