Japanese Thrown Back

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23964, 3 June 1943, Page 5

Japanese Thrown Back

MORE CHINESE SUCCESSES (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright.) o, ec . g p.m.) LONDON, June I. The rout of the five Japanese divisions which were advancing as a spearhead towards the Yartgtse is hailed in Chungking as the greatest victory of the entire Chinesejapanese war. Xhe\Associated Press says that S' t Chinese are elated by reports at Ihe enemy divisions, numbering Perhaps 75,000 men, were thrown back in disorder towards (heir base at Ichang. Chinese counter-attacks have added thousands more Japanese casualties to the total of 4000 removed from the battlefield before May 27. Authoritative Chinese sources are predicting even better news in the next few days. They said the tide had been turned through the brilliant execution 0 ( a well-conceived large-scale campaign on both sides of the Yangtse, Particularly south of the river. General Hsueh-Yueh, known as “the little tiger," the hero of three battles in which the Japanese failed to take Changsha, is reported to have ordered his veteran troops on the north Hunan front to "die fighting rather than return humiliated.” He told his generals be did not want to see them again if they returned defeated. The Chinese troops, who are accustomed to fighting without air support, were heartened by the sight of Allied

leroplanes during the operations, which were carried out in difficult mountain territory. To-day's Chinese communique announces further successes on a 300-mile semi-circular front, extending from the Tungting Lake, round Ichang, and north-east to the Hupeh-Honan border legion. . The communique, quoted in an agency message from Chungking, says: "Japanese forces covering the retreat of other units from Yuauangkwan have been surrounded and wiped out six miles east of Yuauangkwan. The Chinese captured a very large quantity of material. “Enemy remnants west of the Yangtse port of Ichang, the main Japanese base in the present fighting, were thoroughly mopped up yesterday. “Enemy troops retreating 30 miles louth-east of Yuauangkwan are surrounded and a battle of annihilation is proceeding. ~ . ~ “The enemy’s air strength is greatly reduced. "The Japanese are reported to be using 10,000 reinforcements in Shansi Province, in a counter-attack west of the Taihang mountains, where the enemy is advancing against stiff resistince, in spite of 800 casualties.”

U.S. OPERATIONS ON ATTU

■' FEW SURVIVE OF enemy force LONDON, June 1. A United States Navy communique lays that three separate columns of American troops, coming in from the south, south-west, and east, effected a junction on Sunday on the shores of Chichagof harbour, on Attu Island, in the Aleutians. In these forward movements small Japanese groups offered a weak resistance. More than 400 of the enemy were killed in an operation cn Saturday night. “The few Japanese who survived the American onslaught on Attu fled to the interior. The remainder were killed. No prisoners were taken,' says the correspondent of the Associated Press on Attu. "The Japanese warrior is apparently not a moral paragon. Opium pipes were found or. the bodies of officers, non-commis-sioned officers, and privates, and also large quantities of saki. The Americans also found face powder, rouge, and perfume in a hut used by the Japanese command, although there i? no evidence that women have been on the island. “American engineers said that the unfinished airfield on Attu could be tendered usable within five days with modern equipment. The Japanese had been working for months on a 1000yard strip without mechanical engineering aids. They built a drainage ditch several miles long, using narrow Shovels.”

SEVEN JAPANESE SHIPS SUNK

U.S. SUBMARINES IN PACIFIC t8.0.W ) RUGBY, June 1. The sinking ot seven enemy vessels is announced in a United States Navy tpmmunique which says: “In the Pacific and Far East, United States submarines have reported the following results of operations against the enemy: sunk, one destroyer, one large tanker, one large cargo ship, two med-ium-sized cargo ships, one small cargo *nip, and one medium-sized transport; damaged and probably sunk, one large tanker. These actions have not been announced in any previous Navy communique.” it is computed that the number of Japanese ships sent to the bottom by United States submarines so far is 109. Twenty-seven ships have been hated as probably sunk, and 44 as damaged by submarines. •

attacks on u.s. west coast

p.m.) WASHINGTON, June 2. . *‘'. ree Japanese attacks on the west DiitoaiUnited States—two rerino y aeroplanes from submaaes and one a shelling from a subA j^, ne ~werc disclosed by forestry ofatio glv * n ß evidence before a Senn nT o^ mittee - Mr Lyell Watts. Chief atti i orest Service, said that all the v ,? c * s were made in southern Oregon. Sa j. h ® did not mention the dates. He w that one fire was started, but it iriPM SOo ” l i. exlinsuiEhed - Bomb fragfcund Wl ™ a P a,iese inscriptions were A United States Army has reai?s i t^ie dates °f the Japanese tin'* j on wes t coast of the Sd«. L states were June 21. 1942, and “cptember 9 and September 28, 1942.