JAP BASE AT VILA

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 56, 3 September 1943, Page 5

JAP BASE AT VILA

SWEPT BY HEAVY GUNS

SUPPLY POSITION POOR

(By L'elograpli— Press Association— (%pyrlßlit.) Rec. 12.45 p.m. SYDNEY, Sept. 3. Heavy artillery in northern New Georgia has been used for the first time to "soften up" the last important Japanese, base, at Vila, in the central Solomons. The shelling followed a raid on Vila by Mitchell bombers. The position of the Japanese garrison was already perilous from a supply pomt of view before the American landing on Arundel Island. Allied naval and air attacks made the sea so dangerous for Japanese shipping that the enemy was forced to rely mainly on barges to send his supplies south of Rabaul.'

While the blockade of the Solomons is not yet complete, the Allies are taking heavy toll of the enemy barge traffic. Warnawk fighters, on Tuesday, shot down five Japanese aircraft, and probably destroyed two others of a force of about 18 which was attacking Allied shipping near Vella Lavella The Japanese are using a new fighter in the Solomons known as ''Type Three," which is radically different from the flimsy air-cooled radialpowered Zero. It has a liquid-cooled engine giving greater power and speed and is more heavily armed. Type Three is the first Japanese plane with seltsealing fuel tanks. The workmanship on it is excellent and there is no indication that the Japanese are short ot any special metals. It is the enemy's first new fighter in three years. There has been only one modification of the Zero since it was first designed. . The Japanese grip on Sa\amaua is rapidly deteriorating. The new positions won by the Americans following the virtual encirclement of the Japanese strong-point on Scout Ridge overlook Salamaua airstrip and the enemy's main rear defence positions. The end may not be far away.