Evening star., 1942-03-28
Australian |mperid|s
Being Revamped 10
Defend Home Shores
BIomey Says Fight Must
Be Bosed on Assumption
Jops Will Try Invasion
By c. YATES MCDANIEL,
Associated Press War Correspondent,

/ Associated Press War Correspondent.
MELBOURNE, March 28.-The
first battle -toughened units of
the imperial force Australia sent
to war fronts from -scorched
Libya to the jungles of Malaga
have returned to the homeland
they left nearly two years ago
and are being reformed today
into the ranks of the Allied de-
tenders of their own direly
menaced shores.
With these grim faced veterans
of Tobruk and Singapore-infantry
artillery and airmen-are other en-
pire soldiers and flyers tthe number
and identity undisclosed) grouped
for the stand in the new front lines
alongside United States troops al
ready at their bases.
The fight, said Gen. Sir Thomas
Blamey, new Allied land force COM
mander in Australia, must be based
on the fat assumption that the Jap
anese will attempt to invade the
continent.
The next year" Gen. Blamey de-
clared. will decide whether Aus
tralia will live or die as a nation"
Hard hitting United States and
Australian bombers still are holding
the Japanese advance striking force
at bay in the fringe OF coral-reefed
and jungle-matted islands north of
Australia, while fighters and a stiff
kanti aircraft defense countered
aerial thrusts which have preceded
each japanese landing move in the
Southwest Pacific.
KOepang Bombed Again.
A cOmmunlque said the harbOr OF
Koepang, Japanese seized port of
Dutch Timor and a springboard for
Japanese attack from the northwest,
had been bombed for a second con-
secutive day. setting one ship afire
A later communique said Port
MoreSby on the south coast of New
Guinea had been raided again this
morning in its 2lst air attack of the
war
A summary of raids on the port
said the japanese so far have used
100 planes and dropped 800 to
1000 bombs, but have killed only
two persons and caused little dam
age.
Returning members of the Aus
tralian imperial force, arriving in
contlngents comprising many types
OF personnel, greeted the wives and
children and parents they left be-
hind in the early days of the war.
They talked sternly Of their new
job-a crack at the foe who has
smashed through the island bas-
tions behind which Australia
seemed guarded and secure only a
few months ago.
Aussie Fighters Confident.
The japanese won't be tougher
than the Hun declared some of the
fighting men who served in Greece
and North Africa.
Well break our necks to get
back into the fray and carry on the
traditions of those who have gone"
said others.
Flyers who have met the Jap.
anese before-in Malaga and Java
told their fellows that the jap
anese will be easy money when they
are met on equal terms in the air
and on the land"
The new commander of land
forces in Australia declared that the
invaders must be expected to try for
foothold on the continent
I'VE must work on that assump-
ton just as Britain must ever plan
on Nazi attempt to invade the
British Isles" Gen. Blamey declared
in an interview.
THE Japanese probably will at
tack Darwin and North Queensland
in an effort to cloAe both ends of
the East Indies and cut of our
ready access to sea communications.
We must see to it we don't lose
Darwin and Port Moresby."
Jap Drive in India Seen.
Gen. Blamey said it was highly
probable the Japanese would launch
big offensive against India as
soon as they could consolidate the
positions they already have won.
He acclaimed Gen. Douglas Mac
Arthur's appointment as supreme
commander of Allied forces in the
Southwest Pacific as a bold and SEN
Sible step.
1T means that Gen. Macarthur
can use all the forces at command"
he said. With things moving as
fast as they do in this war it may
make all the difference between VIC
tory and defeat"
Gen. Blamey said the Australian
Imperial Force-organized for duty