IN EVIL PLIGHT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 September 1943, Page 4

IN EVIL PLIGHT

JAPANESE RETREATING FROM SALAMAUA SAFE ESCAPE UNLIKELY. VIGOROUS ALLIED PURSUIT. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 1.5 p.m.) SYDNEY, This Day. The Australian troops, who occupied Salamaua, found the whole area a shambles as the result of heavy bombing and shelling. The isthmus and peninsula were pitted with huge craters, from the thousands of tons of bombs dropped there in the past month. Japanese gun crews were entombed in these craters, foxholes and uprooted pillboxes. No official estimate has yet been made of the Japanese casualties in the battle for Salamaua, but the number of prisoners is believed to be small. The survivors of the garrison, retreating along the coast towards Lae, are being given no chance toi dig in and so can only fight delaying rearguard actions. The Japanese probably hope to reach Schneider Point, a barge staging point along the route to Lae, but it is unlikely that they will be able to muster sufficient barges and air cover to make their escape. Sir Thomas Blarney said the capture of Salamaua was the climax to a very fine series of operations by an American regiment and Australian troops. The Japanese in the Lae area show a reluctance to engage in any large-scale operation. An Allied patrol at Heath’s Plantation and in the Markham Valley killed eight Japanese and wounded eleven others in a brief clash. Conditions in the Markham Valley show a marked contrast to those in the drives against Buna and Gona six months ago, when fever-worn troops faced strongly entrenched enemy units witil only the arms they carried. Now airborne troops are operating over flat country and are seeking out the enemy, confident that they have ample supplies and weapons.