IN EARLY PROSPECT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 November 1943, Page 3

IN EARLY PROSPECT

BOMBARDMENT OF JAPAN BY FLEETS OF GIANT BOMBERS ACCORDING TO GENERAL ARNOLD (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day, 10.30 a.m.) WASHINGTON, November 5. “Fleets of super-bombers will bombard Japanese cities before long,” declared General Arnold, commander of the American Army Air Force. He added that large numbers of 829 bombers were nearing completion. Dwarfing the Flying Fortress, the 829 is said to have a range of more than 10,000 miles and a bomb capacity of at least nine tons. The idea of this air battleship was conceived more than four years ago, but the design and construction were delayed by the necessity of concentrating on other bombers. New factories have been constructed to turn out the 829. ATTACK EXPECTED JAPANESE SPOKESMAN’S ESTIMATE OF ASSEMBLING ALLIED , STRENGTH LONDON, November 5. Britain and America had massed planes and warships in the Pacific for an offensive against Japan, declared General Takeda, a Japanese spokesman quoted by the Berlin radio. He added: “All the indications are that we must expect an attack this year or early next year.” General Takeda claimed that the Allies have 5,000 planes and. 24 large warships in the Pacific and Far East. Fifteen hundred planes, he said, are in Australia and New Zealand, 1,200 in New Guinea and the Solomons, 1,000 planes and some aircraft-carriers in Hawaii, 1,000 planes in India and 300 in China.

• “The Allies’ main base is Australia,” Takeda added. “They have ten Army divisions in New Guinea and the Solomons, supported by naval units. More than 300,000 Chinese have been drawn up on the border between Yunnan Province and Burma, but there is only one division of British and Indian troops on the border between India and Burma. The British Navy is based mainly on Ceylon. They have between 30 and 40 ships, including a few battleships and aircraft-carriers.”