Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1943-01-29
BY GEORGE WELLER.

War Correspondent of The Star and
Chicago Daily News
WITH THE AMERICAN FORCES
ON SANANANDA, Jan. Is de
layed Here deep in the Sanan-
anda swamp men are taking of
their mud-clogged boots, hanging
up their wet socks in the shafts OF
sunlight that penetrate the brush
and breaking down their Tommy
guns and Garands for their first
thorough oilfng in 10 DAYS.
Christmas mail is getting through
to the outlying posts in the green
hung quagmire. The first runner
who comes through sorts out the
letters and speaks out the names.
The bearded, barefoot men pick
their way across between mudholes
and extend their dirty hands for
their first news from the outer
world. AS the mud bedaubed run
ner reads the names on the letters
he sometimes pauses, waits and gets
no answer. Without a word he
puts these letters, which will never
be claimed, back in his haversack.
Yesterday there were several
bursts Of fire at odd places nearby.
Today there were only two, and
nobody pays any attention. Capt.
Jack Van Duyne Of Eugene. Greg.
has taken off the pistol belt and.
with his bespectacled aide. James
Ray of Libertyville. Ill. is work
ing under a shelter half open to the
sun debating citations for bravery.
Writers Killed in Jeep,
Two Australian war correspond
ents riding in an American jeep
were blown up by Jap mine a few
feet from one your correspondent
marked two days ago. and one was
wounded, making two killed and
two wounded since the Buna cam
paign began.
1t is quiet except for occasional
passage by moonlight of lone Jap
bombers bound on nuisance raids.
The motors Of our fighters drone
with a comforting monotony over
head That fellow shot by a Jap
sniper across the road from me in
the corpse Uttered Jap regimental
headquarters died today. But in
general it is tranquil.
Clean khakied men we never saw
before are beginning to arrive from
the Port Moresby side of the Owen
Stanley Mountain on official err
rands. They want to hear the story
of what happened and would not
refuse a Jap officers sword if YOU
could suggest where it could be OBJ
tanned.
In other words, the clock of the
campaign had run down and al
most stopped.
Bernard L. Roy, machine gunner
from Norris City, Ill, got three Japs
last night about 10 o'clock.
They were sneaking along trying
to reach what used to be their hos
pital area" says Roy. ct got two
right off, and third played pos
sum until morning, when I got
him"
Take Six Pillboxes.
Two days ago this force was little .
more than scrubbed flag penciled
on the iSinglass surface of the op-
irrational map with miles of almost !
impossible swamp between. It was
then that they broke the fortified |
Jap perimeter of dugouts by taking
six pillboxes at once. The leaders
of this exploit were 23-year-old |
Sergt. John L. MoehI of White Pine, |
Mont, a student at Montana State, !
and Corpl, Wilmer H. Rummell. 90 !
year-old filling station man from
Hartford, Kans.. --.
Going over this Jap perimeter in
the jungle far to the left of the
main Samantha road, I saw in a
mortar pockmarked area, where the
tops of trees had been blown to
splinters by Tommy guns and high
explosive artillery, the place where
the American attacked There is a
lo-foot-wide creek, muddy and
clogged with debris, with 1-foot-
high banks. On the other side are
six Jap dugouts covered with logs
half sunk in the earth, like iron
safes covered with foliage. Three
are disposed triangularly at curve,
two in front and one behind The
other three are scattered to left and
RIGHT