NEW GUINEA BATTLE
FOR THE HUON PENINSULA AUSTRALIANS WELL BEYOND WAREO. FINAL STAGE APPROACHING. (Special Australian Correspondent) gvDNEY, December 10. The battle for the Huon Peninsula in New Guinea is now approaching its final stages. Afer savage fighting, Australian troops on Wednesday drove the Japanese from their Wareo strongpoint, and are now pursuing the enemy along the jungle' trails leading toward the important coastal supply base of Madang. Contact has been made a mile north of Wareo. Like Satelberg, seven miles to the couth which fell to the Australians a fortnight ago, Wareo is of strategic importance. It is situated on high ground and had been used by the Japanese as a supply and communications A second Australian foice has fanned out west of Wareo for about a mile, creating an offensive arc with Wareo as its pivot. This force has also captured a strategic position A third Australian force driving along the northern coast of the Huon Peninsula, is now more than three miles west of its starting point at Bonga. It has been supported by heavy Matilda tanks, and is reported to have gained a mile in the past 24 hours. Spasmodic Japanese resistance is being encountered in this sector, and in one patrol action 25 of the enemy were killed. With Wareo now in Australian hands, considerable impetus will be lent to the drive to clear the Japanese from the Huon Peninsula. Allied aircraft continue to give strong support to the Australian troops, bombing and strafing enemy coastal bivouac and supply areas. . After a lapse of some time, today s South-West Pacific headquarters communique makes reference to ground action in Ramu Valley, where Allied forces are also driving northward. Increased Japanese patrol activity is leported, but so far the fighting has been on a small scale.
Adverse weather has limited air operations over the entire South-West Pacific, but Liberators were able, to make a further harassing attack on the Cape Gloucester area on the western tip of New Britain. The Japanese have been sending supplies from Rabaul to this area for transfer to New Guinea. Cape Gloucester is only 60 miles across the Vitiaz Strait from advanced Australian positions on the Huon Peninsula.
Near Kavieng, New Ireland, a Liberator on reconnaissance attacked six loaded enemy barges, sinking three and probably destroying the remainder. Little aerial activity is reported from the Solomons, but Mitchells attacked Kieta harbour, starting fires.
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Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 December 1943, Page 3
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401NEW GUINEA BATTLE Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 December 1943, Page 3
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