STEADY HEADWAY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 December 1943, Page 3

STEADY HEADWAY

MADE AGAINST JAPANESE IN NEW GUINEA AUSTRALIAN MOUNTED MEN IN ACTION. ALLIED BOMBERS ATTACK BORNEO & CELEBES. (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, December 13. Australian horse cavalry is in action in the Ramu Valley, New Guinea. This is the first occasion on which horse cavalry has been used in the SouthWest Pacific area. Already the Australian cavalrymen have had several clashes with the Japanese. They are being used mainly for scouting and reconnaissance in country which is well suited 'to mounted movement. On the Huon Peninsula other Australian troops, in spite of torrential rains, are steadily driving back the Japanese. On the coastal sector’ our forces have pushed a mile beyond the mouth of the Turnom River, which is three miles north of Bomga. After fierce fighting they have cleared the Japanese but of strong hill positions, and more than 100 enemy dead have been counted in the area. The Australian force in the inland area of the peninsula is now a mile and a half beyond Wareo. The Japanese are fighting stubborn rearguard actions. The Japanese forces in the Ramu Valley are believed to have been reinforced along the motor highway from Bogadjim, an important enemy coastal base 20 miles south of Madang. The renewed ground fighting in the valley has followed a lull of more than a month. STRONG ENEMY DEFENCES. The Ramu Valley is north-west of the Huon Peninsula. The Japanese have established strong defences on the ridges dominating the valley and have made numerous counter-attacks. Their artillery has been active, and they are now believed to be using heavier guns. Our patrols report the presence of Japanese in places formerly free of the enemy. The A.I.F. troops who moved into the Markham and Ramu Valleys after the fall of Lae have also clashed with Japanese at several points in the Finjsterre Range. This range forms a natural barrier to the Australian drive toward Bogadjim.

The renewed action in the area was precipitated by increased Japansee patrol activity and attacks on Australian outposts in the Kesawai sector. Kesawai village, which was occupied by the Australians early in October, is 25 air miles south of Bogadjim. The Australians have inflicted heavy casualties on the Japanese' in local encounters, but have been forced to yield a small amount of ground at a few places.

American aircraft continue to give close support to our ground forces. They have also kept up their incessant pounding of- enemy targets in western New Britain, where the Japanese bases have been under an unflagging aerial attack for three weeks. AIR ATTACK REPELLED. For the first time in many weeks the Japanese Air Force has given signs of large-scale activity in New Guinea. When 40 enemy fighters attempted a dawn attack on Australian positions in the Ramu Valley they were intercepted and driven off by eight Kittyhawks. Our fighter patrol suffered no loss. In the Solomons a Japanese attack against the American beach-head at Empress Augusta Bay, Bougainville Island, was repulsed, the enemy abandoning 13 killed. Liberators made the longest flight (2600 miles) that has yet been recorded in the South-West Pacific operations to strike for the third time at the oil-refining centre of Balikpapen, Borneo. Large explosions and fires resulted. Other Liberators attackec the wharf area at Macassar, in the Celebes, making a round flight of 2400 miles.