IN NEW GUINEA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 December 1943, Page 4

IN NEW GUINEA

ENEMY STAND POSSIBLE NEAR WAREO SUPPLY & OTHER PROBLEMS. JAPANESE TROOPS SHORT - OF PROVISIONS. (Special Australian Correspondent.) (Received This Day, 11.50 a.m.) SYDNEY, November 30. Although badly battered in recent heavy fighting, the Japanese on the Huon Peninsula, in New Guinea, are still in strong force. While the next enemy move in this area is unpredictable, it is considered probable that the Japanese will stand and defend formidable prepared positions near Warea. However these positions are dominated by Allied artillery, while long stretches of kunai grass in this sector make practicable an increased use of tanks. It is likely, too, that the Japanese are short of supplies. No rations were found when the A.I.F. forces captured Satelberg. In a nearby village, the body of a mule was discovered. It had been killed for food. Four pack saddles of other mules, apparently killed for the same purpose, were also found. The few of the enemy who were left behind in the general withdrawal from Satelberg are facing starvation. The supply problem of the main Japanese force has been complicated by the cutting of their most direct line to the coast and by the imminent Australian threat to their coastal base of Bonga. The enemy’s barge unloading points are thus being forced further back along the New Guinea coast, increasing the distances over which supplies for the Wareo force must be portered. In the advance by Australian troops against Bonga, several Japanese have escaped by the ruse of feigning.death. One Australian who attempted to remove the sword of a “dead” officer was savagely bitten in the arm. “I was co amazed that 1 only had time to kick him in the stomach before he disappeared into the jungle,” said the soldier. “He got away with his sword too.”