[?]-Day At Hollandia

Dutch NG Celebrates Liberation

Hollandia, April 2.

|N April 22, Hollandia (capital of * Dutch New Guinea) will cele brate its day of liberation, cactly nine years ago, American id Australian troops came ashore a brilliantly executed pincer- Dvement. A large, well-equipped panese army was entirely de ated, thanks to an assault-plan great detail and split-second arpness, and to close co-ordina m between land, sea and air •ces.

Here, in Hollandia, an important ;p was taken on the long, dif lult road to ultimate victory. ;re, in an area where once there d been only a few native villages d a vast expanse of primeval rest, a city of 140,000 men was rmed.

Person Hassor is one of the very v who saw the amphibious land 's “from the other side”, and lives tell about it.

He describes the bombardments, jht and day, for a month before b actual invasion, of the landings d the slight resistance of the panese.

He says that that Japanese period ,s not very good. Heavy work, my beatings, and often not ough to eat. His gardens pro led him to a certain extent with ?o and sweet potatoes and only w and then, when he had time do it, he caught some fish out the crystal-blue waters of Jotefa y (upon which his village, Tabati, s a fine view).

Later, old Tabati was completely ped out by the heavy bombard snts, but was built up again on other spot after the war.

Luckily, the inhabitants of Tabati re warned beforehand by dropped iflets not to stay near military •gets, and they all fled into the Is. Not so Gerson Hassor. He d found a nice cave in the virons of his dwellings, which srlooked Humboldt Bay and tefa Bay, and which was a good mb shelter. From this place he tnessed the invasion. |-DAY started about 3 a.m. He ' was awakened by the heavy thuds of naval shells, rhe bright flashes and nerve aking boom of the big naval ;illery were mixed with the angry iccato of the lighter guns, the ;s of screeching shells and the me of the twin-tailed night hters. Gerson Hassor still shivers ien he tells about those terrify £ hours.

When dawn broke, and the first irays shot up from the horizon, rson peered from his sheltering ■re. He saw hundreds of big and

small ships and an endless stream of planes, sweeping down over land ing-beaches and airfields.

Then, all noise suddenly stopped and countless white trails showed in the water as the boats left the ships, fanning out all over the bay, towards the beaches. These were the waves upon waves of landing craft which brought the men ashore.

To his left, Gerson saw strange monster-like machines coming out of the water—he learned later those were the “Buffalos” and “Alli gators” used by the Allies to crush the coral reefs on the beaches under their heavy tank treads.

The landing troops met only scattered enemy-fire and very slight resistance. In this way, also, the

rest of the first day of invasion passed without much shooting; the day upon which the Papuans in Dutch New Guinea regained their liberty.

Mr. Anare Raiwalui, 29, a Fijian Methodist Mission Clerk, when speaking recently in Brisbane Methodist churches, thanked Aus tralians for their help in repairing last year’s hurricane damage. Mr.

Raiwalui coached the Fijian Rugby Union Team before it left for Aus tralia in 1952. He is conductor of the Suva Methodist Church choir, and was the Fijian delegate to the recent Travancore world youth conference.