SHATTERING BLOW

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 August 1943, Page 3

SHATTERING BLOW

AT JAPANESE AIR FLEET IN NEW GUINEA

120 ENEMY PLANES DESTROYED FIFTY MORE SEVERELY DAMAGED. DEVESTATING SURPRISE ATTACK. (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, August 18. 'With the mightiest aerial blow of the entire Pacific war, Allied air forces yesterday morning inflicted a calamitous defeat on the Japanese. They surprised 225 enemy planes, together with air crows and ground staffs, on aerodromes round Wewak, in northern New Guinea, destroying 120 pianos, severely damaging at least 50, and killing about .1500 personnel.

In devastating attacks on four airfields, waves of flying Fortresses, Liberators and Mitchells dropped more than 10,GOO fragmentation and incendiary bombs. Blazing aircraft turned the fields into raging infernos, in which hundreds of Japanese perished with their planes. “It was a crippling blow at an opportune moment,” said General MacArthur this afternoon. “Numerically, the opposing forces were about equal in strength, but one was in the air and the other on the ground. Nothing is so helpless as a plane on the ground. In war, srprise is decisive.” General E. C. Whitehead, commander of the advance echelon of the Allied air forces, said that “It was the opening of the battle for air supremacy in New Guinea." The great Allied mass attack on the four Wewak aerodromes which were crammed with enemy planes parked wing-tip to wing-tip. began at 12.17 yesterday morning and continued till 3.19 a.m. Ten sweeps were made. The Japanese had grouped their planes, apparently preparatory to striking a decisive blow against the Allied forces south of Salamaua, and elsewhere in the New Guinea area. Wewak is 350 miles north of Salamaua, which is threatened by American and. Australian land forces. MOMENT WELL CHOSEN. Reporting the attack on the four Japanese aerodromes at Borum, But, Dagua and Wewak, General MacArthur’s communique said: “The attack was continued throughout the morning by attack bombers and fighters at a low altitude. At Borum, the motors of 60 fighters and bombers were being warmed up. The air crews were in 'their places and the ground crews were standing by as we struck. Some of the enemy pilots frantically endeavoured to take to the air and were burned with their planes. Machinegun fire and fragmentation bombs turned the aerodrome into a mass of flames as flight after flight pressed home the attack.”

Airmen who completed the final sweep declare that the entire Wewak peninsula was in flames. Photographs taken in the light of the gigantic blaze show only burnt planes and burning buildings. Few air actions of the entire war have resulted in greated destruction Gif grounded aircraft. Japan’s previout record loss in the Pacific war was when 100 of her machines were shot out of the sky during the Bismarck Sea battle.

OTHER OPERATIONS ENEMY SHIPS BOMBED. SYDNEY, August 18. The sensational destruction of Japanese aircraft in New Guinea was only a part of yesterday’s widespread Allied air activity reported in General MacArthur’s latest communique. Four enemy reconnaissance planes were destroyed by our intercepting Spitfires over Darwin. A single enemy plane dropped eight bombs at Port Hedland, Western Australia, causing neither damage nor casualties. Port Hedland is south of Broome, which was raided on the previous night. It was last attacked about a year ago. When Hudsons and Beaufighters attacked a Japanese seaplane base at Taberfans, in the Aru Islands, they shot down four of five intercepting floatplanes and set fire to a small transport vessel, killing at least 50 troops. An 8000-ton enemy transport was bombed neai' Messau Island, in the northern New Ireland area, but the results were not reported. Near Cape St. George, at the southern extremity of New Ireland, a medium-sized enemy cargo vessel was bombed off the coast. In a sweep along the north New Guinea coast a number of enemy barges were destroyed. Admiral Halsey’s air force was also active in the Solomons, attacking several objectives. These included the Japanese positions at Bairoko harbour, New Georgia , against which the American ground forces continue to advance.