Late News ENEMY TROOPS AT GUADALCANAR

Southland Times, Issue 24889, 31 October 1942, Page 5

Late News ENEMY TROOPS AT GUADALCANAR

30,000 Said To Have

Landed

(Special Australian Correspondent, N.Z.P.A.)

(Rec. 2 a.m.) SYDNEY, Oct. 30.' The Japanese are believed now to have landed 30,000 troops on Guadalcanar and to have superiority in tanks and artillery, according to an American radio report. Unconfirmed reports of fighting by sea, land and air are conflicting. Some observers state that in informed Washington circles there is a note of quiet confidence. Others declare that official Washington is noncommittal but grimly realistic about the battle. The only fresh, authenticated news of action in the area comes from General MacArthur’s headquarters. On Thursday night Flying Fortresses attacked the Japanese naval base at Buin, a direct hit being scored on an unidentified vessel. Bombs straddled four other ships, but conditions prevented observation of the full results of the attack. All our planes returned.

The latest United States Navy communique, which declares that no fresh news has been received of sea fighting, is accepted here as disposing of a Columbia broadcast, which credited the Americans with new victories in the sea battles. The United States War Information Chief, Mr Elmer Davis, says that all the American naval losses up to noon on Wednesday have been announced. At Pearl Harbour war correspondents have been told that the battle for the Solomons—where outnumbered and under-supplied Americans are fighting enemy forces which are believed to include all Japanese warships not essential for the protection of home waters—is nearing a decisive stage. They were also told that the magnitude of the enemy thrust puts the whole of the Solomons in real and immediate peril. Another Pearl Harbour correspondent has quoted United States Fleet Headquarters as believing that the enemy is mobilizing big sea forces en route between Pearl Harbour and Australia.