GARRISON

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 July 1943, Page 4

GARRISON

FACING ANNIHILATION AMERICAN SURPRISE ATTACK ON VIRU. DESTRUCTIVE AIR BOMBING IN NEW GUINEA. (Special Australian Correspondent.) (Received This Day, 12.35 p.m.) SYDNEY, This Day. The Japanese garrison at Munda Airfield, in New Georgia, is facing annihilation. The garrison is cut off from supplies and reinforcements by American warships which control the Kula Gulf. It is threatened from the north by an American force which landed at the Rice Anchorage, and from the east by a second force now consolidating at Aznana. American bombers and artillery established at Rendova continue to pound Munda. As a preliminary to the latest Allied landings, a picked force of American Marines cleared the Japanese garrison from the important satellite base of Viru Harbour, about 30 miles from Munda, on the south-east coast of New Georgia. When a surprise attack was made, many Japanese committed suicide by throwing themselves over the cliffs. Details of this action, which took nlace on July 1, are given in a delayed" dispatch from an Australian war correspondent in the South Pacific. He says Viru was attacked by forces which landed on the beach, and from the rear by a picked commando unit, which made a forced march through 35 miles of jungle, after a secret landing made on June 20. The Marine commandos swam rivers, waded swamps and battled With a maze of vines and roots. When Japanese patrols stalked them, the Marines despatched a working party of their toughest meh, who rounded un and killed 18 of the enemy. On July 1 the Marines reached Viru, charging the flanks of enemy positions with hand grenades. The Japanese broke and fled for the bush, leaving more than 60 dead. While the battle for positions is going on, preparatory to the final assault on Monda, a smaller but ever fiercer war extends into the depths of the New Georgia jungle, where American and Japanese patrols stalk each other remorselessly.

JUNGLE VALLEY LAID OPEN.

Keeping pace with the increasing tempo of the Solomons campaign is the fighting in the Salamaua area of New Guinea. The Allied forces are steadily compressing the twelve miles of Japanese defences stretching between Salamaua and Mubo. The Australian forces which captured Observation Hill, 1500 yards north of Mubo, after a record aeril bombardment, have seriously increased the threat to the Komiatum supply trail, running between Salamaua and Mubo. The American forces which landed at Nassau Bay last week menace the left flank of the enemy’s' defence perimeter. The target for the Allied bombers and fighters which blasted the Japanese positions preparatory to the Australian assault on Observation Hill was less than a mile in length, and about 200 yards wide. Into this area, more than 100 tons of bombs were concentrated. “It was a colossal sight,” said a pilot who took part in the raid. “Huge mountain ridges seemed to rock. There was no break from the time the first bomb exploded until the last, and the air and the jungle that was not being torn apart as bomb after bomb thudded down, was quivering. The bottom of the valley which we attacked originally had been covered with trees and vines to make it a solid mass of vegetation 150 feet deep. This was laid bare. There were huge holes and splintered trees, and jungle debris lay everywhere.”