PROBABLY SUNK

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 January 1943, Page 3

PROBABLY SUNK

JAPANESE CRUISER OR BIG DESTROVER TORPEDOED OFF NEW BRITAIN. SUCCESS OF AUSTRALIAN BEAUFORTS. (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, January 12. A Japanese light cruiser or large destroyer is believed to have been sunk off New Britain by Australian Beaufort torpedo-bombers. Attacked at dusk hist Sunday, the warship was hit amidships with a torpedo. A shattering explosion followed, the ship being enveloped in smoke. A dawn reconnaissance next morning found no sign of the warship, which is thought to have sunk during the night.

This is the first success announced for Beaufort torpedo-bombers in the South-West Pacific area. They have, however, scored earlier successes in the northern Solomons. The four-day air attacks against the Japanese Lae convoy now on its return to Rabaul has ended, it was officially stated today. Winston Turner, “Sun” correspondent with the United States naval forces in the South Pacific, reports that while the Japanese armada has been congregating at Rabaul, Admiral Halsey has sent powerful battleship and cruiser task forces into northern waters. Japanese reconnaissance aircraft trailed the forces, but enemy warships made no attempt to give battle —in spite of Tokio radio boasts that -the Japanese would like nothing better than to meet the United States Pacific Fleet. North of Australia, Allied Hudsons bombed the jetty at Dobo, in the centre of the enemy-occupied Aru group, north-east of Darwin. Dobo is used by the Japanese sometimes as a seaplane anchorage. Before the war it was the headquarters of the Japanese pearling fleet.

SOME CAPTURES MADE BY ALLIED FORCES. ON APPROACH TO SANANANDA. (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, January 12. In skirmishing round Sanananda, where full-scale fighting has not yet developed, an Allied flanking movement by strong patrols on the west of the enemy’s main positions captured equipment. Artillery and machine-gun fire killed some Japanese in the Tarakina village area.

MORE ZERO FIGHTERS SHOT DOWN BY AMERICAN BOMBERS. LONDON, January 12. American bombers in the Solomons flew again to the New Georgia Islands yesterday and attacked the Japanese airfield at Munda. Between New Georgia and Isabel Island Dauntless divebombers came across a squadron of 12 Zero fighters. They shot down four of these and probably two more.