AIR CRISIS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 October 1943, Page 4

AIR CRISIS

IN PROSPECT FOR JAPAN IN SOUTH-WEST PACIFIC RESULTS OF ALLIED ATTACKS ON RABAUL. HEAVY DESTRUCTION OF ENEMY PLANES. (Special Australian Correspondent.) (Received This Day, 11.50 a.m.) SYDNEY, This Day. ■■ Japan faces the prospect of an air crisis in the South-West Pacific as a result of her enprmous losses of front line planes at Rabaul. In six big raids on this key base since October 12, the Japanese have lost 508 planes destroyed or damaged, while only twelve of the attacking Allied planes have been lost. Japan’s output of planes for all fronts is estimated at 1,200 a month. To maintain their air fleet at Rabaul, the Japanese must have been forced to draw heavily on reinforcements at Truk, 830 miles north of Rabaul, and other rear bases. These reinforcements have been wiped out as fast as they reached the Rabaul area. The losses have steadily weakened the entire eastern flank of Japan’s SouthWest Pacific defence line, extending to the Northern Solomons. It is significant that, as the Allied air attacks against Rabaul have mounted, enemy fighter opposition to our raids against the Northern Solomons has waned. At Kahili, 'the main aerodrome on Bougainville Island, fighter interception has dwindled from as many as 30 Zeros early in September to none against the latest attacks by Admiral Halsey’s aircraft. The weight of Allied attacks, in contrast, has grown steadily stronger, up to 120 bombers of different types being used in a single day. In the past two months hundreds of tons of bombs have been dropped on Kahili airfield, which is now out of action, with pitted runways, shattered revetments and burnt-out installations. War correspondents in the South Pacific area say that, for the purpose of launching Japanese bomber raids against Allied bases, Bougainville Island is now largely out of the picture. Most of the Japanese bombers must now come from Buka, the northernmost of the Solomon Islands, and from Rabaul. The Japanese have thus been forced into a virtual air withdrawal a further 120 miles to the north. Allied air control of Rabaul,dates from the first use of Trobriand and Woodlark Islands (off the north coast of Eastern New Guinea) as advanced fighter bases. These islands are within 350 miles of Rabaul. They were occupied by the Allies on June 30 and fighter strips were developed for Lockheed Lightnings. Under this fighter protection, Allied bombers, at trivial cost, have smashed four enemy air fleets at Rabaul in six raids since October 12.