FURTHER GAINS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 July 1943, Page 3

FURTHER GAINS

BY ALLIES IN SOLOMONS & NEW GUINEA SEA & AIR BOMBARDMENTS OF MUNDA. JAPANESE BURROWED IN LIKE TERMITES. (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY. July 30. American troops on Now Georgia Island in the central Solomons have again increased I heir pressure against the Japanese airfield base at Jlunda . Gains have also been math* by .the Allied forces driving against Salaniaua. in Northern New Guinea. In the Munda areas the Americans have passed 200 yards beyond the village of Teiere to within 1900 yards of the airstrip. “A daily gain of 200 yards here is as remarkable as a gain of miles in the European or African theatres.” writes a war correspondent on New Georgia. “Our troops are creeping forward foot by foot in the face of relentless Japanese mortar and machinegun fire. “They have now fought their way to within sight, of their strategic goal. but. it may be some time before they are able to secure a foothold. Now that they are approaching Lambcti plantation the terrain and undergrowth are the worst yet encountered." Allied warships have stood close inshore io bombard Munda's defences, and the naval shellings have been closely followed by concentrated air attacks. However, war correspondents say it seems that no deluge of high explosives can destroy the Japanese, who are burrowed in like termites. Other American troops continue to attack the enemy garrison at Bairoko,'which is eight miles from the Munda area, being divided by low-lying, heavy jungle. In New Guinea the Allied positions have been extended despite Japanese counter-at-tacks. American troops in the coastal sector now menace the enemy’s lines of communication.

Heavy aerial assaults continue to play an important part in softening up the enemy resistance. Fortresses, Liberators and Mitchells yesterday devastated the general area with 94 tons of bombs, which were dropped in 17 minutes.

In the nine months during which they have 'occupied Mubo Valley, the Allied capture of which was the prelude to the present drive against Salamaua, the Japanese have strongly entrenched themselves. A war correspondent with the Allied troops says that great forces would have been required to dig them out by direct assault. Elaborate systems of underground shelters carefully camouflaged, had been built. The cutting of their supply line from Komiatum a fortnight ago forced the Japanese to abandon the main part of their defences. General MacArthur's communique today announces that the enemy naval losses in Wednesday’s and Thursday’s Allied air attacks on an enemy convoy off New Britain were two destroyers, a transport, seven barges and two launches. Three of 11 Japanese fighter planes which tried to protect the convey were shot down. The latest information discloses the sinking of a second destroyer in addition to that reported yesterday. .