TWO-WAY RAIDS

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 188, 8 May 1944, Page 5

TWO-WAY RAIDS

Japanese Fears For Sumatra FROM NEW GUINEA AND INDIA (By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Special Australian Correspondent.) (Received (May 7, 7 p.m.) SYDNEY, May 7. Japanese fears of Allied two-way air blows at Sumatra from the Indian Ocean and Dutch New Guinea have been expressed by Tokio radio. The announcer said that Palemlbang, the capital of (Sumatra, was in danger from Australia-based bombers as well as from forces from Ceylon and Calcutta. The Allies might attack Palemibang with thousands of planes. Paiembang, a seaport on the Musi River in southern Sumatra, is about 780 miles south-east of Solbang, which was raided by planes from the Allied Indian Ocean fleet on April 20. This Tokio announcement coincides with reports by General MacArthur's weekend communiques of more raids on western Dutch New Guinea. Striking from newly-won bases in Dutch New Guinea, United States Fifth Air Force bombers are relentlessly pushing the air war further west. Reconnaissance shows that the Japanese are endeavouring to meet this danger by increasing their air strength at bases in. western Dutch New Guinea and on outlying islands. The present main Allied forward base, at Hollandia, is 1200 miles east of-Celebes, in the Dutch East Indies, and 1250 miles south-east of Mindanao, in i the Philippines. Liberators on Thursday and Friday attacked Biak Island, the strong enemy base in the Schouten Group in Geelvink Bay, at the western end of Dutch New Guinea. They destroyed several parked planes on the Mokmer airfield. Twelve fighters tried vainly to ward off the attack, one being shot down and another probably destroyed. No Liberators were lost. Mitchells on Thursday attacked Japanese troops and stores on Wakde Island, on the Sarmi coastline, 110 miles west of Hollandia. They met no opposition in bombing and strafing runs. ' Given No Rest.

Increasing air pressure on Wewak, the main concentration base for the trapped Japanese Eightheenth Army, is giving the enemy garrison no respite. Raiders hare unloaded nearly 300 tons of explosives and poured many thousands of rounds of ammunition into its airfields and installations in the past three days. Wewak, which is 350 miles south-east of Hollandia, has been steadily pounded by Allied formations in the past two months. Rabaul, the most frequently stricken Japanese base in the South-west Pacific, has been hit with 844 tons of bombs in the past five days. Scarcely a day or night has passed this year without the area being the target for bomber raids or fighter sweeps. The enemy garrison there, estimated at 20,000. is steadily losing its limited, supplies. The Japanese made Rabaul their key base for attacking the Solomons and Australia. Now, though the fortress appears to have been by-passed by the Allies and its garrison cut off and doomed, our aircraft continue to hammer its supply areas, harbour defences and aerodromes, and to destroy any small shipping venturing into nearby waters. Rabaul’s five main airfields, once assembly points for hundreds of planes, now accommodate only a few fighters. In the harbour, where great naval and mercantile fleets were once based, only barges can be found,. scattered along the foreshore. Rabaul is useless to the Japanese and the purpose of this incessant Allied aerial battering is to keep it so.