DEVASTATING RAID

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 57, 4 September 1943, Page 7

DEVASTATING RAID

MADANG HEAVILY BOMBED

SYDNEY, September 3. In one of the most devastating raids yet made in the New Guinea area, Liberator and Mitchell, bombers, with a strong escort of Lightning fighters, on Wednesday dropped more than 206 tons of bombs on the Japanese headquarters and supply base of Madang, on the north-eastern coast. The bomb load was the greatest yet dropped m a single day's raids in the South-west Pacific, and terrific havoc was caused.

This smashing attack is reported in General Mac Arthur's latest communique. Madang is the most important Japanese base between Wewak and Salamaua.., The raiders also poured 90,000 rounds of heavy-calibre ammunition into the target area, which included the Amron mission and the •Alexishafen aerodrome 10 miles away. Warehouses, buildings, and headquarters' sites were left in ruins, fuel ammunition dumps were exploded, and more than 50 fires were left raging throughout the.area, from which flames rose to a height of 1500 feet. ■ ■ . Anti-aircraft positions round the Alexishafen aerodrome were silenced and the only aeroplane on the runway was destroyed. Mitchells and Lightnings swept along the coast, strafing barge hide-outs from tree-top level. Many barges were destroyed about Madang and Amron mission station. There was no interception by enemy planes throughout the raid. OTHER ATTACKS MADE. On the same day Flying Fortresses dropped 23 tons of explosives on enemy supply dumps on Labu Island, in the Lac area of New Guinea. Liberators on reconnaissance bombed the building area at Finschhafen. Off Cape St. George, in the New Ireland group, medium bombers on night reconnaissance effectively bombed and strafed a flotilla of small Japanese