FIERCE BLOWS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20919, 20 October 1942, Page 3

FIERCE BLOWS

ALLIED J3OMBERS JAPANESE FLEET THREE CRUISERS HIT PLANES AND SHIPS FIRED V • (By Telegraph—Press Assn. —Copyright.) (Special Australian Correspondent.) (11 a.m.) SYDNEY, Oct. 20. Australian land-based flying forces have made four separate raids on a powerful concentration of Japanese warships and transports off Bougainville Island, north-west of the Solomons. Three Japanese cruisers are believed to have been hit with 10001 b. bombs, a merchantman was set on Are, and seven flying boats destroyed or damaged. A seaplane tender and cargo vessels were attacked with unknown results. The raids; which were made by probably the largest force of bombers sent from General MacArthur’s Command'to help the American defenders in the Solomons, began early on Sunday morning and lasted through several hours of darkness. The last flight saw the Japanese vessels burning fiercely. Not a single Allied plane was lost. Japanese Zero night fighters attempted to intercept the third flight of bombers, but their attack was weak and easily beaten off. The first formation of Flying For-, tresses to fly over the target areanehr Buin dropped flares, which illuminated the Japanese shipping at anchor in a stretch of water used by the enemy for jsoifie time as a, naval dispersal area. In this initial instalment, 22 tons of bombs were dropped among shipping, and the planes then. proceeded to bomb and strafe the airfield which the Japanese are using for operations against the American' fortress on Guadalcanal

The second attack, in which three Japanese cruisers are believed to have been hit, was helped by the light from the .burning ships. The third group Ibombed a large seaplane tender and cargo vessels, while the final flight came in at a low altitude and strafed a cargo vessel, setting it ablaze. Then they destroyed or damaged a number of large flying-boats with incendiary bombs. . ■ This was the sixth series of attacks made by: Australian-based planes against Buin in the past fortnight. It was the nineteenth attack made m that period against the three main bases from which the Japanese bombers could operate against the American positions in the Solomons. Rabaul has been raided six times with nearly 200 tons of. bombs and Buka seven times. In addition, Japanese warships and transport concentrations in the BuinFaisi area have been attacked several 'times earlier this month by Beaufort torpedo bombers, as well as other land-based bombers and carrier aircraft.