AIRCRAFT & SHIPS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 November 1943, Page 4

AIRCRAFT & SHIPS

JAPANESE LOSSES IN S.W. PACIFIC NEW RECORDS ESTABLISHED IN OCTOBER. EXPANSION OF ALLIED ATTACKS. (Special Australian Correspondent.) (Received This Day, 12.40 p.m.) SYDNEY, This Day. New records for Japanese aircraft destruction were set up by Allied pilots in the South-West Pacific during October. They destroyed or damaged 995 enemy bombers and fighters. The number of Allied planes employed and the bomb tonnage dropped were also records. In the past four months, the Japanese in this area have lost 2,292 aircraft definitely destroyed. The monthly losses were:—July, -436; August, 531; September, 550; October, 775.

Last month, in addition to 775 planes definitely destroyed, the Japanese lost 115 probably destroyed and 105 damaged. Of these 303 were destroyed on the ground, 36 probably destroyed and 78 damaged.

In the great Rabaul raid, on October 11, 350 tons of explosives were dropped and a quarter of a million rounds of ammunition expended. This represented the greatest devastation ever aimed at the Japanese. The enemy’s loss of 126 planes in .'this attack was his heaviest reverse in a single encounter. In addition to plane losses, Japanese skipping suffered heavily during the month. Detailed shipping losses were: —

Sunk: A cruiser, seven destroyers, five auxiliary warships, 14 merchant vessels, 84 barges and coastal vessels. Probably sunk: A cruiser, corvette, patrol boat, seven merchant vessels and 51 barges and coastal vessels. Damaged: Cruiser, six destroyers, a vessel resembling an aircraft-carrier, 29 merchant vessels and scores of barges.

In our October raids on Rabaul, we lost 13 planes. The heaviest raid on New Guinea was made on October 23, 221 tons of bombs being dropped on Satelberg, near Finschhafen. The Kahili Aerodrome, on Bougainville Island, was most frequently raided, this objective being attacked on 16 days during the month.