TRIPLE DRIVE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 May 1943, Page 3

TRIPLE DRIVE

AGAINST JAPANESE ■ REMNANTS ON ATTU ISLAND FIGHTING ON SHARP PEAKS. ONE ENEMY UNIT CUT OFF. LONDON, May 23. In the Aleutian Islands, & ’ I’nited States troops on Attn have launched a triple drive against the Japanese remnants on the island, in mop-ping-up operations. Fighting is raging on sharp peaks 1,7001'1. high. One small •Japanese unit is completely cut off. Fifteen enemy planes tried to attack two United States warships off the Aleutian Islands. The attack is officially described as unsuccessful.

NO WALKOVER STUBBORN RESISTANCE OVERCOME. EPIC FEATS PERFORMED BY NAVAL CREWS. (By Telegraph-Press Association—Copyright) WASHINGTON, May 22. The Secretary for the Navy, Colonel Knox, stated that the Attu campaign was practically over. Only mopping up work remained. The enemy was encircled on a little peninsula in the Chicaghof area, “It is only a question of time before they are liquidated or forced to surrender. The first eyewitnesses’ accounts of the fighting at Attu just released by the Navy show that the American landing was no walkover. “The Japanese fought back vigorously and stubbornly, determined to sell each foot of the soggy ground at the highest possible price,” writes William Worden, the United Press of America correspondent. “In three days at Massacre Bay, the landing force advanced only three miles, but the Holtz Bay party had captured dominating heights, and the third force was well established at Blind Bay. All the American advances were hampered by enemy machine-gun and mortar fire, and by snipers hidden along fog-covered ridges.” Not till the third day after the landings were the Americans able to employ air support. This, toegther with artillery fire, enabled the clearing out of stubborn enemy positions. Naval crews performed epic feats to get equipment ashore. For the first two nights the landing forces were left unprotected from the bitter weather, while sailors, soaked to the skin, worked day and night to unload supplies. Most of the American wounded were speedily evacuated from the island by the medical corps. SERIOUS THREAT TO JAPANESE FOOD SUPPLIES.

FISHERIES BEING LAID OPEN TO ATTACK.

WASHINGTON, May 22. The conquest of the Aleutians will probably prove a serious stab to the Japanese food supply by bringing the important North Pacific fishing grounds under the guns of American patrol ships and planes, says a United Press of America correspondent.

The sinking of some fishing boats and the sending of the remainder scuttling to Japan would be a major step in the planned economic strangulation of Japan, because fish constitutes a major part of the Japanese diet. The Tokio official radio, quoting the Domei news agency, said that circles close to the War Office said: “The real fighting has now commenced at Attu.” It explained that the Japanese had given up only advance posts and are now in strong positions with shortened defence lines,'“far from being the last ditch positions as the American propagandists claim.” ABORTIVE ATTACK ON TWO AMERICAN SHIPS. MADE BY BOMBERS PROBABLY FROM KURILES. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 11.10 a.m.) RUGBY, May 23. A United States Navy Department communique states: “On the afternoon of May 22, about fifteen twin-engined bombers unsuccessfully attacked two United States . surface units operating in the Attu area. There is no general change in the Attu situation.”

It is not indicated where the Japanese bombers originated, but it is believed that they were based at Paramushiru, a naval and aerial stronghold 630 miles to the west, in the Kurile Islands.