WELL POUNDED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 May 1943, Page 3

WELL POUNDED

BY AUSTRALIAN-MANNED PLANES I JAPANESE IN NEW GUINEA. NORTH OF MUBO VILLAGE. (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, May 2. Australian-manned Boston attack planes have been pounding the Japanese who are entrenched on the summit of Green Hill in the Mubo district. Heavy attacks were made both on Friday and yesterday, thousands of rounds of ammunition being fired into the enemy fortification. In Saturday’s attacks, 44 strafing runs were made. As one machine followed its bombing attacks with ma-chine-gunning assault, another took its place. Green Hill is about a mile and a half north-east of Mubo village, 11 miles south of the Japanese base at Salamaua. Patrol skirmishing has recently been going on in this area and the air attacks are designed to assist the operations of our ground troops. “We are proving that aircraft can deliver blows against ground troops under any conditions,” said the officer commanding an attacking unit. “We have flown through heavy rain storms to reach Green Hill. We are learning the lessson that ground troops can be blasted from their positions by concentrated bombing and strafing from the air.” ENEMY SHIP PROBABLY SUNK IN HARBOUR. (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, May 2. The Japanese continue to strengthen their bases along the north New Guinea coast. A medium-sized cargo ship of 5000 tons was probably sunk in the harbour at Manokwari, in the westerly sector of Dutch New Guinea when it was attacked by an Allied heavy bomber on armed reconnaissance. “A direct hit and a near-miss were scored” says General MacArthur s communique today. “The vessel . appered to be settling by the stern in a spreading oil slick.” This is the first occasion on which Manokwari has been mentioned in a South-West Pacific communique. Japanese positions in the Central Solomons were again visited by the American air force yesterday. Torpedobombers, dive-bombers and fighters all joined in the latest attack. American fighters flew in bad weather to make two more attacks on Kiska in the Aleutians.