RAID ON MORESBY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 August 1942, Page 3

RAID ON MORESBY

HEAVIEST FOR SOME TIME BOMBING FROM GREAT HEIGHT. FIGHTERS CHASE ENEMY MACHINES. (By Telegraph—Prgss Association —Copyright) SYDNEY, August 18. The heaviest Japanese attack on Port Moresby since the Allied offensive in the Solomons was made early yesterday morning when 24 bombers dropped bombs on the airfield. This was the first large-scale raid in the area since July 24. Though our fighters chased the enemy, their planes were too high to intercept. Today’s Allied headquarters’ communique states that there was some damage to installations and some casualties. “Whatever the significance of Monday’s bombing, it is something the Japanese were apparently unable or unwilling to venture during the earlier stages of the Solomons offensive,” says a war correspondent at General MacArthur’s headquarters. For the third day in succession our medium bombers on Monday raided the Timor sector, objectives being enemy dispositions and lines of communication. Allied aircraft on offensive reconnaissance bombed an enemy base at Kavieng, • in New Ireland, where shipping in the harbour was also attacked, but the results were not observed.

No further information was given today of the progress of the fighting in the Kokoda sector. The latest information was that the enemy had pushed south of the village. This means that the Kokoda airfield is behind the Japanese lines, but it is considered insecure. Possession of the airfield at the present stage is not an important factor.