JAP SEAPLANE TENDER HIT

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 15, 13 October 1942, Page 5

JAP SEAPLANE TENDER HIT

Bombed Near New Britain ZEROS ON BOARD

(By Telegraph.—Press Assn. —Copyright.) (Special Australian Correspondent.) (Received October 12, 11.30 p.m.) SYDNEY, October 12. Australian Hudson medium bombers have heavily damaged a 10,000-ton Japanese seaplane tender, leaving it motionless. Two direct hits were scored on the ship as it steamed with a destroyer esenrt south of St. George’s Channel, between New Britain and New Ireland. Twelve Zero fighters were packed wing-tip to wing-tip on the upper deck of the tender. The vessel was first sighted by a lone Hudson on reconnaissance, but other planes of the unit were quickly called to the scene. .After the bombing, a destroyer was observed slowly circling the tender, which appeared to have been severely hit and unable to move under its own power. No new developments have been reported in the New Guinea land battle, but some correspondents say that the Australian troops have now covered the entire area of the gap through the Owen Stanley Ranges. A headquarters spokesman stated today that any delay in the Australian advance was because of necessary reorganization of supplies and troops. There was no indication that we had been slowed down bv the enemy. ‘There is still no information available of the size of the Japanese forces in the area. The latest contacts with enemy patrols are reported to have been made last Friday.

Enemy Barges Bombed. Havocs and Airacobras on Sunday morning machinegunnefl barges on the beach at Buna. It is not known whether these barges were loading or unloading. Strafing planes also raided two unnaintd native villages near Buna, both likely places for the enemy to dump stores. The markedly evident and so far unchallenged Allied air superiority in the South-west Pacific is causing general satisfaction. The value of sustained raids on Rabatil cannot be too highly stressed. Its horseshoe harbour shelters most of the enemy shipping moving south from the main Japanese bases in the Caroline and Marshall Islands, and its temporary immobilization must be of immense help to tile American forces iu the Solomons as wed as to the Allied forces in New Guinea. Rabaul’s airfields and hnrbour would inevitably figure in any Japanese plans for a new offensive in this theatre. But three heavy raids within a week, when 112 tons of bombs have been dropped, must have considerably depreciated its value. The latest successful air attack ou an enemy seaplane tender, which was almost certainly based at Rabaul, illustrates the force of today’s “Sydney Herald s editorial comment that “Japanese shipping is being harried at. points so far from any adequate repair bases _ that the enemy must have growing difficulty in serving his fronts as distant as Kiska and Guadalcanal, while maintaining essential transport throughout the vast area he has overrun. The air resources of the Allies are beginning to tip the scales against the enemy, whose production capacity and. technical equipment are considerably inferior to ours.”

CANVAS HOSTELRY (By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Special Australian Correspondent.) (Received October 12, 11.15 p.m.) SYDNEY, October 12. “Gestapo Gus” has become famous in Australia as the man who served coffee to General MacArthur at the head of the New Guinea jungle trail. Gus is mine host at the “Cafe de Kerbstone,” where exhausted soldiers refresh themselves after the stiff climb from Überi, at the end of the road into tho ranges from Port Moresby. At this canvas hostelry. General MacArthur and several officers. examined Gestapo Gus’s menu whidh was headed : “Fine foods from every country.” Details were: “.Soup, dish water. Joint, bully bef. Dessert, prunes and rice.” The price list read: “Generals, 9/11; Colonels, 7/6; Majors, 5/-: Captains, 3/6; “Loots,” 2/-; Sergeant-Majors, 1/6; N.C.O.’s, 1/1; White Boongs (privates), buckshee.” The distinguished visitors drank coffee from enamel cups, and Gus asked General MacArthur for his autograph in lieu of the normal charges. “Good luck, Gus. I enjoyed the coffee. —Douglas MacArthur,” wrote tho South-west Pacific supreme commander.