BOMBING OF MANILA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 December 1941, Page 5

BOMBING OF MANILA

ENEMY ASSISTED BY TRAITORS LIGHT SIGNALS SHOWN FROM GROUND. VIGOROUS DEFENCE OF HONG KONG. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) LONDON, December 9. The Manila correspondent of the Associated Press says the Japanese bombing of Manila has been aided by light signals from the ground. An army spokesman said that the officials are taking the utmost precautions to arrest and punish those responsible for the setting off of flares, fireworks and other signals. At the same time an American aviator who participated in the air battles said that the Japanese ground-strafing tactics indicated German instruction, if not actual German participation in the fighting. General Douglas MacArthur, Com-mander-in-Chief in Manila, said that the Japanese sustained considerable aerial losses in their attack on the Philippines on December 8. The Hong Kong correspondent of the Associated Press reports that the Japanese land assault, which began at dawn on December 8 was countered immediately. After heavy road and railway demolition had been completed in two hours, the Japanese felt blasts of* heavy artillery from the defences. The Canadian troops, who had recently arrived, were in great fettle, helping to bring the Japanese to a sudden halt. British warships beat off Japanese bombers with anti-aicraft fire. Japanese and German sources say an advance is being made across Thailand to the Burma frontier, and it is reported that the Japanese have opened an offensive against the Burma Road. There is no confirmation of this, but a special order of the day from Lieuten-ant-General McLeod, G.O.C. Burma, says: ‘‘By air, sea, or land, Burma is ready to repel any foe.”