PRESSURE KEPT UP

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 October 1942, Page 3

PRESSURE KEPT UP

ON JAPANESE IN NEW GUINEA ; — DIFFICULTIES OF AUSTRALIAN ADVANCE. / SUCCESSFUL AIR ATTACKS MAINTAINED. (Special Australian Correspondent.). SYDNEY, October 16. Australian troops in the Owen Stanley Ranges are maintaining pressure on Japanese, but no reports have been received of any further advance. However, the Australian drive is believed to have been delayed rather than halted by the enemy. Fighting in the ranges was less severe on Thursday, with only limited combat' activity. War correspondents, writing from New Guinea, say that rapid gains cannot be expected in the present area of fighting, where advances can only be made painfully, yard by yard. Our ground troops were again supported by Havoc, North American and Airacobra aircraft, which bombed and strafed enemy positions in a sweep along the Japanese supply trail. Enemy installations at Salamaua were also attacked.

The Australian Air ■ Minister, Mr Drakeford, today described the Havocs which have been much used in strafing operations along the Kokoda trail as “powerful and venomous aircraft.” They have a cruising speed of more than 240 miles an hour.

North of Australia, Aileu, a Japan-ese-occupied village 10 miles south of Dilli, in Timor, was heavily attacked on Thursday afternoon by Hudson bombers.

Before the war, Aileu was a station for Portuguese soldiers and was the seat of the provincial government. The targets bombed were a row of rock houses which the Japanese might be using as a barracks. Considerable damage was done.