AIR ATTACKS ON KOKODA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 October 1942, Page 3

AIR ATTACKS ON KOKODA

War correspondents say that the Australian advance is still progressing slowly. Enemy patrol activity at the summit of the ranges was on a small scale, and according to the headquarters spokesman had no special significance. The presence of a large enemy force in the area could not be concluded. This was the only organised Japanese activity encountered in 11 days — since the opposing forces clashed at loribaiwa, the first position reoccupied by the Australians in their drive across the ranges. No reports have been received of large enemy concentrations.

Along the Kokoda trail, Allied aircraft continue to attack “targets of opportunity,” but the presence of enemy personnel has not been revealed. At the foot of the steep northern slopes of the ranges, the Japanese earlier constricted fortifications near Kokoda. There is no indication that the Australians have yet begun the descent of these slopes. Nineteen miles north of Kokoda, where the Wairopi bridge crosses the swift-flowing Kumusi River, is increasingly nominated by war commentators as the most favourable and likely point for any Japanese stand. No further Allied,air attacks have been made on this repeatedly-damaged bridge which, according to the New Guinea correspondent of the “New York Times,” Byron Darnton, earlier “gained too great a reputation for durability,” because of the rapidity and persistence with which it was repaired by Japanese engineering units. RABAUL BASE WRECKED BY FLYING FORTRESSES FIRES VISIBLE NINETY MILES AWAY. • ENEMY OFFENSIVE PLANS UPSET. (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, October 11. Flying Fortresses are claimed to have turned Rabaul, the chief Japanese supply base in the New Guinea area, into a “Pacific Coventry.” In two mass raids, the largest con-i centrations of these Allied heavy bombers ever to operate in the SouthWest Pacific have dropped 100 tons, of high explosives and incendiaries on the base, wrecking jetties, machine shops, barracks, supply dumps, anti-aircraft and searchlight positions, and setting fire to at least one ship. Fierce blazes from burning shore installations were visible 90 miles away as our bombers headed for home. The two devastating raids were made early on Friday and Saturday mornings. On each occasion Catalina flying-boats loaded with incendiaries preceded the big bombers. They lit fires which guided the Fortresses on to their targets. Pilots who took part in the raids say that the blaze lighted Rabaul “as if the Japanese were holding an ill-timed victory celebration.” Considerable importance is attached to these raids, which are eloquent of the rising of Allied air power in this theatre. The attacks were undoubtedly designed to cripple Japanese attempts to build up an offensive from their Rabaul base against the k American-held islands in the. Solomons, where a new enemy drive has been expected. Not a single Allied bomber was lost in either raid, in spite of intense barrages of anti-aircraft fire put up by the enemy. It has been revealed that the previous heavy raid on Rabaul by aircraft of General MacArthur’s Command, when 12 tons, of bombs were dropped, was carried out to coodinate with the attack by U.S. carrier-based planes on enemy shipping off Bougainville Island in the Solomons. Five vessels, including a heavy cruiser, were hit by planes from the carrier. The object of this raid on Rabaul was to keep the Japanese aircraft grounded. Followin'* Friday morning’s jaid, . a iigle Flying Fortress on reconnaissance near Rabaul was attacked by three Zero fighters over St. George’s Channel, separating New Britain and New Ireland. In a fierce air battle, two of the Zeros were shot down and the third driven off. The Fortress returned safely to its base. LAE HEAVILY ATTACKED.

Lae, the enemy base in northern New Guinea has also been heavily attacked. On Friday, North American medium bombers dropped 16 tons of bombs on the aerodrome and the dispersal areas and installations. Beaufighters co-oper-ated in the attack, raking huts, storehouses and anti-aircraft positions with cannon and machine-gun.fire. There was no attempt at fighter interception, all our planes returning safely. After Rabaul, Lae is Japan’s main air base in the New Guinea area and its proximity to Port Moresby makes it an important target. . Continuing the widespread Allied Air attacks against Japanese positions, medium bombers made a midnight raid on the airfield at Buka, in the Solomons, causing numerous fires. . Continued raids on their airfields are seriously hampering the Japanese air effort in the South Pacific. Washington reports state that the Japanese plane losses in the Solomons now exceed 250, the ratio of plane losses having sometimes been as high as 10 to 1. v , North of Australia. Hudson bombers completed the destruction of a Japan-

ese merchant vessel bombed earlier at Saumlakki in the Tenimber Islands.

Large fires were started when bombs were dropped on the enemy-occupied quarter of "Dilli, on Timor Island, where Australian ground troops continued their magnificent guerilla resistance to the invader.