ALLIES HAMMER RABAUL

Southland Times, Issue 24872, 12 October 1942, Page 5

ALLIES HAMMER RABAUL

WIDESPREAD ACTIVITY IN AIR (Special Australian Correspondent, N.Z.P.A.) (Rec. 10.30 p.m.) SYDNEY, October 11. Flying Fortresses are claimed to have turned Rabaul, the chief Japanese supply base in the New Guinea area, into a "Pacific Coventry.” In two mass raids the largest concentrations of these Allied heavy bombers ever to operate in the South-West Pacific have dropped 100 tons of high explosives and incendiaries on the base, wrecking jetties, machine-shops, barracks, supply dumps, anti-aircraft and searchlight positions and setting fire to at least one ship. The fierce blaze from the burning shore i installations was visible 90 miles away ! as our bombers headed for home. ; The two devastating raids were made early on Friday and Saturday mornings. On each occasion Catalina flyingboats loaded with incendiaries preceded the big bombers. They lit fires which guided the Flying Fortresses on to their targets. Pilots who took part in the raids say the blaze lighted up Rabaul “as if the Japanese were holding an illuminated victory celebration.” • Considerable importance is attached to these raids, which are eloquent of the rising Allied air-power in this theatre. The attacks were undoubtedly designed to cripple Japanese attempts to build up an offensive from their Rabaul base against the American-held islands in the Solomons, where a new enemy drive has been expected. • NO PLANES LOST Not a single Allied bomber was lost in either raid, despite intense barrages of anti-aircraft fire nut up by the enemy. It has been revealed that the previous heavy raid on Rabaul by aircraft of General Douglas MacArthur’s command, when 12 tons of bombs were dropped, was carried out to co-ordinate with an attack by U.S. carrier-based planes on enemy shipping off Bougainville Island in the Solomons. Fiv; vessels, including a heavy cruiser, were hit by planes I from the carrier. The object of this Rabaul raid was to keep Japanese aircraft grounded. Following Friday morning’s raid a single Flying Fortress on reconnaissance near Rabaul was attacked by three Zero fighters over St. George’s Channel, separating New Britain and New Ireland. In a fierce air Rattle two of the Zeros were shot down and the third was driven off. The Fortress returned safely to its base. Lae, the enemy base in northern New Guinea, has also been heavily j attacked. On Friday North American I medium bombers dropped 16 tons of I bombs on the aerodrome dispersal areas | and installations. Beaufighters cooperated in the attack, raking huts, storehouses and anti-aircraft positions with cannon and machine-gun fire. There was no attempt at fighter interception, all our planes returning safely. After Rabaul Lae is Japan’s main air base in the New Guinea area and its proximity to Port Moresby makes it an important target. Continuing the widespread Allied air attacks against Japanese positions, medium bombers made a midnight raid I on the airfield at Buka, in the Solo- | ons, causing numerous fires. I ENEMY HAMPERED The continued raids on their airfields are seriously hampering the Japanese air effort in the South Pacific. Washington reports state that Japanese plane losses in the Solomons now exceed 250, the ratio of plane losses having sometimes been as high as 10 to one. North of Australia Hudson bombers completed the destruction of a Japanese merchant vessel bombed earlier at Saumlakki, in the Tenimber Islands. Large fires were started when bombs were dropped on the enemy-occupied quarter of Dilli, on Timor Island, where Australian ground troops have continued their magnificent guerrilla resistance to the invader.

GRAND ACHIEVEMENT OF AIR FORCE (Rec. 11.9 p.m.) NEW YORK, October 10 The New York Times correspondent, Byron Darnton, somewhere in New Guinea, states that the raid on Rabaul is significant because it demonstrated that the air force here has grown up, not only in using more planes than ever before in the 1000-mile round trip across the 8000-foot mountains, but also in the matter of organization. A raid of this size was conducted against the hazard of a take-off at night with all sorts of chances of getting snarled up,

but this one worked perfectly. According to the commander, Lieut.Colonel Richard Carmichael, a factor in the good showing was the participation of experienced flyers, many of whom had been through the Philippines and Java. Flying Fortresses roared in over Rabaul from every direction at the rate of one every two minutes, dropping five bombs a minute. They set alight four main fires which lit the sky from miles away. In the words of Major Albert Helton, who led one of the sections: “Everybody’s been dying to hit the town itself. It is ideal for our purposes because there ar° crowded sections of flimsy houses.