ALLIED NET

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 September 1943, Page 3

ALLIED NET

CLOSING ON JAPANESE AT SALAMAUA EXPECTATION OF ENEMY LAST-DITCH STAND. STRONG DEFENCES IN DEPTH. (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) SYDNEY, September 5. As the Allied net draws inexorably tighter round the Japanese base of Salamaua it becomes apparent that the enemy intends to make a lastditch stand. Allied forward forces have discovered strongly constructed positions with pillboxes in depth. A pillbox network linked by a system of communicating trenches has been planned, with interlocking fields of fire. The Japanese are now standing their ground on the north side of Francisco River, after a headlong flight from Komiatum Ridge and a panicky crossing of the river. In the coastal sector Australian forces have made a new advance and linked with American forces on Scout Ridge, four miles south of Salamaua. Their merging tightens the trap round the isolated Japanese defence force dug in on the western end of Roosevelt Ridge, which runs parallel with Scout Ridge. The enemy has already delivered several counterattacks in this area, but has been beaten off.

Heavy fighting has been raging in the Bobdubi sector, further inland. Attacking a network of defensive positions where the Bobdubi and Komiatum trails join at Kunai Ridge, Allied forces have taken a number of pillboxes and inflicted heavy casualties on the enemy.