ENEMY MAY LOSE BASES

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 283, 28 August 1942, Page 5

ENEMY MAY LOSE BASES

East China Campaign (By Telegraph. —Press Assn.—Copyright.) CHUNGKING, August 26. Continuing their victorious march in Chekiang, the Chinese armies are preparing to storm Nanchang, the big Japanese base in Kiangsi, reports the Central news agency.

The Chinese have recaptured Tungsiang, a railroad centre 50 miles southeast of Nanchang. This is the eleventh important point in the eastern theatre regained within a week of fighting. The Japanese, with strong aerial support, launched an attack on areas along the Tungpu railway just south of the Yellow River in Honan.

A Chinese communique reports that the Chinese are attacking the walls of Chubsien, where there is a most important airfield. They have already captured several strategic points around Ohusien. The Chinese-held section of the Chekiang-Kiangsi railway is now 165 miles long. Upsetting Tokio Strategy. (Received August 27, 11.30 p.m.) CHUNGKING, August 27. The American success in the Solomons and the Chinese victories in Chekiang and Kiangsi may be expected to force Japan to revise her war plans radically, says the Central News. Quoting official sources, it declares that both are capital victories, and adds that since the Solomons battle is apparently following along the lines anticipated by the Allies, the outcome is in very little doubt in view of the United States’ victories in the Coral Sea and at Midway Island. The Japanese, it reports, have set fire to Chubsien, indicating that a collapse in their defence is imminent. It is revealed that the American air raid on Yochow on August 11 lasted for 12 hours. It killed nearly 500 Japanese and caused fires in an enemy barracks. The enemy is constructing air-raid shelters in many parts of Hunan Province.