THREAT OF DISASTER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 November 1943, Page 3

THREAT OF DISASTER

HANGING OVER JAPANESE IN S.W. PACIFIC ACCORDING TO COLONEL KNOX. Effect of damaging allied blows. LONDON, November 9. In Washington today the United States Secretary for the Navy (Colonel Knox) described the situation of the Japanese in the South-West ‘Pacific as more critical than ever before. It had now resolved itself, he said, into a question of Japanese survival. Colonel Knox spoke of three serious defeats lately suffered by the Japanese —at Bougainville, in the air-sea battle in which a Japanese cruiser and four destroyers were sunk or damaged and in the Allied surprise attack on Rabaul. Japan, he said, had lost the use of six heavy cruisers and this from her standpoint was nothing short of a disaster. PERSISTENT EFFORTS TO REINFORCE RABAUL. IN SPITE OF CONTINUING LOSSES. (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, November 9. In spite of their crippling losses in ships and planes, the Japanese are continuing to reinforce Rabaul. The latest aerial reconnaissance reports say that on Saturday and Sunday enemy convoys were seen moving over a wide area of the Pacific and the pattern of this widespread movement suggests strongly that the Japanese are determined to strengthen their Rabaul position. The largest convoy reported comprised 19 ships, and several of the other groups included from two to six warships. While no attacks against these convoys have been reported, widespread operations are listed in General MacArthur’s latest communique, which claims that the Japanese losses in the weekend were as follows: — Sixty-three aircraft destroyed, 16 probably destroyed, a corvette, five small cargo vessels and nine barges sunk and 25 barges damaged, and two destroyers damaged by possible hits or near misses. The main losses were inflicted when Liberators, escorted by Lightning fighters, dropped 84 tons of bombs on Rapopo airfield, Rabaul, destroying 12 grounded aircraft. The Japanese sent up 50 Zeros to meet the attack, and of these 23 were shot down, with eight more probably destroyed. We lost five fighters. SURPRISE NIGHT ATTACK., The main blow against the Japanese shipping announced today was a surprise night attack by Admiral Halsey’s bombers on cruisers and two destroyers off the west coast of Bougainville. Hits or near misses are believed to have been scored on both the destroyers. At Empress Augusta Bay, the scene of the recent American landing on Bougainville, the troops are consolidating their positions in torrential rain. In an effort to prevent enemy air interference with this consolidation, Admiral Halsey’s bombers have dropped 72 tons of explosives on the runways at Kara airfield, near Buin, in southern Bougainville. The Japanese Air Force made a costly raid on the Allied aerodrome at Nadzab, in the Markham Valley, New Guinea. Our fighters intercepted a force of 10 bombers, escorted by nine Zeros, shooting down seven of the bombers and six of the fighters. Others were “damaged, and it is possible that only one enemy plane reached its base. DECISIVE CONTEST FOR CONTROL OF SOUTH-WEST PACIFIC. . FANTASTIC JAPANESE CLAIM. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) NEW YORK, November 8. The struggle for Rabaul is developing into one of the major battles of the war, says the “New York Times.” “The battle will decide the control of the South-West Pacific,” the paper adds. “Its outcome will determine whether we can break into the strategic circle surrounding Truk, the Japanese naval base, 830 miles north of Rabaul. “We do not yet know the final result of the air and sea battle raging round Bougainville, in the northern Solomons, but we do know the enemy’s claims are fantastically false, as usual. “Apparently Japan is not risking her battleships or carriers and is forced to throw in much of her remaining cruiser strength to prevent the loss of Bougainville. But. we have been gathering power for a year, and it is unlikely that the enemy can drive us back.” Frank Kluckholm, the “New York Times” correspondent in the SouthWest Pacific, says the naval actions in the northern Solomons have become more important than mere local engagements. He adds that Japan will have to risk her aircraft-carriers and battleships in a. decisive naval action if she wishes to retain her 1 hold in the Solomons. The Tokio official radio claimed that 58 Allied warships were sunk and 78 damaged in a week’s fighting off Bougainville.