NEW GUINEA ATTACK

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 September 1943, Page 4

NEW GUINEA ATTACK

AUSTRALIANS WITHIN MILE OF FINSCHHAFEN FIERCE ENEMY RESISTANCE DESTRUCTIVE ALLIED AIR RAIDS (By Telegraph.—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.45 p.m.) SYDNEY, This Day. The Australian troops who landed on a beach six miles north of Finschafen, in New Guinea, encountered fiercer resistance than in the landing near Lae a fortnight earlier. The enemy strengthened the force guarding the beach after the fall of Lae and it was covered, from well-made defence positions, with machine-guns, mortars and grenade throwers. Our casualties were officially described as light—considerably fewer than those of the enemy. The landing was considerably aided by American warships, which fired broadsides into the foreshore behind the beach, smashing Japanese pillboxes. A bayonet charge wiped out the last pocket of enemy resistance at the beachhead and one Australian force went inland while another spread along the coast. Enemy resistance may strengthen as the approach to Finschafen continues, as it is possible that the garrison at that base has been supplemented by troops who were on their way down to reinforce Lae when it was taken. A remarkable feature of the landing was the absence of enemy aircraft. A hot reception had been expected by the landing force, because the Japanese had attempted to bomb the convoy on the previous evening. The manifest weakness of the Japanese in the air was a repetition of the landing near Lae. It is probably due in a large measure to the work of Allied airmen, in blasting enemy airfields and maintaining an effective fighter screen. Another message says the Australians are now only a mile distant from Finschafen. Further destructive attacks have been made by A.llied aircraft on enemy bases and ammunition dumps in New Guinea.