LAST ROUND

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 January 1943, Page 4

LAST ROUND

OF BATTLE FOR CAPE SANANANDA OPENED WITH JAPANESE GROGGY. GENERAL HERRING’S TRIBUTE TO ALLIED TROOPS. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.25 p.m.) SYDNEY, This Day. “The last round of the battle for Cape Sanananda has begun, with the Japanese groggy and nearly out —disillusioned and shattered army,” declares the “Sydney Morning Herald’s” New Guinea war correspondent, Charles Buttrose. “The enemy troops who tried to stop the Allied force which on Sunday cut through their defences were in an appalling physical condition, and fought in tattered uniforms, with their boots rotted from their feet,” Mr Buttrose states. “American infantrymen, backed by Australian artillery, made the latest important gains. A terrific creeping mortar barrage preceded the infantry assault against the enemy strongpoints. When the barrage lifted the attacking Americans found that the few of the Japanese had remained alive.” A high tribute to the work of both the American and the Australian infantry in the Papuan fighting has been paid by the commander' of the Allied land forces in New Guinea, Lieuten-ant-General E. F. Herring. “Although the Americans had no battle experience when they went into action against well-trained, strongly entrenched and fresh Japanese troops at Cape' Endaiadere (near Buna) they accomplished things which for sheer guts and endurance were unsurpassable,” he declared. General Herring said the United States soldiers had been inspired by the example of their corps commander, General Robert Eichelberger, who had continually gone into action with his troops like any company commander. The Australians had profited by their earlier battle experience in many theatres. Three years’ fighting had enabled the less efficient and less inspiring leaders to be weeded out. In battle the A.I.F. had discovered its leaders. In one action at Buna an A.I.F. battalion lost every platoon leader, but experienced men from the ranks took their places and the batr talion accomplished its task. When a unit of ninety Australians was ordered to take a strip of beach near Buna, 60 of them were killed or wounded, but the thirty left on their feet made their objective. “Plenty of well-trained infantry will be needed to win this war,” said General Herring. “Too many people have been looking for machines—tanks and aeroplanes—to do their fighting for them, but in the end it is the infantry who still win wars and who do the real tough fighting.” Fifty years old, General Herring is a leading King’s Counsel at the Victorian Bar and has been Chancellor of the Melbourne Anglican Diocese, the highest ecclesiastical office open to a layman. In 1912 he won a Rhodes scholarship in his first year at Melbourne University. From Oxford he went to the first world war as a trooper, winning a commission in the field and gaining the M.C. and D.S.O. In this war he left Australia in command of the Royal Australian Artillery of the Sixth Division and fought at Bardia and Tobruk. He has been commandei' of the Allied land forces in New Guinea since last September.