ATTACKS CONTINUE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 November 1943, Page 3

ATTACKS CONTINUE

ON JAPANESE SHIPPING IN PACIFIC MORE VESSELS SUNK OR DAMAGED. ANOTHER RABAUL CONVOY BOMBED. (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, November 18. Allied bombers continue to concentrate their attacks against enemy shipping moving in South-West Pacific waters. Another Japanese convoy making for Rabaul has been bombed. This and other strikes reported by General MacArthur's communique today achieved the following results: A 6000-ton cargo ship damaged by two direct hits; three coastal vessels sunk and one damaged; a 2500-ton freighter hit and left sinking; 12 barges destroyed and seven damaged. The communique also reports the destruction of eight Japanese planes, with three others probably destroyed. The 6000-ton cargo ship was a. unit of the Rabaul-bound convoy, comprising two destroyers, four corvettes and two freighters. Catalinas attacked on Monday night when the ships were just north of Rabaul. They scored two direct hits on the vessel, one with a 10001 b. and one with a 2501 b. bomb. While the Japanese continue to move shipping to Rabaul, persistent night bombing attacks have forced them to change their tactics at the base. Before nightly sweeps were begun,’ enemy ships at Rabaut were dispersed each night in St. George Channel. Now they are kept huddled in Simpson harbour, with a protective ring of antiaircraft guns and searhlights. Also operating in the New Britian area, R.A.A.F. Beaufighters strafed and sank three coastal vessels. A Liberator was responsible for the probable destruction of a 2500-ton cargo ship at Hansa Bay, north-east New Guinea. Two direct bomb hits left the vessel sinking by the stern and surrounded by a large oil slick.