DRIVE TO SEA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 October 1943, Page 3

DRIVE TO SEA

ATTEMPTED BY ISOLATED JAPANESE FORCE IN NORTHERN NEW GUINEA. SHARP FIGHTING IN PROGRESS NEAR FINSCHHAFEN. (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, October 22. Isolated Japanese troops in New Guinea have recaptured the village of Katika, about two miles north of Finschhafen and about one mile from the sea. Completely cut off from supplies and faced with annihilation, the trapped Japanese force, numbering several thousand men, is making a desperate drive toward the coast. The A.I.F. Ninth Division is astride their escape corridor. The Australians have repulsed all the enemy’s, frontal ittacks, but the Japanese made some progress by infiltrating at night. It is emphasised at General MacArthur's headquarters that the enemy attacks are not directed against Finschhafen, which fell to the Australians on October 2, but consist of an attempt to reach the sea between Finschhafen and the Song River in order to establish barge contact with Japanese foices further north along the New Guinea coast. Even if they succeed in reaching the coast, the Allied air control of the Vitiaz Strait imperils any organised evacuation. The present Japanese drive has been launched from the Satelberg area, six miles inland from Finschhafen. The only trail leading north from Satelberg is a difficult tract over mountainous country. This could not be used to transport supplies in sufficient quantities for a large force. Since the capture of Finschhafen, our troops have counted a total of more than 650 Japanese dead in the area. The present fighting is officially described as "sharp." General MacArthur’s communique says that both sides are receiving aerial support. During the night 30 Japanese planes attacked our rear area, causing minor damage and casualties. During the day our fighters intercepted six escorted enemy bombers, shooting down four as well as one fighter and probably destroying another’two bombers. We lost one plane, the pilot being saved. In widespread air actions throughout the South and South-West Pacific Z 3 Japanese aircraft have been destroyed and several others probably destroyed or damaged. Off Dutch New Guinea our heavy bombers sank a Gt>uu-ton freighter or transport with two direct hits. When one of our heavy reconnaissance units was attacked over the Bismarck Sea by a total of 22 Japanese fighters, it destroyed three, probably destroyed two others, and damaged three.