GRIM FIGHTING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 October 1943, Page 3

GRIM FIGHTING

ON NEW GUINEA MOUNTAIN FRONT APPRECIABLE JAPANESE LOSSES. IN ATTEMPT TO DEFEND COMMUNICATIONS. (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, October 13. For three clays grim fighting has been taking place on razor-back ridges at scattered points over a 10-mile front in tlie i'oothills of the gaunt Fhiisterre Mountains which skirt the Kanin Valley in New Guinea.

A.I.F. troops advancing on Madang have inflicted appreciable losses on Japanese outposts in the Uria Valley, ai. offshoot of the Ramu Valley, and enemy outpost troops have been driven from their positions. In their progress along the Ramu Valley the Australians have now captured enemy strongpoints beyond Kumbarum, which is four miles from Dumpu. The Japanese at one point have been pushed back one and a half miles with heavy casualties. In mopping up operations north of Finschhafen other Australian forces have killed more than 400 Japanese. After their headlong retreat through the Markham and Ramu Valleys the Japanese are now fighting to retain command of the chain of foothills linking with the end of the vital motor road to Madang. This road begins only 2C' miles away. The present action is developing as a battle for the enemy’s whole line of communication. War correspondents suggest, however, that the enemy’s present resistance is merely intended as an ineffectual answer to the Australians’ 25-pounder “paraguns.”

Enemy soldiers are reported to be well fed and well equipped. There is evidence that their defence is being directed through efficient radio equipment. The prepared defensive positions in the area were the first the Australians had encountered in their 45 miles' advance from Kaiapit, 40 miles north of Lae, which they began on September 28. Territory in which the fighting is taking place is stated to be as difficult as the Owen Stanley Range country, scene of the first big New Guinea battles against the Japanese. To cover five miles took an Australian war correspondent eight hours. BADLY BEATEN JAPANESE FIGHTERS OVER WEWAK. AT LEAST EIGHT DESTROYED. SYDNEY, October 13. Against odds of 11 to one, an Allied fighter patrol over Wewak, New Guinea, yesterday destroyed eight Japanese fighters and probably destroyed two others. Four Thunderbolts comprised an intercepting patrol, and they attacked an enemy formation of 32 fighters and 12 bombers. They first destroyed a Zero at 20,000 ft., and then tackled the rest of the formation at 12,000 ft.

General MacArthur’s latest communique, which reports this air engagement, also reports the destruction by Liberators with two direct hits of a small enemy tanker at Fakfak, in Dutch New Guinea.

An Allied night patrol attacked a Japanese convoy of six merchantmen sneaking into St. George’s Channel, between New Britain and New Ireland, on Monday night, scoring a hit on one ship and near-misses against - others. The convoy was possibly fleeing from the recent Vella Lavella naval engagement when theMapanese lost a cruiser and two destroyers. This attack on the convoy was the third against enemy shipping off Cape St. George since the weekend.