TAKEN BY SURPRISE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 December 1943, Page 3

TAKEN BY SURPRISE

JAPANESE FORCES AT CAPE GLOUCESTER AMERICANS PRESSING INLAND TOWARDS TWO VALUABLE AIRFIELDS. COMMANDING ENEMY SUPPLY - ROUTES. (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, December 28. American Marines who landed on Cape Gloucester, New Britain, at dawn on Sunday have consolidated their twin beach-heads and are pressing inland. They have already overcome Japanese resistance at Target Hill, four and a half miles from the tip of the Cape. The enemy air strips on the Cape and at Borgen Bay are under Allied artillery fire. Light and medium tanks which w’.nl ashore with the marines on Sunday morning have not yet been reported in action. The main objective of .the American drive is to seize the two airfields in the area. The strategic value of these fields is that they command all sea movement through the Dampier and Vitiaz Straits, and so control the communications between New Britain and New Guinea. Thus their seizure would further disrupt the passage of supplies to the Japanese garrisons in north-east New Guinea. x The other effects of the Allied capture of Cape Gloucester would be to sever a vital link in the Japanese frontline defences north of Australia, and to establish a new Allied air base within 260 miles of Rabaul and Kavieng, in New Ireland. The Japanese strength in the Cape Gloucester area should soon become apparent as the marines enlarge their beachheads and deepen their penetration. POSITIONS FIRMLY HELD. A statement in General MacArthur’s communique today that these beachheads have been consolidated is interpreted to mean that more equipment and supplies have been taken ashore, and that the positions are now firmly held against any possible counterattacks. The Japanese troops may make a stand within a limited range of the airfields. As soon as contact is made with these main enemy forces the weight of the Allied air-power can b thrown against their positions. No further Japanese air attacks against the Americans have been reported since Sunday afternoon, when the enemy suffered the loss of 61 planes in two abortive attempts to harass our troops and shipping. It can now be revealed that the American landing at Arawe, on the south coast of New Britain, on December 15, was a diversionary move which was evidently effective in distracting Japanese attention from Cape Gloucester. Sunday morning’s landings evidently surprised the Japanese, as they were made without air opposition, while at the same Lime a force of more than 30 enemy planes was raiding Arawe. War correspondents who landed with the marines report that the operations were perfectly co-ordinated. Enemy defensive positions had been smashed by the preceding aerial and naval bombardment. The marines speedily hacked tracks through the jungle behind the landing beaches, and equipment-laden motor-lorries, gun tractors and tanks moved out to expand the newly-won beachheads.