LOCAL GAIN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 January 1943, Page 3

LOCAL GAIN

MADE BY AMERICANS ON GUADALCANAL

AIRFIELD DEFENCES IMPROVED

RECENT ATTACKS ON ENEMY DESTROYERS. THREE DAMAGED AND TWO POSSIBLY SUNK. LONDON, January 5. On. Guadalcanal Island, in the Solomons, yesterday United States troops attacked and occupied an enemy position four miles south-west of the Henderson airfield. Enemy counter-attacks were repulsed. One hundred and fifty Japanese were killed and 20 more accounted for in patrol encounters.

It is stated that this action will stop the Japanese shelling the vital airfield, though the main Japanese threat lies at the north-west end of the island. The Japanese on the island are still without supplies, Colonel Knox, Secretary for the Navy, says. American aircraft and torpedo-boats on Saturday damaged three out of ten enemy destroyers attempting to take supplies to the Japanese troops. Two destroyers were possibly sunk. ALLIED FORCES REGROUPING IN PAPUA. SURVEY OF STRATEGIC POSITION. (Special Australian Correspondent.) .SYDNEY, January 5. The Australian and American forces are regrouping for a major attack to destroy the remnant of the Japanese army in Papua, which is strongly entrenched at Sanananda. While our aircraft have been active in attacks on enemy positions heavy land fighting has not yet occurred, but is expected at any time. A high-ranking Australian officer has described the fighting which ended with the capture of the Buna area as a “series of brilliant actions, culminating in the conclusive defeat of the enemy. The campaign was in the nature of siege operations against a series of strongly-prepared and mutually supporting positions established in considerable depth. A carefully-prepared plan of operations, closely co-ordinated and controlled, gradually overcame the enemy’s strongholds. During the final stages of these operations the enemy’s killed were estimated at 1200.”

It is revealed that 35 Korean coolies are included in 60 Japanese prisoners captured in the Buna mission area. The Koreans showed evidence of general ill-treatment and had apparently had little food for some time. In the mop-ping-up operations on Monday 50 more Japanese were killed, SANANANDA SALIENT. Though the enemy positions at Sanananda are flanked by swamps which present grave difficulties for the attacking force, limiting the use of tanks, the confident note sounded in General MacArthur’s communiques discussing imminent operations in this area has given rise to hopes of theearly liquidation of the Japanese in the salient. Havocs and Marauders have begun softening up the enemy’s positions with bombings and strafing attacks, while our artillery is ranging the area. Torrential rains are now falling over northern Papua. It was earlier feared that these might begin before the capture of Buna, thus adding considerably to the difficulties confronting our forces. The' Allied strategy is stated to be alive to the danger of fresh Papuan invasion attempts by the concentration of enemy merchantmen, transports and warships at Rabaul. Our air force again raided Gasmata, Lae and Finschhafen. At Lae Marauders destroyed three grounded Japanese aircraft. BLOCKADE & BOMBARDMENT. Though . the Papuan campaign is generally accepted in Australia as an accurate measure of the Allied task throughout the South-West Pacific, a very hopeful picture of the possible progress in the war against Japan is painted by the American Associated Press military analyst, John Hightower, who says:—“The Allies are developing the strategy of blockade and bombardment against Japan, instead of the more costly island by island advance. The conquest of Buna represents'the completion of one of the initial moves in the new strategy. Buna henceforth will be General MacArthur’s forward base, similar to Guadalcanal,, which is Admiral Halsey’s forward base. , . , , “Guadalcanal has been a highly profitable military investment. The Japanese have thrown in prodigious quantities of ships, planes and troops m vain attempts to recapture it. Though the Americans moved into Guadalcanal in August, they have made no efforts to advance, because their stiategy is not to advance but to destioy the Japanese army, navy and air forces from Guadalcanal, where the enemy losses are already five times those of the Americans. HEAVY CALLS ON SHIPPING. “General MacArthur's victory at Buna gives the Allies another point from which great, attrition may be worked on the Japanese forces at the ends of their long supply lines. Moreover, planes from Guadalcanal and Buna are now in a position to blast Rabaul from two directions and take further toll of the already overtaxed Japanese shipping lines. The waning Japanese maritime strength is expected to increase the difficulties of supplying outlying bases, while home production is placed under a- heavy load supplying the Pacific outposts, along with the armies in China and Burma. Thus some American military authorities confidently expect the Japanese to withdraw from some conquered areas without even being attacked. “After the process of attrition has accomplished its work, a combined British and American naval blockade will be thrown around the Japanese home islands, accompanied by an intense aerial bombardment, after which comes the final step—the actual invasion of severely weakened Japan. The Japanese spokesman. Colonel Taagi, of the enemy High Command, writing in the paper “Yomuri Shimbun,” predicts attacks on Australia from the Solomons and New Guinea as part of an all-out Japanese offensive this year . He admits that Japan at the moment is on the defensive, but claims that the reason for this is pieparation for offensive measuies in China and Burma, where, the enemy positions are to be consolidated for an attack on India.

’ CONCERN FELT OVER ENEMY CONCENTRATION AT RABAUL. PERSISTENT ALLIED AIR ATTACKS. (By Telegraph—Rress Association—Copyright) NEW YORK, January 4. The large concentration of Japanese warships and transports detected at Rabaul have aroused concern at the possibility of a new Japanese mov.e against Port Moresby or Guadalcanal, says the • New York “Herald-Tribune’s” correspondent, Lewis Sebring, in a copyrighted dispatch from somewhere in Australia. He adds that the six aerial attacks against Rabaul within the past 10 days indicate the seriousness with which the Allied commands in the South-West Pacific regard the Japanese naval concentration, which totals 15 vessels, including a large cruiser. He points out that in order to forestall a powerful Japanese naval drive the Allies must place greater naval strength in the waters of north New Guinea than has been apparent there during the land campaign in New Guinea, since the seemingly unhampered movements of Japanese naval units have shown that the enemy controls those waters. JAPANESE DESTROYERS SWARMING IN SOLOMONS WATERS. POSSIBLE SIGNIFICANCE. (Received This Day, 10.15 a.m.) NEW YORK, January 5. The “New York Times” Washington correspondent points out that the eight destroyers attacked by American tor-pedo-boats (as reported yesterday) obviously were not part of the two groups bombed near Shortland and Redova Islands. The fact that Solomons waters apparently are swarming with Japanese destroyers is interpreted here as an indication that the Japanese may be preparing another major attempt to drive the American forces from the South-East Solomons. OFFICIAL REPORT ENEMY GUNS CAPTURED. AIR ATTACKS ON NEW GEORGIA. (Received This Day, 10.50 a.m.) WASHINGTON, January 5. A Navy Department communique says: “Catalinas and Flying Fortresses I on January 4 executed a series of air | attacks on the Munda area (in New, Georgia). On the same evening, dive-| bombers, escorted by fighters, bombed i anti-aircraft positions, taxiways and runways in the same area. The results are not reported. All our planes returned. , „ , “Our troops on Guadalcanal attacked and gained high ground positions in the vicinity of Mount Austen, capturing an enemy fieldpiece. Six enemy counter-attacks were repulsed and 150 Japanese' were killed. Patrols in other sectors killed twenty additional Japan-* ese and captured howitzers, mortars and light machine-guns.”