The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1943-04-22
Front Line
In New Guinea
Ry Osmar White
fWEU Festue-Throuxh special arrangement
with Golfers WeekIy)

with Golfers Weekly
Australia's front line in New
Guinea is remote and mysterious,
the most secret front line in a whole
world at war. | was determined to
find it.
After a weeks canoeing into the
interior, | saw the mountains at
dawn one morning. They take your
breath away. The tallest mountains
I've ever seen. One mountain is IN
the 14,OO0-foot class. The track leads
straight over 9,00o-foot pass.
I pity the men manning this foot
hill post on the way to the front
line. They're tired-jungle-tired to
the very bone They're thin and yell
lowed and listless. They have had
to dig a four-foot deep trench around
their camp and block the bridges
across it because death adders and
rats poster them at night. When not
working, they live in huge mos
quito net which covers the space for
table and chairs and little book
shelf. They get mail once in two
or three months.
From here | started the next
morning, up the tough slope, through
dense, damp jungle. The idea is to
get the days walking over before
the afternoon rain sets in. What
rain! Straight down, warm and
steamy, drenching to the marrow.
The first Kunds bridge sWayed Wild
ly over roaring rapids 40 feet below.
Where Sun Never Shines.
Next day more of the same. Up
and up and up and up. The track
is cannibal path now, not nine
inches wide. The high airs thin
not half a breath in lungful. The
sun has not shone on this mud IN a
hundred thousand years. Still up.
Sometimes the trees thin bit and
one can see a glimpse of breath
| taking blue valley, utterly blanketed
| in treetops, sweeping down 1000 feet
/ onto the snakelike river, white with
rapids and waterfalls. Here one may
hold shouted conversation with
man a full days journey away.
Another day and we're over thu
crest. Now down and down ant
down Dry, comfortable camps over
looking a rolling, grassy valley
] Fresh food to make your teeth wa
! ter. The only fly in the ointmen
is the rats in the bedrooms. They
run up under the blanket with theil
/ little cold feet,
Another day and I'm in a valley
hot and magnificent with richness
There are great stands of hoop pine
My boy brought me a spray Q
creamy orchids foot long. Nc
!, some fellows from the front line, go
ing out sick. Two of them had beer
in the Salamaua show They hat
bad sores from mocka bites. Mocka.
are scrub ticks that carry Asiatlt
typhus. They call it Jap river feve
UP here.
They bit me pretty severely on tn
way over and this kunai grass i
swarming with them, but the lodin
bottle keeps them down The fel
lows told grim stories OF the Jap
jubilantly relaxing in neat llttl
grass villages among grinning, well
fed natives.
Ahead are more hills still, wette
and sleeper, but this is the las
stretch.
Hears a Jap Bomber.
| camped under the skirts Of
12,OO0-foot mountain. About min
o'clock heard the unmistakahl
: high-low drone of Jap bomber.
| turned off my lantern from habi
and went out. The forest was ablaz
with eerie light; the ground unde
the hut a Pickering mass Of glow
worms.
Another day and reached a
) army camp-four great huts, no.
housing a contingent of Commando
going to the front-zlean, stoope
youngsters already yellowed b
fever. They are the first considei
: able body of troops have seen
: nearly 300 miles Of walking.
These are the men who do quit
execution Of every Jap patrol thu
dares poke its nose out. Only on
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