QUICK END LIKELY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 September 1943, Page 3

QUICK END LIKELY

IN THE ALLIED ATTACK ON FINSCHHAFEN fl TROOPS CROWDING IN ON ENEMY DEFENCES JAPANESE OUTNUMBERED. SHARP FIGHTING NEAR BUMI RIVER. (Bv Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) SYDNEY, September 29. The Japanese have suffered heavy casualties in sharp fighting in the region of the Bumi River, south of their base at Finschhafen, in New Guinea. Australian losses are light. Our forward elements have advanced to Llebbe Creek, west of Finschhafen township. These’developments are reported in today’s communique from General MacArthur. The Japanese are outnumbered and outgunned, and the fall of the base is inevitable, writes an Australian war correspondent. Haste is being subordinated to a policy of tightly pegging the costs of the campaign. Our forces are steadily crowding on the enemy defence line.

The close dispositions have greatly limited Allied air support for the ground forces. It is more likely that the enemy’s defences will crumble suddenly than that the campaign will develop into a slow and methodical whittling down of Japanese strength. Japanese aircraft on Monday made sporadic raids on Allied beach positions and the aerodrome in the Finschhafen area, but inflicted only light casualties and caused no material damage. ABORTIVE RAID ON MISSION IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA. SYDNEY, September 29. The Japanese air force made its heaviest raid on the Australian mainland for some weeks 'on Monday, when 25 planes bombed and strafed Drysdale Mission, on the most northern tip of Western Australia. General MacArthur’s communique reports only minor damage and casualties. Apart from Darwin, which has been raided 61 times since Japan entered the war, the enemy this year has attacked three Australian coastal centres—Exmouth Gulf, Broome and Onslow. There was no damage or casualties in any of the three centres. NEW LANDING MADE BY AMERICANS IN ELLICE GROUP. MOST NORTHERN ISLAND OCCUPIED. LONDON, September 29. An announcement from Pearl Harbour states that American forces have occupied the most northern of the Ellice Islands. The move was carried out without opposition. It is believed the island will be used as an air base. The Ellice group lies east of the Solomons, between Fiji and the Gilberts. The move represents the first advance into the south-easternmost fringe of the Japanese conquests in the Pacific islands zone.