SAVAGE FIGHTING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 December 1942, Page 4

SAVAGE FIGHTING

IN BLINA-OONA AREA WOUNDED AUSTRALIANS GIVE FACTS. JAPANESE LIKE WILD ANIMALS. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.40 p.m.) SYDNEY. This Day. Wounded Australian soldiers back from the Buna-Gona front tell stories of some of the world’s most savage fighting. Many have serious wounds and bone fractures, caused by the explosive light ma-chine-gun bullets now being used by the Japanese. The bullets, which explode after penetration,.

cause shocking wounds. “Most of the men hit by them were killed, but those who survived had dreadful injuries,” said one wounded man. All were full of praise for the “Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels,” the native stretcher-bearers. These natives had an intense hatred for the Japanese. Our soldiers had found outraged and mutilated bodies of native women near the Japanese camps. “The Japanese are more like wild animals than men,” declared a soldier wounded in the Gona fighting. Even when their position is hopeless, they refuse to surrender and have to blasted out of their holes.”

The unanimous opinion among the returned men was that “the beginning of the'end” had arrived for the Japanese in New Guinea. The powerful air support being given to the Allied ground forces was a decisive factor and the “biscuit bombers,” supply planes which delivered ammunition and food stores within a few miles of the battle area, had solved many earlier supply problems.