AT DESPERATE ODDS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 June 1943, Page 3

AT DESPERATE ODDS

DEEDS OF AUSTRALIAN JUNGLE UNIT OVER 500 JAPANESE KILLED IN NEW GUINEA. AGAINST LOSS OF TWELVE MEN. (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, May 31. Fighting against basic odds of never less than 40 to 1, an Australian commando unit, which harried the Japanese for several months in the Lae-Sala-maua-Mubo area of New Guinea killed more than 500 of the enemy for the loss of only 12 of its own men. This unit, which was commanded by a 25-ycar-old West Australian, LieutenantColonel Norman Fleay, made an epic raid on Salamaua last June. With the announcement that Fleay has been awarded the D.S.O. for resource, daring and devotion to duty, the story of the unit's exploits has now been released. Fleay, after his return from service in Libya, Greece and Crete with the Sixth Division of the A.1.F., took his independent commando company to Wau in March of last year. Before the Salamaua raid, he led a reconnaissance party of five officers who sneaked into the town and counted the Japanese there. “We then took a picked detachment of 70 Bren and Tommy-gunners into Salamaua at 8 o’clock one night,” says Fleay telling the story of the raid. “For five hours we hid under houses, listening to Japanese walking above us. At 1 o'clock I fired a Very pistol to signal the attack. Simultaneously, every Japanese sentry was shot dead. Then we threw grenades into ’every enemy-oc-cupied house. Each Japanese who came out was killed. We fired 300 rounds from our mortar.

“By dawn we held the place absolutely, but the Japanese could bring reinforcements quickly from Lac, so I decided to move out. Wo had killed 100 Japanese without loss to ourselves and had captured many valuable documents. Within half an hour of our departure, Japanese fighter planes began to search for us, and we had to dodge them for .hours.'One of our party was missing, but he turned up two days later. He had not heard the signal to withdraw because he was hunting for souvenirs.”

Fleay's unit raided Mubo on several occasions. Once a scout went into the village with a box camera and photographed the Japanese garrison lined up at mess parade. These commandos fought a lone campaign almost to the time the enemy made his recent unsuccessful bid to capture Wan. Then they shared the work of driving the Japanese back to Mubo. Only after this was done did their leader return to Australia on leave.

Apart from the 500- enemy killed, this independent unit cost the Japanese a considerable number of casualties. Once Fleay himself was missing for some days. When a junior officer was wounded he held off pursuing Japanese and took to the bush after killing three. On the fourth day he reached food supplies and that night encountered a party of his own men who had set cut to search for him.