Gunning for Salamoua

Australian and American artillery set the broad-leafed jungles aquiver last week as they roared an unexpected challenge to the Japs in Salamaua. Somehow through the jungles Allied 105s and other artillery had miraculously been lugged into position. With the aid of the guns Allied troops began storming the gates of the Japanese stronghold. Having chopped and shot their way through jungle to within five miles of it, they now needed artillery to battle for high ground.

The Japs, well knowing that loss of the commanding ridges above Salamaua would seal its doom, fought desperately. To counter the Allied guns they had a few 75-mm. and 6-in. guns, but for the most part relied on their bombproof burrows, mortars and machine guns.

The Japs used many a battle-scarred trick. Said a U.S. officer: '"The moment we take an objective we have to organize our perimeters quickly, for the Japs . . . strike back immediately in localized counterattacks." Public-address systems were brought up by the Japs to make noisy diversions while their troops crept round to attack from the rear. But, said the American officer, "our boys are awake to all these tricks. They have not been confused . . . and have held their fire like veterans."

When artillery scorched and tumbled the hillsides, the Jap holed in. But to cover the 40 to 60 yards necessary for direct assault sometimes took the Allied soldiers five or ten minutes, and the Jap popped out swiftly to man his machine guns. Occasionally cliffs had to be scaled, hand over hand with the help of thorny lawyer vines: the Jap, creeping from his caves, pulled the pins from mortar bombs, dropped them on the attackers. Such fighting necessarily slowed the Allied onslaught. Patrols probed ahead to pinpoint enemy positions. Plane and artillery bombardment constantly softened the Jap defenses. But direct assaults had to be made against limited objectives because of the tangle and sheerness of the country. Gradually, however, the Jap was being dislodged, pressed back to the defensible peninsula of Salamaua itself.

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