AIR-SEA BATTLE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 November 1943, Page 3

AIR-SEA BATTLE

BEING FOUGHT IN SOUTH-WEST PACIFIC TWO JAPANESE CRUISERS DESTROYED NUMBER OF OTHERS BOMBED & DAMAGED (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, November 7. Japanese war and merchant shipping concentrations at Rabaul, New Britain, and in the sea lanes to the north are being- smashed by General MacArthur’s and Admiral Halsey’s escorted bombers. Six Japanese heavy cruisers and two light cruisers have been hit by bombs and torpedoes in Rabaul harbour. One heavy cruiser blew up, but the extent of the damage to the other cruisers and to two destroyers which were also hit could not be accurately observed. Another Japanese cruiser was destroyed in the Bismarck Sea when night reconnaissance bombers attacked an enemy convoy in the northern New Ireland area. The harbour installations at Rabaul have been heavily pounded, and in the accompanying aerial engagement 26 enemy planes were shot down, with 24 others probably destroyed. Nine Allied planes were lost and a number were damaged. Washington reports say that the greatest air-sea battle since Midway is now being fought in the South-West Pacific. The Berlin radio has broadcast a claim from Tokio that two Allied air-craft-carriers, two cruisers, and two destroyers were sunk south of Bougainville on Friday when they were attacked by 14 torpedo-planes. There has been no Allied comment on the claim. ALL-OUT ENEMY EFFORT According to American naval experts, there is no doubt that the Japanese are bent on making an all-out effort to halt the Allied drive against Rabaul. A total of 30 Ja’panese warships has been seen en route southward from Truk, in the Caroline Islands, to Rabaul, and these may be only a screening for a bigger force. The warships were escorting 23 merchantmen in five convoys. Commenting on the movement of enemy ships, General MacArthur’s communique yesterday stated: “The Japanese are apparently trying to retrieve the situation at Rabaul and are using to the full their capacity for replacement.”

This rushing of Japanese reinforcements to the south followed the Allied | landings on Bougainville last Monday, and Tuesday’s big aerial attack on Rabaul, when 94,000 tons of enemy naval and merchant shipping and 108 planes were destroye or damaged. Rabaul is 260 miles north of Bougainville. The 30 Japanese warships which were reported sighted between Rabaul and Truk, 830 miles to the north, comprised 15 cruisers (eight heavy and seven light), 13 destroyers, and two corvettes. How many of these warships had reached Rabaul when our aircraft attacked has not yet been reported. This intensified movement of Japanese war shipping has been made in numbers well above escort requirements. The ships may have been intended as the elements of task forces for more sorties in the narthern Solomons, whecr the Japanese have about 40.000 troops on Bougainville. No battleships or aircraft-carriers have been reported, which suggests that the Japanese are not yet willing to risk a major naval action south of Truk. The American naval forces are stated to be sufficiently strong to cope with anything the enemy can now throw into the fight. More cruiser and destroyer actions, such as that fought on Tuesday off Bougainville, are expected. In Tuesday’s engagement a Japanese cruiser and four destroyers were sunk. Two cruisers and two destroyers were damaged. No Allied warships were lost. AIRCRAFT CARRIERS USED BY THE ALLIES. IN ACTION AGAINST RABAUL. NEW YORK, November 7. Admiral Halsey’s headquarters disclosed that aircraft-carriers were used for the first time in sending part of the planes against Rabaul. The United Press of America says that Admiral Halsey’s carrier force, moving under the enemy’s nose to join forces with the army bombers from New Guinea, carried out the most daring naval move yet made in the southern Pacific. ON BOUGAINVILLE AMERICAN FORCE FIRMLY ESTABLISHED. CLEARING OFF-SHORE ISLANDS. (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, November 7. Many landing craft were wrecked when the American troops went ashore at Empress Augusta Bay, Bougainville Island, a week ago. A high surf battered the beaches and delayed the operations so that several of the transports were unable to finish unloading under the cover of darkness. Fortunately there was no opposition, and the work was completed the next morning. An Australian war correspondent in the Solomons says that between 300 and 400 Japanese were in the landing area, mostly concentrated on Torokino Point, where 18 deep and well-con-structed pill-boxes were inter-connect-ed by trenches The Aremican Marines quickly disposed of this opposition, and they are now consolidating their positions and mopping up the enemy resistance on the off-shore islands.

Unofficial reports from the area say the Japanese have “many hundreds” of troops within comparatively easy range of Empress Augusta Bay, and hard fighting is certain if the enemy moves in strength against the newlywon Allied beach-head. PROSPECTS ENCOURAGING. Admiral Halsey has announced that the total American casualties in the Bougainville landing were 50 dead and 200 wounded. He told war correspondents that there was no conclusive evidence of a weakening of the Japanese morale, and he said there were possibilities of heavy fighting on Bougainville. Asked whether. Rabaul would fall before Christmas, Admiral Halsey re-

plied laughingly: “You can’t catch me on that Christmas business a second time.”

Admiral Halsey, soon after taking over the South Pacific command, had declared that the Allies would be in Tokio by this Christmas. “Summarising, one can say that though the conditions in the Pacific make for a slow war, the prospects at the moment are most encouraging,” he added today.