MODERATE LOSSES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 February 1943, Page 3

MODERATE LOSSES

SUFFERED BV BOTH SIDES AIR & NAVAL FIGHTING IN SOLOMONS. STATEMENT BY COLONEL KNOX. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, February 6. The Secretary for the Navy, Colonel Knox, said that both the American and Japanese forces had suffered moderate losses in ships and -planes in the air and sea actions which were continuing in the Solomons, but there was nothing of a major character. Nothing yet in- • dicated the exact objective of the Japanese, or when they intended to press it, but both sides were on the alert. j He knew of no great concentration of ships in the Shortland Island or Rabaul areas. , The American Associated Press correspondent in a delayed dispatch from Guadalcanal says that aerial observers reported on February 1 that a large force of Japanese warships was headed toward Guadalcanal. During the afternoon a heavy force of enemy bombers escorted by swarms of- Zero fighters bombed Savo and American shipping round Guadalcanal. United States fighters shot down 12 Zeros. ALLIED AIR TRANSPORT MAJOR FACTOR IN CAMPAIGN. (Bv Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) SYDNEY, February 7. It is revealed that a fleet of Allied transport aircraft rushed reinforcements to Wau when the fighting suddenly flared up on January 28, and the use of this aerial transport has been a major factor in the repulse of the enemy. Men, stores and equipment were discharged almost under the noses of the attacking Japanese. In four days the transports made 244 separate flights, landing some hundreds of troops and huge quantities of freight. The total weight of the aerial cargoes carried during these four days was more than 1,000,0001 b.—a greater quantity than was carried in any similar period in the earlier Papuan campaign. With strong fighter escort, our planes flew through difficult weather high over the Owen Stanley Ranges. No interference was met with from the Japanese air force. ____