ALLIED SUCCESS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 May 1942, Page 3

ALLIED SUCCESS

AIR ATTACK ON SHIPPING AT RABAUL

TRANSPORT HIT & OTHERS DAMAGED.

TOLL TAKEN OF ENEMY AIRCRAFT. LONDON, May 3. General MacArthur’s headquarters report a further raid on shipping in Rabaul harbour. A direct hit was made on a transport and others were damaged. During the attack eight enemy interceptors engaged the raiders, who destroyed two Japanese planes and damaged another two. Fifteen enemy fighters attacked an aerodrome at Fort Moresby, and four were destroyed and two more damaged by our interception fighters. Out of 23 enemy planes encountered during the last two days, more than half were either destroyed or damaged. During the Allied air raid on Salamaua, in New Guinea, on April 30, the attacking planes burned and destroyed three enemy flying-boats on the water. OVER TOWNSVILLE SUPPOSED JAPANESE PLANES. UNSUCCESSFUL PURSUIT. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, May 2. .It is announced from General MacArthur's headquarters that two unidentified aircraft yesterday flew at a great height over Townsville. Guns opened fire and fighters attempted to intercept the aircraft, but they were unsuccessful. It is suggested in Melbourne that the planes were photographing the city and its environs. The main port of north Queensland, Townsville is 900 miles due south of the nearest Japanese bases, in New Guinea. The normal population of the town is about 40,000. Unidentified planes, officially believed to have been Japanese, were reported over Townsville five weeks ago.