IN STRONG FORCE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 July 1943, Page 3

IN STRONG FORCE

NON-STOP ATTACKS ON JAPANESE DEFENCES AT MUNDA. GASMATA ALSO BLASTED. (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, July 2G. Terrific Allied air attacks have not yet cracked the Japanese defences round Simula airfield. Our planes on Saturday made their heaviest raid against the Japanese positions, dropping more than 180 lons of bombs. 01 more than 200 Liberators. Fortresses, JMitchells. Avengers and Daunt losses which made this great assault, only one plane is missing.

In the past week the South Pacific air* force has dropped nearly 800 tons of bombs on the Japanese trapped on the north-western corner of New Georgia. General MacArthur's communique today makes no report of land fighting in this area, but war correspondents say that tenacious enemy resistance has temporarily pinned down both prongs of the American pincer thrusts which were made under cover of their air bombardment.

“The yard-by-yard gains made by our attacking forces on both flanks have drastically toned down any expectation of a sudden Japanese collapse and a swift Allied win,” writes an Australian correspondent. “There is no evidence yet that the enemy defences have been smashed by our non-stop air attacks.” The targets for our heavy aerial assaults during the past few days have remained unchanged, indicating the slowness of the progress made by our advancing troops who are investing both Munda and Bairoko. In the New Guinea-New Britain area the greatest concentration of R.A.A.G. bombers and fighters employed in the war against Japan has blasted airfield installations at Gasmata, on the south coast of New Britain. Flying through adverse weather, Beauforts. Bostons, Beaufighters and Kittyhawks heavily bombed and strafed the area. A wireless station was destroyed, and what appeared to be the only serviceable grounded aircraft were set on fire. All our planes returned. Light naval units in the Huon Gulf have sunk five more southbound enemy barges. Hundreds of these barges are being used by the Japanese along their north New Guinea coastal supply line, and Allied aircraft have exacted particularly heavy toll. Only minor clashes between the opposing ground forces in the Salamaua area have been reported. American troops moving northward up the coast have made progress as far as Boisi, half-way along Tambu Bay, where they are consolidating their positions.