JUNGLE FIGHTING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 November 1943, Page 3

JUNGLE FIGHTING

CAMPAIGN IN NEW GUINEA STRATEGICAL IMPORTANCE. VALUE IN PACIFIC PLANS. (Bv Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) SYDNEY, November 1. “The New Guinea campaign has both inflicted and ' exposed weaknesses which may vitally influence the trend of the Pacific war,” says an Australian war correspondent assessing the results of the fighting in that area. He adds that the strategical importance of the continued Allied successes in the jungle dwarfs the insignificance of the actual territory regained. “We may seem to have paid a bitter price for an area about two-thirds the size of Tasmania,” writes the correspondent. “It has taken the skill of our first-line divisions, bitten deeply into our slender air fleets and absorbed a large proportion of the output from the home front war factories. But no Pacific commander recognising the indirect benefits of the advance in New Guinea and their war-winning spadework value in the broader Pacific plans will quibble at the cost. The immense tactical advantages gained are sure to pay handsome dividends. Swift development of advanced airfields is now well beyond the needs of defence.” The battles for Wau and the Markham Valley, the correspondent discloses, have produced secret inland fighter air-strips, enabling our bombers to be escorted in daylight attacks on Wewak. The destruction or damage of more than 500 aircraft at Wewak in the past two months has curbed its menace as a Japanese marshalling base. The construction of fighter strips on the Trobriand , and Woodlark island groups north of the eastern tip of New Guinea has brought Rabaul almost within shuttle range of our heavy bombers. Under a Lockheed Lightning cover from these advanced airfields, we have destroyed or damaged more than 800 Japanese planes. “Rabaul and Wewak are the sustaining props of the most powerful section of the enemy’s southern Pacific defence line,” adds the correspondent. “That line is already sagging under the weight of concentrated bombing directed against the main flanks, and many commanders are convinced that both bases can be knocked out by air alone.”

In north-eastern New Guinea, Japanese ground forces' have now only a tenuous grip, the main enemy strength being centred in the Dutch part of the island. In that territory, the great distances to be covered have so far given the enemy bases at Hollandia, Babo, Manokwari and Fak comparative immunity from heavy bombing.