BATAN BATTLES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 February 1942, Page 4

BATAN BATTLES

JAPANESE SHARPLY REPULSED ATTACK ON AMERICAN LEFT FLANK. ENEMY GROUPS MOPPED UP. (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.35 a.m.) WASHINGTON, February 4. A War Department communique states: “On the night of February 3, elements of the Sixteenth Kimura Division made a local attack on our left flank in the Batan Peninsula. The attack was sharply repulsed. Our troops have continued to mop up tattered remnants of the Japanese who had previously landed on the west coast or infiltrated behind our lines. “These enemy troops were from the Tatori group and Kimura Division, and were found in isolated pockets. No reinforcements were able to reach them. - Tire enemy had attempted to supply them intermittently with food and ammunition dropped by paiachute. Most of these supplies, however, fell into our hands. Japanese prisoners of war expressed great surprise at the humane treatment they received at our hands. They said they had been told we would execute al prisoners. “On our right there has been little action in the past 24 hours. Enemy activity over our lines has been limited to a few sporadic bombing attacks, 1 which did no damage.” AMERICAN FORCES LOSSES IN THE PACIFIC. RECORD NAVY BILL APPROVED. I (By Telegraph—Frets Association —Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.50 p.m.) WASHINGTON, February 4. A Navy spokesman said that 1,292 officers and men of the Navy and Marine Corps were missing or prisoners as a result of the Pacific war. The House of Representatives agreed to accept the Senate increases in the Navy Appropriations Bill total of 26,495 million dollars, the largest in the history of the Navy.