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POWERFUL RAIDS

ON JAPANESE POSITIONS IN NEW GUINEA MADE BY MACARTHUR’S BOMBERS HEAVY DAMAGE INFLICTED. (Special Australian Correspondent.) (Special Australian Correspondent.) General MacArthur's bombers (luring the weekend concentrated the main weight of their attacks on the Markham Valley-Sa lamaua-Mubo area of New Guinea. Yesterday’s raids followed Saturday’s record attack on Lae by the largest force of Mitchel! medium bombers ever employed in the South-West Pacific on any single mission, other than tin* Bismarck Sea ball le. Strong formations of Mitchells have struck at Slamaua and enemy-occupied villages in the Markham Valley-Ramu River sector. Heavy damage was done. Earlier this month there was an exchange of raids by opposing air forces on targets in this area, which is inland from Madang. Boston attack planes were active yesterday in support of Australian troops fighting in the Mubo sector of New Guinea. They strafed Japanese positions. The scale of the land fighting in this area seems to have subsided temporarily, though the opposing forces are reported to have exchanged mortar fire during the weekend. The Japanese recently lost more than 200 men in fighting round Mubo. A reconnaissance bomber over the Solomons Sea attacked a small Japanese cargo ship with a destroyer escort south-west of Buka Passage, separating Buka and Bougainville Islands. Damaging ncar-misscs were scored with two bombs and the decks of both vessels were strafed from a low altitude. The remarkable feat of shooting down five Japanese fighters and probably destroying a sixth was performed by an American Lightning pilot in the big air battle over Guadalcanal en June 16, when 96 of 120 bombers and fighters were destroyed. The pilot who became an ace within three-quarters of an hour was Lieutenant Murray Shubin. He was the leader of a flight of four Lightnings which attacked a groups of Zeros. Ultimately Shubin was left alone to fight off five Zerrs. An infantry captain who wattched the dogfights through his binoculars confirmed Shubin’s claim to have destroyed all five of the enemy fighters. AGAIN BOMBED ENEMY ISLAND BASES. IN NORTH AND SOUTH PACIFIC. LONDON, June 28. In the Solomons, the Japanese positions have again been bombed. United States heavy bombers attacked the Japanese in New Georgia and Shortland Island. The Japanese on Kiska, in the Aleutians, have also been raided again. SALAMAUA & LAE ANTICIPATIONS OF ALLIED LAND ATTACKS. ‘•FIGHTING WEATHER HAS COME AGAIN/’ NEW YORK. June 28. "Fighting weather has come again in the Southern Pacific area; the initiative is ours, and we must use it soon,” says the “New York Times” in an editorial. It comments that the ground fighting in the area has been virtually suspended since February, while the Allied strength has been greatly built up in the intervening period. The paper states that last week’s sharp Japanese thrust in the Mubo area suggests that General MacArthur's forces are in a position to open a campaign for the capture of Salamaua and Lac, and then push on up the coast till they control Vitiaz Strait between New Guinea and New Britain. The military writer of the ‘'New York Times,” Hanson Baldwin, says that the Allies now probably have the necessary naval strength in the South Pacific plus the ground and air strength to carry through an offensive operation, and he declares that Salamaua and Lae ought to be cleaned out as a necessary preparation to conquering or neutralising Rabaul. This should be done whether or not the Southern Pacific areas are to become the theatre of an Allied offensive. The obvious approaches- to Rabaul. he. says, are from the northern New Guinea coast and from Talagi and Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. Discussing the position in the Southern Pacific, the London ‘•Times” says in an editorial that the Japanese defences are very strong. The paper expects an early resumption of the land fighting, declaring that the presence of the formidable Japanese strength so close to Australia still constitutes a danger to Australia’s outpost defences which the Allies have good reason for liquidating.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WAITA19430629.2.32

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 June 1943, Page 3

Word count
Tapeke kupu
663

POWERFUL RAIDS Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 June 1943, Page 3

POWERFUL RAIDS Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 June 1943, Page 3

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