OPERATING IN BAY OF BENGAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 April 1942, Page 3

OPERATING IN BAY OF BENGAL

Air Raids on Madras Coast Towns MERCHANT VESSELS ATTACKED BY PLANES AND WARSHIPS POWERFUL ALLIED ONSLAUGHT ON RANGOON . J LONDON, April 6. Two important seaport towns in Madras Presidency, on the east coast of India, were bombed today by Japanese aircraft. A Japanese naval force, including an aircraft carrier, is operating in the Bay of Bengal. The raids on the Indian towns were not on the large scale of the attack on Colombo yesterday. A New Delhi communique reports that the harbour of Vizagapatam, a town of 41,000 inhabitants, about 400 miles north of Madras, was bombed by a small number of enemy aircraft. Only slight damage was caused. The other port attacked was Locanada, a town of 54,000 people, 300 miles north of Madras. The casualties there were slight. The communique mentions that the presence of an enemy naval force in the Bay of Bengal became known this morning, when it had already made several attacks on merchant ships, both by surface vessels and aircraft. Discussing the enemy air attack on Colombo on the preceding day, London newspapers state that not more than 18 of the 75 Japanese planes employed can have returned undamaged.