ANOTHER ISLAND

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 October 1942, Page 3

ANOTHER ISLAND

OCCUPIED BY AMERICANS IN ALEUTIANS DESTRUCTIVE AIR ATTACKS ON KISKA. NUMBER OF ENEMY SHIPS BEACHED OR SUNK. WASHINGTON, October 16. Alaskan headquarters announced that American ground forces have occupied another island in the Andreano group without opposition from either land or sea.

There is more news of destruction by United States aircraft in Japan-ese-occupied Kiska, in the Aleutians. On Wednesday incendiary bombs were dropped-by Liberators on a camp area. The incendiaries started many fires. This attack rounded oil' the heavy bombing damage done on Sunday. American aircraft confirm the damage done in previous raids. Three ships are beached and two others could be seen below the water. During Wednesday night three enemy seaplanes on the water were destroyed. ENEMY CRUISER BOMBED & SERIOUSLY DAMAGED. ACHIEVEMENT OF FLYING FORTRESSES. (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, October 16. Evidence that the air forces under General MacArthur’s command are playing their part in the present Solomons fighting is contained in today’-s. communique, which reports that at Faisi, on Bougainville, Flying Fortresses dropped a 5001 b. bomb on an enemy cruiser from a low altitude. The vessel was evidently seriously damaged and stopped dead, and a Fortress flew through heavy anti-aircraft fire to strafe the decks.

Japan’s shortage of cruisers is her greatest naval weakness, says the “Sydney Morning Herald’s” military correspondent. “This is the sixteenth cruiser so far reported to have been damaged in the Solomons. “At the outbreak of the war Japan was believed to have had 44 cruisers, and of these at least 20 have been sunk, while 35 are claimed to have been damaged. It is probable, however, that there is some duplication in the claims relating to damaged cruisers.

“Lack of adequate cruiser protection for the biggei’ and more powerful units may be an important factor in the present naval battle.”