HILL NORTH OF MUBO

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 July 1943, Page 3

HILL NORTH OF MUBO

TAKEN BY AUSTRALIAN TROOPS FOLLOWING ON VERY HEAVY AIR BOMBARDMENT. PROBLEMS OF NEW GUINEA CAMPAIGN. (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, July 8. Making the heaviest raid on a land target ever executed in the South-West Pacific, more than 50 Allied bombers and attack-planes yesterday pounded Japanese positions in the Mubo area, nori hern New Guinea, with 106 tons of high explosive and fragmentation bombs, in less than 45 minutes. Australian land forces which pushed forward after this record aerial bombardment captured Observation Hill, an important strategic point, almost directly north of Mubo. Other clashes between opopsing ground forces occurred in the Bobdubi area. Mitchells, Bostons and Liberators sent their bombs crashing on to enemy positions in seven sweeps over the target area. The attacks were made in direct support of our ground troops. The only air action in which a greater number of planes has been used in the South-West Pacific area was the Bismarck Sea battle. In addition to attacks in the Mubo area, General MacArthur’s communique today reports that Bostons strafed enemy positions on Bobdubi Ridge. Mitchells bombed and strafed installations on Labu Lagoon, in the Lae sector. The immediate object of the campaign being fought round the Japanese northern New Guinea base of Salamaua seems to be the elimination of the enemy forces which are now in danger of being bottled up in the nearby hinterland area of Mubo-Komiatum. Broken only by isolated skirmishes, the deadlock in this sector has persisted since last February. The latest reports indicate that the Allied strategy is making favourable progress. SUPPLY LINE DOMINATED. The Australians in the Bobdubi area dominate the narrow valley through which passes the Komiatum track, which is now the only supply route from Salanraua for the Japanese forces round Mubo.

The Americans continue to consolidate theirf Nassau Bay positions. They are using artillery. Compared with the numbers thrown into engagements, the Australian and American, forces have inflicted’ substantial casualties on the Japanese. They have forced the enemy entirely on to the defensive. But, though the Japanese have made no determined offensive move, heavier fighting is expected. Strong forces garrison both SalAmaua and Lae—and beyond these bases lie the Madang and Wewak reservoirs from which the Japanese can draw powerful reinforcements. The movement of such forces would be considerably assisted by the use of barges, of which the Japanese have considerable numbers parked in the waters of Labu Lagoon, near Lae. For months this barge park has been under persistent Allied air attack. “The enemy’s strength in barges is known to be big enough to constitute a menace,” writes an Australian war correspondent in New Guinea. "This barge traffic is not only soundly based, but well organised, and could be availed of to push in swift reinforcements at any of the points the enemy has retained in the face of our advancing forces.” ALLIED AIR MASTERY. Offsetting the enemy’s power of reinforcement is the Allied air superiority which allows our aircraft to attack Japanese positions whenever the weather permits. The'enemy airfields at Salamaua and Lae have been so persistently hammered that they are now used only as staging fields for aircraft based out of range of Allied medium bombers. In the skirmishes that have so far taken place in the area, the Japanese have clearly met their masters at jungle fighting. Thus, the Allied air and ground superiority augurs ill- for the Japanese at Mubo —whatever may lie ahead in subsequent fighting. Australian machine-guns at Bobdubi are rangeci along the enemy’s solitary supply line from Salamaua. So rough is the country that large carrier parties will be required to bring forward stores. These would have to move along the track at night, running a grave risk of ambush. Mubo has no native gardens to help solve the enemy’s food problem. The native name for the area “tambu,” meaning taboo, shows what the natives think of it. “In this area, the scenes of the Kokoda trail are being repeated again,” writes a war correspondent. “Our men at Bobdubi walked for days over a track incredibly slippery with mud and dank with perpetual mist. The track snaked up and down high mountains. Our soldiers cursed the track—but they cursed even more strongly the Japanese who made them walk it. If any spur was needed to increase their enthusiasm to attack the Japanese, then this track provided it.”