Toward a Japless New Guinea?

For the first time in World War II, General Douglas MacArthur, who has much to his military credit, took the offensive by land, sea and air. The offensive was small, but it was the most important news to come out of MacArthur's headquarters in a long time.

By Air. MacArthur's surge had its beginnings in adversity last September, when the Japs routed Australian troops in the New Guinea mountains and pushed within 32 miles of Port Moresby, the key which locked the door against an invasion of Australia. For six months U.S. infantry troops had been jungle-training in Australia. The problem was how to get them to New Guinea from Australian bases 600 miles away.

Slight, scarred Lieut. General George C. Kenney, who took over the Southwest Pacific air command in August, had the answer: send them by air. George Kenney scraped together every transport plane he could find, including old, outmoded B18 bombers, early version of four-motored Liberators left over from Java, Lockheed and Douglas planes made in the U.S. for the Indies' K.N.I.L.M. airlines. George Kenney then flew thousands of soldiers to New Guinea. It was the first big airborne troop-transport job undertaken by the U.S. in a theater of operations.

By Land. Meanwhile Australian troops, battle-toughened in Libya and the Middle East, were rushed to New Guinea and hastened up the trail to stop the Japs. Over the jungle and mountain trail that leads out of Moresby they slogged through mud a foot deep, through rain that never ceased. The Japs, weakened by dysentery and undernourishment, withdrew as fast as they had advanced. The Australians pushed on toward the gap at the top of the Owen Stanley Range. They started down the slope toward Buna, where the Japs landed last July. Last week they took Kokoda, a thatched native village 60 miles north of Moresby and 60 miles south of Buna, which has a small airfield. At Oivi, a few miles farther on, the Japs made a stand.

This week General MacArthur sprang his surprise. U.S. troops, he announced, were fighting in the vicinity of Buna. Evidently the dirty, sweating U.S. Army engineers had hacked a crude road through the world's wettest, highest jungle, enabling combat troops to cross the mountains on the Australians' flank and knock at the Japs' back door. More troops came in planes which landed on a natural strip discovered in the jungle. Said General MacArthur: "The Allied forces now control all of Papua except the beachhead in the Buna-Gona area."

Papua is only one-fourth of the island of New Guinea, but it is the most important part of that eerie, partially explored island. For the first time since they landed there last February, it seemed that the Japs might have to look to the defense of their bases, Lae and Salamaua, 150-odd miles northwest of Buna. If MacArthur could take Lae and Salamaua, New Guinea would be lost to the Japs. Already Australian Commandos were harassing the two bases, working in the dead of night with their knives and tommy guns.

By Sea. MacArthur's critical weakness has been ships. But he mustered at least enough to carry out a flanking operation on the north coast. Troops from Milne Bay, on New Guinea's eastern tip, sailed 50 miles northward and landed at Goodenough Island, "clearing remnants of hostile forces."

Airman Kenney. For this good news the U.S. could give George Kenney and his airmen much credit. Starting with worn-out planes and weary pilots, General Kenney in three months had: 1) all but knocked out what planes the Japs could spare to New Guinea; 2) helped to stop one Jap landing at Milne Bay and knocked out a Jap attempt to reinforce Buna; 3) bombed Jap bases in New Britain and the northern Solomons day after day to help the Marines hold Guadalcanal (see below). For a month George Kenney's pursuit planes had been so free of Zero opposition that they could devote most of their time to strafing, while his transports dropped supplies by parachute to Allied jungle fighters. In the Pacific war of distances, something was being learned.

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