WHITTLED DOWN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 December 1942, Page 3

WHITTLED DOWN

ALMOST TO VANISHING POINT JAPANESE HOLDING AT BUNA AMERICAN AIRMAN’S BOLD EXPLOIT. ATTACK ON HEAVY CRUISER AT RABAUL. (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, December 30. The Japanese fortress holdings in the main Buna airfield area have been whittled down close to vanishing point. Fierce fighting on Tuesday . gave the Allies control of territory between the airfield and the sea. The enemy still holds out at. one end of the airfield. In the Buna mission area, Allied forces have also extended their control. An enemy pocket 1500 yards from the mission which was by-passed during the Christmas fighting, has now been mopped up. The Japanese, it is revealed, are using naval pompoms in the bitter land fighting. Our artillery silenced several of these guns. The Japanese are also employing increased numbers of planes in efforts to assist the distressed remnants of their Buna garrison, but the vigilance of Allied fighter pilots has prevented punishing attacks on our troops. LIGHTNINGS STRIKE HARD. Three Lightnings recorded an epic performance when they smashed a formation of 40 Japanese dive-bombers and Zeros. They dived among the bombers, scattering them like startled sheep, so that many of their pettisoned bombs fell in their own lines. The first escorting Zero on the scene was shot down, and for about 20 minutes the ground battle paused to watch aerial dogfights. Other Allied fighters joined the Lightnings and more losses were inflicted on the Japanese before the last of the Zeros turned for home. In Tuesday’s Allied air offensives, Catalina flying-boats struck heavily at Kavieng, while Liberators bombed Gasmata and the aerodrome at Lae.. No fresh attacks on Japanese shipping at Rabaul have been reported, but it is revealed that an American Liberator pilot, Lieutenant James Crawfords of Illinois, waited half an hour over enemy territory to score the bomb hits which resulted in Monday’s probable destruction of. a heavy cruiser m the harbour. When he first reached Rabaul heavy low clouds made Precision bombing impossible. In , the hope of an improvement in conditions, Lieutenant Crawford flew to Jacquinot Bay. 120 miles away, where he waited till full daylight, when he returned to Rabaul. Clouds still hid the harbour area, but Lieutenant Crawford raced his Liberator through an intense anti-aircraft barrage to score three direct hits on the ciuiser from a low altitude. A fourth bomb fell close to another vessel.

STRATEGIC KEY

IMPORTANCE OF RABAUL TO JAPANESE, AND TO THE ALLIES. (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, December 30. "The desperate Japanese defence of Buna and their persistent attempt to operate the advance aerodrome at Munda comprise delaying actions intended to prevent the development of a direct Allied attack against Rabaul,” says the New York “Herald Tribune’s” military writer, Major Fielding Eliot. "The Japanese are fearful of a twopronged. Allied drive based on New Guinea and the Solomons being launched before they are able to take counter-measures,” he adds. "Their anxiety is well founded, since Rabaul is the keystone to the _ whole Japanese strategical fabric in the South-West Pacific. Ils loss- would force them westward to Amboina and Timor, and northward to Truk, which would become an exposed outpost position. Furthermore, the Carolines, Marshalls and Gilberts would be virtually surrounded and probably made untenable. “However, the establishment of .an Allied submarine base at Rabaul would be the most important result, placing our excellent submarine force several hundred miles nearer the vital Japanese sea lanes and increasing tremendously the already powerful pressure on Japanese shipping resources and lines of communication. For this reason especially Japan is expected to make every effort to postpone the day when the Australian flag will be hoisted again over Rabaul’s fine harbour.”

OFFICIAL REPORT

FIGHTING ON GUADALCANAL. ' AND SINKING OF ENEMY SHIPS. •(By Telegraph—(Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 10.40 a.m.) WASHINGTON, December 30. A Navy Department communique says: “Army and Marine Corps troops on December 27, on Guadalcanal, killed 114 Japanese in patrol skirmishes. The United States casualties were two killed.. United States Marines, in an exchange of artillery and mortar fire, destroyed an enemy mortar and ma-chine-gun position and killed.between 30 and 40 Japanese. The Marines later ambushed and killed eleven .more of the enemy. The Marine casualties were two killed and one wounded. "United States planes on December 29 made two attacks on enemy cargo vessels at Wickam Anchorage, on the south-east coast of Vangunu Island. Bombing and strafing resulted in the sinking of two enemy vessels.'’