DAMAGING ATTACK

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 January 1943, Page 3

DAMAGING ATTACK

MADE BV AMERICAN PLANES ON RABAUL FIVE ENEMY SHIPS SUNK OR CRIPPLED. MANY RAIDS IN OTHER AREAS. (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, January 18. The menacing Japanese shipping concentration at Rabaul has again been under , damaging attack, by Flying Fortresses of General MacArthur’s command. Five more merchant ships, estimated to aggregate 25,000 tons, were sunk or crippled when the bombers struck in three waves early on Sunday morning. ,

In the six earlier raids in the last 12 days, 21 Japanese ships have been sunk or damaged at Rabaul-. All our planes returned from Sunday’s attack. Today’s communique also reports an attack by a Liberator on an enemy transport near Manusi Island, in the Admiralty Group. Results couid not be observed.

Widespread raids on Japanese aerodromes and bases throughout the entire South-West Pacific command area are again revealed in today’s headquarters communique. In all, 10 enemy-occupied areas were attacked on Sunday.

The Japanese countered with one of their biggest raids for several months. Twenty-four Mitsubishi medium bombers, escorted by 20 Zeros, made a noon attack on Milne Bay aerodrome. No important damage was caused and there were no casualties. The raiding planes are believed to have come from the Rabaul area. Our fighters attempted interception, but the enemy avoided combat. JAPANESE PREPARATIONS. American reports say that the greatest enemy air strength for many months is now based on New Britain, where our bombers again attacked aerodromes round Rabaul as well as at Gasmata and Cape Gloucester. Along the north New Guinea coast, Madang. Finschhafen, Lae and Malahang have again been under attack, and in the north-western sector a Liberator bomber made a reconnaissance flight over Amboina Island. An intercepting fighter was damaged. Amboina ranks next to Batavia as the largest naval base in the Netherlands East Indies.

All these activities tend to support American reports that Japanese preparations for new moves in the South Pacific are reaching the imminent stage. Washington sources say that recent enemy naval and other shipping activities round the American-held Solomons are a likely prelude to heavier fighting. The attack and reconnaissance activities of General MacArthur’s air forces indicate that the bases at which enemy forces might gather are under constant surveillance. For a week “look see” flights have been a feature of our air operations. In our greatest sweep, the arc of 2000 miles of enemy-occupied territory from Celebes to New Britain was covered.

The Sydney “Sun” war correspondent today refers to the “growing Allied suspicion that the Japanese may be becoming dangerously active along more than 500 miles of North New Guinea coastline.” The national radio talk of the commander of the Allied land forces in the South-West Pacific, General Blarney, included a warning to Australians that an early all-out enemy invasion attempt against their country had not yet become an impossibility. “The vast Pacific theatre is in an uneasy state of balance, with both sides preparing for new operations,” declares the "New York Times” military correspondent, Hanson Baldwin. “Japan could choose to continue on strategic defensive while developing her conquests, and so force the Allies to pay dearly for every small step forward. But increased Japanese air as well as shipping strength suggests that she may strike again shortly.” Mr Baldwin says the new enemy attack may be against Darwin, north-eastern Australia, Guadalcanal, Midway or Hawaii. SANANANDA DEFENCES CUT INTO THREE SECTIONS. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) SYDNEY, January 18. The Japanese defences at ananda have now been divided into three sections. Important gains were made by Allied forces who cut the main track in two places. More than 120 enemy dead were counted by our troops who received direct air support. The tactics of cutting off and isolating Japanese strongpoints were employed with marked success in the Buna mission area, and the newest Allied gains should hasten the final collapse of enemy resistance in Papua. No details of these latest Allied attacks on Sanananda are yet available. JAPANESE OUTFOUGHT BUT MENACE BY NO MEANS PAST. GENERAL BLAMEY’S SURVEY (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) SYDNEY, January 17. “Allied troops have shown this proud Asiatic that he is an inferior creature to the product of Western civilisation,” said General Blarney, Commander-in-Chicf of the Allied land forces in the South-West Pacific, in a broadcast tonight, when he reviewed the Papuan campaign. He warned Australians, however, that the Japanese would do all they could to carry out their threat to destroy Australia. General Blarney said that our total losses in land battles were many thousands less than the Japanese ,and that the enemy losses in the sea battles exceeded those of the Allies. General Blarney spoke of the difficulties of the campaign, due largely to the lack of roads to«supply forward troops. The Japanese have now been driven into a corner from which there is little hope of escape and in which they will be gradually liquidated. “It must not be thought for a moment, however, that we are out of the j wood with the Japanese,”, said the gen-

eral. “His belief in himself is colossal. His valuation of human life is small. His resources are great, and the menace is by no means past. “Tropical diseases, such as scrub typhus and malaria, are even mote deadly than the Japanese. Men fighting day by day cannot protect themselves adequately from such insidious efiemies.” , , , General Blarney concluded by paying a tribute to the American forces with whom the Australian troops weie working in a close-knit brotheihood.