JAPANESE SEAPLANE TENDER DAMAGED

Southland Times, Issue 24873, 13 October 1942, Page 5

JAPANESE SEAPLANE TENDER DAMAGED

Havocs and Airacobras on Sunday morning machine-gunned barges on the beach at Buna. It is not known whether these barges were loading or unloading. The strafing planes also raided two unnamed native villages near Buna, both likely places for the enemy to dump stores. The markedly evident, and so far unchallenged, Allied air superiority in the South-west Pacific is causing general satisfaction. The value of the sustained raids on Rabaul cannot be too highly emphasized. Its horseshoe harbour shelters most of the enemy shipping moving south from the main Japanese bases in the Caroline and Marshall Islands and its temporary immobilization must be of immense help to the American forces in the Solomons, as well as to the Allied forces in New Guinea. ' DAMAGE IN RAIDS Rabaul’s airfields and harbour inevitably figure in any Japanese plans for a new offensive in this theatre. But three heavy raids within a week, when 112 tons of bombs have been dropped, must have considerably depreciated its value. The latest successful air attack on the enemy seaplane tender, which was almost certainly based at Rabaul, illustrates the force of today’s editorial

jomxnent in The Sydney Morning Herald that: “Japanese shipping is being harried at points so far from any adequate repair bases that the enemy must have growing difficulty in serving fronts as distant as Kiska and Guadalcanal while maintaining essential transport throughout the vast area they have over-run. The air resources of the Allies are beginning to tip the scales against the enemy, whose production capacity and technical equipment are considerably inferior to ours.” JAPANESE TREATMENT OF GERMANS (8.0.W.) RUGBY, October 11. Among nearly 900 persons repatriated on the Narkunda from the Far East many gave a description of life in Japanese-occupied China. Mrs A. Askhon, who with her husband ran a Salvation Army hostel in Canton, said they were allowed to carry on with their work after the Japanese occupation, but conditions were terribly poor. They lived mostly on nee and at least 100 Chinese were dying daily. Mrs I. Slater, who spent 14 years on missionary work in China, said the Japanese did not like the Germans. “In North China they treated the Germans worse than ourselves,” she said, "and I w'as amused when a German consular official, commenting on the attitude of the Japanese towards the Germans, said it seemed to him they were fighting on the wrong side.

HUDSON BOMBERS SCORE DIRECT HITS (Special Correspondent, N.Z.P.A.) (Rec. 11.15 p.m.) SYDNEY, October 12. Australian Hudson medium bombers have heavily damaged a 10,000 ton Japanese seaplane tender, leaving it motionless. Two direct hits were scored on the ship as it steamed with a destroyer escort south of St. George’s Channel, between New Britain and New Ireland. Twelve Zero fighters were packed wing-tip to wing-tip on the upper deck of the tender. The vessel was first sighted hy a lone Hudson on reconnaisance, but other planes of the unit were quickly called to the scene. After the bombing a destroyer was observed slowly circling the tender, which appeared to have been severely hit and,unable to move under its own power. No new developments have been reported from the New Guinea land battle, but some correspondents say our troops have now covered the entire area of the gap through the Owen Stanley Range. The headquarters spokesman stated today that any delay in the Australian advance was due to the necessary reorganization of the supplies and troops there. There was no indication that the Allies had been slowed down by the enemy. There was still information available of the Japanese forces in the area. The latest contacts with enemy patrols were reported to have been made last Friday.