SLOW HEADWAY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 December 1942, Page 3

SLOW HEADWAY

AGAINST DESPERATE RESISTANCE MADE BY ALLIED TROOPS IN NEW GUINEA., APPROACH TO SANANANDA POINT. LONDON, December 23. { In New Guinea, Allied I forces continue to advance ' .slowly in the area 6f Buna, against desperate enemy resistance. Allied tanks have crossed a creek flanking the enemy’s main airfield. East of Bun£i mopping up operations are proceeding and westward, Allied forces are pushing on to Sanananda Point. They have gained another half mile and are now withip two miles of the enemy’s main core of resistance. The enemy is showing more and more reluctance to return the Allies’ fire.

MAZE OF DEFENCES

STILL TO BE CRUSHED. BUT ANNIHILATION OF GARRISON CERTAIN. (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, December 23. Desperate fighting continues in Papua as the Allies endeavour to batter the fiercely-disputed way through the Japanese defensive network of pillboxes, trenches and barricades. Our progress is slow. In the capture of Cape Endiadere and the subsequent advance against Buna airfield and Buna mission, more than 100 separate fortified strongpoints were overcome. There seems no prospect of a Japanese collapse. Ultimate annihilation of the garrison is certain, but. while the Allied employment of tanks should hasten the inevitable end, a maze of defensive works still remains to be crushed. Many months of arduous work evidently went into the construction of the Buna-Gona fortress which now is reduced in size to less than three square miles. General MacArthur’s communique today admits that the “intricate and thoroughly prepared positions of the enemy have made our progress relatively slow,” but the vicious and fanatical suicide stand of the Japanese garrison has been the main delaying factor. In spite of the apparent shortage of food and ammunition, enemy troops have not cracked under relentless aerial artillery bombardments and tank assaults. Though lacking anti-tank guns, they are now using Molotov cocktails, magnetic bombs and heavy mortars, as well as flame-throw-ers as defensive weapons against our tanks. Enemy soldiers carrying bombs have thrown themselves under the tracks of tanks in vain efforts to halt them. To delay our infantry, antipersonnel mines were laid, but Allied sappers have been able to clear passagesl through the fields. * Japanese snipers are active both in front of and behind our advance, and enemy ambushes are frequent. In spite of complete control of the air and artillery superiority, combined with the use of General' Stuart tanks, Allied troops still face a mighty struggle before the last Japanese is evicted from Papua. „, x . While the Americans fight for Buna airfield, Australians push on toward Buna mission ,and a combined force has been steadily closing in on the enemy at Sanananda. American troons waded chest-deep through thick ■ black mud to gain the rear of Japanese positions which halted our advance. It was found that the enemy had con-, structed machine-gun posts even in the' swamp itself. The Allied force is now within two miles of the coast at Sanananda, having gained about half a mile of fiercely-contested ground in the pdst few days. Two enemy trucks loaded with ammunition were captured in the Sanananda area. This was a severe' loss to the enemy, whose piospects of securin' 1, additional supplies have how faded to vanishing point.