ISLANDS CAMPAIGN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 September 1943, Page 4

ISLANDS CAMPAIGN

INITIATIVE HELD FIRMLY BY ALLIES GENERAL SIR T BLAMEY’S SURVEY DEFINITE LOWERING OF ENEMY MORALE (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.15 p.m.) MELBOURNE, This Day. “The initiative has been taken from the Japanese and we are now calling the tune,” General Sir T. Blarney said on his arrival at an airport near Melbourne. “The campaign is New Guinea has gone very well and our losses have been very light. There has been a definite lowering of the morale of the Japanese since the fighting at Buna and Gona. “It is obvious that the enemy has changed his opinion about his own invincibility,” General Blarney added. “He has discovered that things are a little more difficult than he expected. The change has been brought about by our superior equipment, superior troops and superior air force and by our initiative. Our troops are of outstanding quality. They have a high standard of morale and training. You just cannot hold them. This is one of the outstanding features of the whole New Guinea campaign. Co-operation by the American Navy and Air Force with the Australian ground forces has been extraordinarily good. It is a happy association altogether. “The fighting in the Finschhafen area." General Blarney stated, “is a development of our successes at Salamaua and Lae. The fall of Finschhafen is only a matter of time.” General Blarney said that at present, he thought, Wewak was the strongest of the other Japanese bases in New Guinea. Very considerable Japanese reinforcement's had just arrived at Wewak when the Allies struck recently and destroyed the bulk of them.