APPARENTLY ENDED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 May 1943, Page 3

APPARENTLY ENDED

JAPANESE RESISTANCE ON ATTU AMERICAN NAVY REPORTS ENEMY COLLAPSE. TOKIO WITHOUT NEWS OF FORCES. LONDON, May 30. A spokesman of the United States Navy announced in Washington tonight that all organised Japanese resistance on Attn, in the Aleutians, has apparently now collapsed. A communique issued just before that announcement stated that American troops had cleared the Japanese out of a further area. At dawn yesterday the Japanese launched a coun-ter-attack, but this enemy force was wiped out except for a few snipers. Preliminary reports state that the Japanese casualties are very high. In the last phase of the fighting the Japanese were reported to be defending the slopes of a.mountain peak and there were some isolated pockets of resistance in other areas. Japanese headquarters in Tokio have announced that they have had no reports from their Attu Island forces for 24 hours. Reports from war correspondents on Attu refer enviously to the quality of the special Japanese protective furlined clothing, including shoes, mittens and jackets. American soldiers do not wear fur-lined clothing. The United States Army and Navy headquarters refuse to comment on the Tokio claim that the United States lost a battleship, two cruisers, three other warships and 6000 men in the Attu campaign.