CRUISERS & PLANES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 April 1942, Page 3

CRUISERS & PLANES

HEAVY JAPANESE LOSSES S?- ' J -— ( IN AUSTRALIAN TERRITORIAL WATERS. STRATEGICAL IMPORTANCE. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) MELBOURNE, March 31. Since March 10 Japan has lost in Australian territorial waters more than 10 per cent of the cruisers with which she entered the war, and 49 of her bombers and fighters have been destroyed or probably destroyed over Australia and the surrounding islands. At least 15 other aircraft have been damaged. The Allies have lost 12 planes, and the crews of five of these have been saved. ■ This successful result was achieved in the destructive attack on Lae by American and R.A.A.F. aircraft on March 10, and in subsequent raids, said the Air Minister, Mr Drakeford. “No single operation during the Malayan campaign had such valuable results as the extraordinarily successful attack on Lae,” he declared, “and it is doubtful whether even the magnificent attacks launched from Palembang during the Japanese landing near there were so devastating to enemy shipping. . • “It can definitely be stated that the successes achieved by the comparatively small forces involved in the attacks by the R.A.A.F. and the United States Air Force against Japanese bases and aircraft can no longer be regarded as of merely tactical significance. They have made a marked strategical difference to the war. “On March 21 the equivalent of two squadrons of enemy aircraft was destroyed in actions extending from Timor to Rabaul. More important than the list of losses is the fact that a local superiority over the Japanese in New Guinea and New Britain has been established, as marked as any throughout the> Pacific war,, with the possible exception of the air operations at the opening of the Burmese campaign.

“Even if that local superiority proves to be only temporary, it has achieved the result of seriously delaying ‘ the Japanese operations and necessitating the withdrawal by them of aircraft and crews from other areas to replace their losses.”