AERIAL OFFENSIVE

Marlborough Express, Volume LXXVI, Issue 250, 23 October 1942, Page 5

AERIAL OFFENSIVE

WIDE ALLIED RAIDS JAP. WARSHIPS & PI.ANES HIT

P.A. Cable

. WASHINGTON, Oct. 21.

A Navy Department ccmmunique states that early on Monday afternoon enemy aircraft attacked our Guadalcahar positions. Grumman Wildcats shot down two Zeros. One Wildcat was lost. Later in the afternoon Douglas dive-bombers attacked three enemy destrcyers westward of Guadalcanar. One destroyer was damaged and an escorting Seaplane shot down. On Monday night naval aircraft attacked an enemy cruiser westward cf Guadalcanar. The cruiser was damaged ahd stopped as a result of at least one bomb hit. Early in the morning naval aircraft bombed enemy supply dumps and positions north-west of Guadalcanar. Later in the morning approximately 30 Zeros fiew over the airfield. Sixteen bombers escorted by flghters followed an hour later. Two enemy bombers and seven Zeros were l shot down. Two United States flghters were lost. BELATED DETAILS. Belated news was given to-day of an Allied attack on Japanese shipping at Rabaul last Sunday, says the special Sydney correspondent of the N.Z. Press Association. The raid was made by a small force of Flying Fortresses at the same time as four co-ordinated attacks were being made on an enemy fleet off Bougainville Island, and on the aerodrome at Buin. (These attacks were reported in last Monday's communique from General MacArthur's Headquarters. Three cruisers are believed to have been among the enemy ships damaged. Poor visibility hampered the observation of results in the Rabaul raid. However, the airmen were able to report that fires and heavy explosions occurred among shipping, while fires were also started around the airfield. Raids on Timor and New Britain are also reported in to-day's communique. North American B25s sank a launch with machine-gun fire near Gasmata- on the south coast of New Britain and. strafed the shores of Luschan harbour, 17 miles west of Gasmata. The Timor raid was carried out by Hudson bombers on reconnaissance, and the target was the village of Maobisse. There are large enemy barracks at Maobisse, where Portuguese troops were formerly stationed. Reports of the raid. say that serious damage was dorie.