CENTRAL SOLOMONS

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 13, 11 October 1943, Page 5

CENTRAL SOLOMONS

Loss Admitted By Enemy DARING U.S. SEA VICTORY

(Special Australian Correspondent.) (Received October 10, 7,40 p.m.) SYDNEY, Oct. 10. A Japanese withdrawal from the central Solomons has been admitted by Tokio radio. Quoting an Imperial headquarters communique, the radio said that the forces “carried out a successful transfer" from Kolombangara and Vella Lavella to rear positions after having caused heavy Allied losses in these islands.

A powerful Japanese naval force was smashed by United States destroyers in the Central Solomons on Wednesday night. In one of the most daring Allied actions of the war in the Pacific, the Japanese lost a light cruiser or heavy destroyer flotilla leader, and two destroyers sunk, another destroyer probably sunk, and two or three destroyers seriously damaged. The American force suffered damage and casualties, which are officially described as moderate. The Japanese warships were convoying small vessels which were apparently to evacuate the last remnants of the enemy garrisons from Kolombangara and Vella Lavella Islands. Americans’ DaringGiving an account of the battle, a report from the South-west Pacific headquarters says that aerial reconnaissance on Wednesday afternoon indicated that the Japanese were sending a destroyer force from Bougainville to escort a considerable number of barges and small combatant craft to. central Solomons waters. An American destroyer foice was dispatched north to intercept the enemy flotilla and was shadowed by Jap anese aircraft throughout the evening. A small forward force of destroyers uudei Captain Frank Robinson Walker arrived 15 miles north-west of Veda Eavella in Bougainville Strait at I'l-30 P.m. an soon afterward sighted the Japanese ships in three groups, all close together. The first group included four destroyers and a light cruiser or heavy flotilla leader, the second group comprised tour more destroyers, and the. third a vaiae “ assortment of gunboats, light naval craft and barges. . „ Without waiting for reinforcements, Captain Walker decided to attack the greatly superior enemy force. His destroyers engaged the first two groups or nine enemy warships with torpedoes and gunfire. The most damage was done to the first group. The second group speedily lost heart and turned and made off at high speed. Japanese Stand By. The third group was never engaged; it waited on. the outskirts of the action for some time and then fled. “This was an extraordinary performance by the Japanese, whoso destroyer commanders hitherto have lacked neither courage nor aggressiveness,” writes an Australian war correspondent with the United States Fleet in the South I acifie. Admiral Halsey, commander of the South Pacific forces, has sent the following dispatch to Captain Walker : . “Our hats are pff in pride for your brilliant and determined actiou. God bless all ot you.” Captain Walker commanded the destroyer which attempted to take off the survivors from the burning Australian cruiser Canberra during the action near Guadalcanal on the night of August (, 1942. When an unidentified ship approached the Canberra the survivors immediately cast Captain Walker's destroyer adrift, cheering her as she nioveu off into the darkness. This newest convincing Pacific demonstration of American naval superiority also emphasizes the full Allied control of “the slot,” the 309-mile water invasion route down the centre of the Solomon Islands. Since the American landing on Guadalcanal 14 months ago “the slot” hag become a graveyard for dozens of Japanese warships. In the hope of evacuating their blockaded troops on Kolombangara and Vella Lavella the Japanese recently have been making .extensive use of power-barges, and Allied air and naval'craft have destroyed about 150 of these'barges in the waters of “the slot” during the past month.