SOFTENING-UP RAIDS

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 197, 18 May 1944, Page 5

SOFTENING-UP RAIDS

Wakde Island Hit Again By Allied Bombers tßy Telegraph.—Press Assn. —Copyright.) (Special Australian Correspondent.) (Received May IL 11 p.m.) SYDNEY, May 17. Wakde Island, the main target. for Allied bombers in Dutch New Guinea, has been hit with 1200 tons of explosives in the past nine days. The latest softening-up blow against this important Japanese air supply* base was delivered on Monday. Extensive damage is oelieved to have been caused in personnel and supply areas. Wakde Island is 110 miles wist, of the American beach-head at Anotjm’ d highUght of Monday’s Southwest Pacific air operations was a battle over Schouten Islands, Geelvink Bay, iu which a small number of Kittyhawks destroyed five of 20 Japanese interceptors. All the Kittyhawks returned to their fighters over ■ western Dutch New Guinea are repeating the tactics employed at Rabaul to whittle down enemy aid strength by challenging Japanese fighters over their own bases. -the Allied planes are operating, from airfields within Dutch New Guinea. Combining with fighter sweeps, Liberator bombers continue to pound enemy aerodromes in this area. In attacks on Sunday night they hit runways and supply dumps on Biak and Japen Islands. More supplies of the trapped remnants of the Japanese 18th Army were destroyed on Sunday and Monday, when Liberators. Mitchells, Beauforts, Bostons and Thunderbolts co-operated in a series of raids on aerodromes, bivouac and dump areas on the Bay sector. Airstrips and defences are being systematically destroyed. . Australian troops advancing along the coast are now within about 40 miles of Nubia, Hansa Bay. They have not so far encountered any opposition. Rabaul, smashed in months of raids, was attacked by four waves of Solomonsbased planes on Sunday. Smoke rose 10,000 feet from blazing fuel dumps at Vunakanau airfield.. Solomons-based Liberators over Woleai, in the Carolines, on Monday, were not opposed by Japanese fighters.