LITTLE DAMAGE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 June 1942, Page 3

LITTLE DAMAGE

4 DONE IN FURTHER RAID ON DARWIN ATTACK ON PORT MORESBY PREVENTED. LAE & SALAMAUA BLASTED BY ALLIES. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, June 17. A communique from Australia states that for the fourth clay in succession Darwin was attacked yesterday. The enemy force consisted of 27 bombers and 25 fighters—the largest to raid Darwin since February. The damage done was negligible. Allied planes prevented a raid on Port Moresby, intercepting a superior force of 18 Japanese fighters and shooting four of them down. Four Allied planes were also lost. Heavy Allied day and night raids were made yesterday on Lae and Salamaua, and direct hits on the target areas started'fires. On the way back the Allied bombers and fighters shot down four Japanese planes. One of the Allied fighters is missing. Koepang, Timor, was also successfully bombed. BIGGEST TROUNCING GIVEN TO THE JAPANESE.' SINCE CORAL SEA BATTLE. LONDON, June 17. Further news of yesterday’s big raid on Lae and Saiamaua, in New Guinea, ; shows that these two places received the biggest trouncing handed out to Japanese bases since the Coral Sea battle. Hundreds of bombs were dropped on Lae alone and enormous fires completely covered the target area at Saiamaua. Enemy fighters failed to intercept the raiders. ALL=OUT EFFORT NEEDED TO SAVE AUSTRALIA. FEDERAL PRIME MINISTER BROADCASTS. x CANBERRA, June 17. Mr Curtin, Australian Prime Minister, in a nation-wide broadcast, warned his listeners that the Commonwealth was still very gravely menaced. They faced invasion and its accompanying horrors such ;as the Russians were now experiencing,, he said. The Russians were withholding nothing, Mr Curtin added, and neither must the Australians. The war against Japan could be won only if Australia were held. “But for the recent merciful release,” said Mr Curtin, “the enemy might by now have been established in Australia.” The Coral Sea, Midway and- Aleutian Islands battles, however, were far from decisive for the task before Australia of releasing Singapore, the Dutch East Indies, the Philippines, and China.” Russia, Mi- Curtin said, was meeting the full fury of the Nazi onslaught. Defeat of Russia would mean a crushing blow to the Allied cause, and it would strengthen Japan’s position against China, Australia, and New Zealand.: Russia was fighting for her very existence and the maintenance of everything she had built up since 1917, and it was vital that she should be helped to the utmost. Nothing must be withheld that could in any way contribute to her ultimate triumph over the powerful forces arrayed against her. The position in the Middle East was no less critical, Mr Curtin added. The most casual observer realised that a complete setback by General Rommel’s forces would have grave repercussions on the Allied interests. The Suez Canal and Indian Ocean zones and the Australian life-line would be severed, leaving Japan with the complete control of Australia’s destiny. Mr Curtin emphasised the vital fact that Australia could not divorce herself from the depredations of the enemy in the more distant theatres of war.