By Charles Buttrose and Staff correspondents
Compiled from articles first published in The Sydney Morning Herald on November 4, 9, & 13
CAPTURE OF KOKODA
Sir Thomas Blamey’s Message
November 4
SOMEWHERE IN AUSTRALIA, Tuesday.-General Sir Thomas Blamey, Commander-in-Chief, Australian Military Forces, and Commander, Allied Land Forces in the South-west Pacific Area, said to-day: “In five weeks of strenuous effort, in which the enemy has been driven from his strongly-prepared positions on many occasions, and in which he has been pursued relentlessly, the Japanese have been driven out of the Owen Stanley Range.
Australian soldiers in the Kokoda area in November 1942.Credit: Australian War Memorial
“Our troops have recaptured every foot of ground lost in the previous withdrawal, and are now beyond Kokoda.
“This has been accomplished by the resolution of the commanders and the tenacity and determination of the Australian infantry, who have fought day by day in most difficult country, over high ridges, through deep gorges,
in tropical heat and rain.
“The troops are full of vigour and eager to close with the Japanese, who no longer show readiness to meet them in battle.”
Editorial: SUCCESSES IN PAPUA (excerpt)
November 9
The Allied success in driving the enemy from the whole of Papua, save the Buna area, brings substantial strategic gains and further opportunities for the initiative. Victory in the Milne Bay region, and the islands north of it, secures the rear, and our forces are free to concentrate upon the enemy remaining at Buna and Gona. The action marks a defeat of the Japanese at their own game, for our forces have not only thrust them back over the difficult Owen Stanley Range but have continued to press and harry them in further retreat past Kokoda.
The fighting has not been intense, but monsoonal conditions have placed a severe strain on our troops. The next stage should be facilitated now that American troops “in force” have been brought in by air transport to attack the Buna-Gona base.
Once this region is recaptured, Lae and Salamaua in the neighbouring Mandated Territory will be the only places on the New Guinea mainland remaining in Japanese hands, and they offer a clear invitation to the Allies to continue their drive to Rabaul in collaboration with any operations by the forces under Admiral Halsey’s command.
SUCCESS IN PAPUA
Superb Dash of Australians
November 13
OUR WAR CORRESPONDENT, CHARLES BUTTROSE.
SOMEWHERE IN NEW GUINEA, Thursday.-Fighting with superb dash, surprising in troops who have been in action on the world’s most difficult battleground for many weeks, Australian units just after dawn yesterday cleared the Japanese out of their strong-posts near Oivi.
With the Australians on three sides of them, and after a vicious attack from the air during the day, the sorely pressed Japanese late on Tuesday afternoon came to grips with our forces in heavy fighting, during which there were substantial casualties.
Yesterday morning, when the Australians renewed the attack, the Japanese abandoned their positions.
From the SMH, November 2, 1942Credit: SMH via Trove
Those who had survived the Australian onslaught made their way north-east of Gorari. They’were closely followed by the Australians.
POCKET WIPED OUT
About the same time other Australians encircled a Japanese pocket which had been giving trouble south of Gorari. Only three of the Japanese force comprising the pocket came out of this tussle alive. They were taken prisoner. One hundred and fifty of their comrades had been killed. This brought the total of counted Japanese killed in the area since Monday to 300.
Last night the Australians were pressing the Japanese around Gorari, which is about six miles closer to Buna than Oivi. At this village, too, the Japanese have prepared positions, but they are not thought to shield such a powerful fire-power as that which delayed our troops at Oivi. Neither does the locality present such natural defence advantages.
Bostons and Beaufighters were over Buna again yesterday, and anti-aircraft posts were among their targets.
The manner in which the Australian troops are keeping up the pressure against the Japanese is amazing.
TOUGH AUSTRALIAN
An indication of the toughness of the Australians was given by an infantryman who was brought out from Kokoda for hospital treatment. This man was seriously wounded at Oivi on Monday. It took more than a day to carry him back to Kokoda, and it was dark when two doctors began to perform an operation on him, which neither believed would be successful. By the light of a motor car headlamp, shielded by a cut-out kerosene tin, and two electric torches held by soldiers, the doctors worked for four and a half hours before the operation was complete.
The soldier was in excellent spirits yesterday morning, and the prospects for his recovery are good.
The single-engined hospital craft, which on some days is making up to three round trips to an improvised airfield high up in the Owen Stanley Ranges, is bringing out the wounded at a speedy rate. More than 30 wounded men have been flown out in the past six days by Lieutenant R.E. Notestine, of the U.S. Army Air Corps who is now flying the ambulance plane. He is able to bring out a maximum of two men each trip.
Landing a Flying Fortress on an airfield near here yesterday, Sergeant Pilot R. Anderson, of Rockhampton, Queensland, completed 200 combat flying hours as a co-pilot with the United States Army Air Corps.
Anderson received a certificate setting out that he had qualified as a first pilot when he returned to his base on the Australian mainland later.