Page:Papuan Campaign; The Buna-Sanananda Operation - Armed Forces in Action (1944).djvu/65

 made no advance during the day, but artillery and mortar fire caused a considerable number of casualties among enemy troops in the vicinity of his bunkers.

Three of the tanks had been knocked out, and one-third of the Australians were casualties, but the Allied attack on the 18th had smashed once and for all the Japanese defenses in the Plantation. As our troops moved forward through the coconut trees, they found that the whole area was a mass of fortifications which the infantry alone could probably never have stormed. Some bunkers on the front line had roofs 3 to 4 feet thick; others had a layer of sheet iron on top and a front wall 6 feet thick. Surrounding them were individual covered fire pits with gun slits. These facts help to explain how the enemy defense had been able to stand up under our repeated attacks.

On 19 December our line pushed about 300 yards westward through the Plantation along a 1,000-yard front. The following day the 2/9 Battalion and units of the 3d Battalion, 128th Infantry, advanced into the narrow nose of land on the north side of Simemi Creek. The 1st Battalion, 128th Infantry, which had followed the withdrawing enemy along the north edge of the New Strip, joined the 1st Battalion, 126th Infantry, in assailing the bunkers on the east side of the creek, and this time every one was taken. By noon of the 20th our troops were at the bridge.

The bridge over Simemi Creek might better be called a causeway, for it crosses more swamp than stream. The creek itself is only about 6 feet wide at the crossing, although over a man's head in depth, while the bridge is 125 feet long by 10 feet wide. Our troops found that the enemy had blown a gap of some 12 feet in the bridge over the main stream and commanded the crossing with 2 light machine guns, one .50-cal. machine gun, and 30 to 40 riflemen.

The 1st Battalion, 126th Infantry, spent the rest of the 20th and most of that night in attempting to get men across the creek. After the morning attack, units reorganized and in the early afternoon reconnoitered the bridge position. At 1650–1700 artillery and mortars laid down a concentration, and at 1700–1705 the mortars provided a smoke screen. Under cover of this, the pioneers brought up a catwalk, {{dhr} 48