SOME JAPANESE GAINS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 October 1943, Page 3

SOME JAPANESE GAINS

IN LOWER YANGTSE AREA IN SPITE OF FIERCE CHINESE RESISTANCE. REINFORCEMENTS MOVING UP. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) CHUNGKING, October 4. The Japanese, using 120,000 troops and swarms of planes in a gigantic encirclement campaign against guerrilla forces in the lower Yantse River area, have scored a new gain in three provinces, in spite of fierce Chinese resistance. Fighting ranges along a 100-mile front from the western shore of Lake Tai to the southern outskirts of Hangchow. The Japanese captured Kwangteh on Sunday, but the Chinese are still resisting in the suburbs. Fighting continues in all sectors of southern Kiangsi. The bitterest struggle centres round Kivang, 60 miles south-west of Nanking. While observers in Chungking do not understimate the new Japanese offensive in eastern China, they said that the| Chinese were falling back according to plan. The enemy had not yet seized any major objectives and would be checked when Chinese reinforcements reached the front. Observers point out that the Chinese are handicapped by lack of aerial support. Most of the American air bases are not within effective range of the battleground. The Japanese, who have been reinforced, have launched a new offensive in south-eastern China, taking several towns, including the Suanheng railway centre, says a Chungking communique. The Japanese are aiming at foreailing attacks against the strongholds in the triangle of Shankhai, Nanking and Hangchow.

ENEMY AIR STRENGTH INCREASED IN CHINESE COASTAL REGION. CHUNGKING, October 4. Japanese air strength along the coast in the Hong Kong, Canton and Haiphong areas has recently increased 300 per cent., said the Commander of the American Air Forces in China, Bri-gadier-General Chennault, interviewed by the Associated Press of America. He added: “I think we have hit them so heavily that they have had to bring in more planes to defend themselves.” General Chennault expressed the opinion that Japanese planes had improved in performance and that the pilots were showing evidence of more careful training. Reviewing operations in the last half of September, he said that the Japanese had lost 16 bombers and four fighters, and probably seven more bombers and two fighters. The Americans had lost one bomber.