IN DESPERATE STRAITS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 December 1943, Page 4

IN DESPERATE STRAITS

JAPANESE IN THE HUON PENINSULA EVIDENCE OF STARVATION & /DISEASE MUCH MATERIAL CAPTURED BY AUSTRALIANS (Special Australian Correspondent.) (Received This Day. 12.15 p.m.) SYDNEY, This Day. The Japanese retreating northward along the coastal sector of the Huon Peninsula, in New Guinea, are abandoning large quantities of arms and equipment. Bodies of dead Japanese soldiers in the area are emaciated from hunger or dysentery. It is evident that the enemy’s mortality rate from dysentery has been very high. When Australian troops entered Wondokai village, one of the Imesi objectives captured, they found not even a particle of ration food. There was evidence that enemy soldiers had cut down pawpaw trees to chew die central pith. Coconuts also appeared to have been a major food. The reason for the shortage of ration supplies is the destruction of large numbers , of Japanese barges by our patrol tor-pedo-boats operating along the coast The Japanese at Wondokai had also abandoned scores of cases of shells, mortar bombs and other heavy equipment. Field guns had been spiked. The retreating enemy evidently had been too weak to drag them away. In the Ramu Valley, the capture of The Pimple, an important strategic height, gives the Australians observation over all the Japanese supply lines running north to Bogadjim. Bogadjim is the enemy's main coastal staging point. 23 miles north of The Pimple and only 12 miles south of their base at Madang. On a clear day the Australians can see Madang. The captuie of The Pimple is the Australians most important gain since they established themselves in the upper reaches of die Ramu Valley two months ago. The Ramu Valley campaign began when American paratroops seized Nadzab, 20 miles south-west of Lae, on August 6. The Pimple, the highest point on a shaggy ridge, which is the dominating feature in the Ramu Valley, is about 95 miles north-west of Lae, which fell to the Australians on August 16. ,