DRIVE ON MUNDA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 July 1943, Page 3

DRIVE ON MUNDA

AMERICANS CLOSING IN AIR ATTACK ON JAPANESE WARSHIPS. TWO HITS WITH 5001 b. BOMBS. (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, July 11. Allied planes, warships and artillery have subjected Munda to a terrific bombardment. Munda, on New Georgia Island, is the most important -Japanese airfield and base in the central Solomons.

Mere than 100 American bombers with strong fighter protection, on Monday dropped 70 tons of bombs, while destroyers and heavy artillery on nearby Rendova put down a barrage of shells. This battering was continued on Saturday, when American torpedo and dive-bombers dropped another 07 tons of high explosives on the base.

Meanwhile, American land forces are slowly closing their pincer drive on Munda. Latest reports from General MacArthur’s headquarters say our ground forces have established a road block on the trail linking Munda with its satellite base of Bairoko. Two enemy attempts to force a passage resulted in at least 60 Japanese being killed. Other American troops are reported to be in contact with the Japanese about three miles from the air base on its southern side. War correspondents in the area say it is believed some enemy reinforcements succeeded in getting through to Munda, where the garrison, estimated to number about 5000, is dug into a naturally strong defensive area. Japanese naval units are still active in the Solomons Sea. A force of light cruisers and destroyers approaching New Georgia was attacked at night by American medium and heavy bombers, which scored two hits with 5001 b. bombs. No further details are reported. Broadcasting tonight, Mr Elmer Davis, Director of the United States Ocice of War Information, said the landing forces in New Guinea and New Georgia were making slow but satisfactory progress. After their first counter-attack on Rendova with obsolete planes, the Japanese are again using more modern machines, and the disproportion between their losses and fiurs had declined somewhat.