DISASTROUS END

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 February 1943, Page 3

DISASTROUS END

JAPANESE NIGHT ATTACK ON CONVOY FIVE OUT OF EIGHT PLANES SHOT DOWN. ACTION IN SOLOMONS AREA. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) NEW YORK, February 23. The first night attack by Japanese torpedo-bombers on an Allied convoy in the southern Solomons has ended in disaster for the enemy. It began on the night of February 17 south of Guadalcanal, when fire from transports and escorting destroyers shot down five out of eight torpedo-bomb-ers within 15 minutes. The Japanese opened their attack by dropping parachute flares in the area which is known as “torpedo junction.” An enemy scout plane had trailed the convoy throughout the afternoon, and the raid started just as darkness fell. Not a single torpedo hit the convoy. An American Associated Press correspondent says that Japanese flares lit up the ocean like stage setting, and after the swift battle was over five telltale fires on the water marked the end of the destroyed machines. Throughout the attack the convoy maintained its prearranged battle movement, turning and twisting to present the poorest possible target. When it was over one destroyer radioed to another to say that there were three Japanese airmen in the water. The reply came back, “Toss them emergency rations. No time to halt now. We’ll pick them up later.” The fact that destroyers dropped depth-charges suggests that enemy submarines may have been in the area. ' Later Tokio claimed that its planes had sunk two destroyers and one transport. FURTHER RAIDS ATTACKS BY BOTH SIDES. IN SOUTH-WEST PACIFIC AREA. (Received This Day, 9.45 a.m.) WASHINGTON, February 24. A Navy communique states: “During Sunday morning Japanese planes carried out a light raid on United States positions at Espiritusanto. During the afternoon Avenger torpedo planes and Dauntless dive-bombers, escorted by fighters, attacked Japanese positions at Munda. Several fires were started. During Sunday night Japanese planes raided United States positions at Tulagi. On Monday a United States search plane, operating near Choiseul Island, scored bomb hits on an enemy barge loaded with Japanese soldiers. During the afternoon Airacobras, Corsairs and Lightnings strafed enemy positions at Rekata. During the early morning of Tuesday an enemy plane dropped bombs on an airfield at Guadalcanal. During Tuesday night Liberator heavy bombers bombed enemy positions at Vila and Munda. All the United States planes returned.”