The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-07-01
FIGHTERS HIT IN
 DEAD OF NIGHT
u. s. Army signal Corps Photo from NEAl
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NNOIlUllluCu HUH 05O 4J night raid, allied land forces suc- cessfully engaged the enemy gar rison, inflicting losses estimated at 60 and capturing equipment.
 Allied casualties were two Wound- ed.
 Thereafter the enemy retaliated by bombing Mumbo and Kobiatum without damage"
 Macarthur also said that Allied planes carried out a minor attack on the Japanese airdrome at Lac, 20 miles north of Salamaua, with results which could not be observed, and started fires ir light raid on the airdrome and wharf area of Ra- baul, New Britain Island, in the Bismarcks to the northeast.
 The communique made plain that the attack on Salamaua by the jungle commandos had no connec- ton with the Lac raid but was pure ly a land operation.
 The commando raid, it was under stood, was made Sunday night, 29 weeks after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.
 MacArthur's men opened their land offensive operations 175 miles across New Guinea from the ad- vanced allied base at Port Moresby on fte south coast, and more than 200 miles from the Australian maln- land.
 Details still were incomplete, but it was indicated that the raid was the first of a series intended to ter rorize and disorganize Japanese gar risons in preparation for the Allied counter offensive.
 BY HAROLD GUARD United Press Staff Correspondent Melbourne, July 1-(UP)-Men of the sort who made the allied com- mando raid on Salamaua are train ing day and night, vigorously ano intensively at secret camp for the day when Gen. Douglas MarArthur's forces start their offensive against 1 the Japanese in the southwest Pa cific.
 Recently I visited the camp where these men eat tough rations wear minimum of tough clothes practice only the toughest fighting look tough, talk tough-and ars tough.
 They are learning to approach ane kill silently, using their firearms onl, in massed frontal attacks. have seen them drop from the upper branches of trees upon the shoul ders of an unsuspecting man, nom- mated to impersonate an enemy, II their own improved adaptation ot the tactics which took the Japanese through Malaya when I covered that front.
 They are mostly seasoned soldiers but many are former "bush sta tioners," Australians who lived tht lonely, hard life out in the unpopu. lated areas of this vast continent Their skin is as leathery and tougt as the camel hides on which they sleep. met at the camp a youthful weather beaten former bush riding lieutenant, who told me laughingly of his men:
 Some of these coves are so tougf they don't trouble any longer tt open their bully beef cans. They ca can and all"
 Training on the Run
 These men carry out all thell training on the run. They have nt regular training hours; their day always starts unexpectedly, and they must be ready and alert on the in stant.
 An alarm whistle sounds at 3 or a. m. Fully dressed, because theI sleep in their clothes, the men turr out on the run, donning their ligh minimum weight equipment as the. some. Some have Tommy guns
 Seemingly by telepathy. for 1t I pitch dark, they follow their shad owy leader, plunging headlong doWr a 2O-foot rocky river bank, fordine the river sometimes shoulder high They work their way in the darl through barbed wire entanglement constructed in the stream ant through dummy gelignite min fields.
 Flinging muddy water spouts they storm the steep opposite bank Q the supposed enemy position, ant enthusiastically stick their bay onets through dummy Japanese.
 They come back. drenched an' scratched and breathless, and drol prone to resume their interrupte' sleep.
 Some of the men are veterans o Malaya.
 I Long ago, handful of the com mandos, as they are now becoming made small raid on Lac after op eratrsg as Guerrillas in the NeN Guinea interior.
 They dropped in on . JApanes mess hall where enemy officers wer busy with their Suki- Yaki, snarl ingly attacked and came away afte leaving a few gaps in the mess rol
 I know some of these tough guy well, and we probably shall hea plenty more about them in tn l future