HARD FIGHTING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 November 1943, Page 3

HARD FIGHTING

EXPECTED TO CONTINUE IN NEW GUINEA GENERAL BLAMEY’S SURVEY. JAPANESE WILL NOT CUT LOSSES. SYDNEY, November 3. The Japanese are bringing reinforcements into New Guinea and are building up their strength there, the commander of the Allied land forces in the South-West Pacific, General Blarney, told war correspondents at his headquarters. He added: ‘’The Japanese will not cut his losses. He will fight for every inch of New Guinea territory remaining in his grasp.” Referring to the fighting round Finschhafen, General Blarney said that the enemy realised the importance of the Allied threat in this area and was offering stout resistance. More hard fighting remained. A war correspondent in the Finschhafen area says that, with the monsoonal rains due to begin any day, the enemy forces based on Statelberg will be faced with an almost insuperable task in obtaining supplies. The native tracks which they are now using wind over sheer mountain ranges and cross scores of swift rivers. That their supply problem is already acute is shown by the enemy’s recent efforts to drop supplies from the air. Early rains have reduced the ground to a clinging quagmire of thick black mud two feet deep on well-used tracks. ISLANDS CAMPAIGN BOMBERS SINK LARGE ENEMY TRANSPORT. NEW ZEALANDERS REPULSE COUNTER-ATTACK. SYDNEY, November 3. The New Zealand forces on Treasury Island have advanced to Malsi on the north-east coast. A miner Japanese counter-attack at night was repulsed and 44 enemy dead were counted. This is reported by General MacArthur’s communique today. American troops on Cholseul, with close bomber and fighter support, have advanced and defeated the Japanese at Sangigai. The remnants of the enemy have fled to the south-east, leaving 72 dead behind. In the waters round New Ireland, our reconnaissance bombers have sunk an 8000-ton transport and scored a direct hit on the stern of a 4000-ton cargo ship. Liberators again attacked the Japanese nickel-mining centres of Pomelaa and-Maniagni Island, in Celebes, dropping more than 27 tons of explosives which caused heavy damage.