AT LONG RANGE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 May 1943, Page 3

AT LONG RANGE

ATTACKS BV AMERICAN BOMBERS

ON JAPANESE ISLAND BASES. CONSIDERABLE DAMAGE DONE AT BABO. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) SYDNEY, May 5. In spite of bad weather, Allied bombers of the SouthWest Pacific Command yesterday struck at, Japanese bases in Dutch New Guinea, the Dutch East Indies and New Britain. Babo, on McChier Gulf, in Dutch New Guinea, was heavily attacked. For nearly an hour Liberators bombed barracks, workshops and jetties in an early morning raid, which was made in wind and rain. Big fires were started- and aircraft caught on the ground were destroyed. The former Dutch seaplane anchorage and air base, Babo, is also the site of oil wells. Vessels up to 8000 tons could tie up at the jetty. The operation involved a 1400-mile trip for the Liberators, which were intercepted by six enemy float-planes on their way home. In a brief battle over Trangan Island, in the Aru Group, one interceptor was certainly destroyed and another was probably destroyed. Japanese luggers and barges were attacked both in the Dutch East Indies and in the New Britain areas. Off Tajandoe Island, west of the Kei Group, a Hudson unit bombed and machinegunned a number of small craft. Liberators operating over Lolbau Island and Kimble Bay, east of Willaumez Peninsula, New Britain, made similar attacks. The results are not reported.