MORE HEAVY LOSSES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 December 1943, Page 3

MORE HEAVY LOSSES

SUFFERED BV JAPANESE IN PACIFIC 10,000 TON TRANSPORT SUNK. LARGE TANKER 'SET ON FIRE. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) SYDNEY, December 3. Heavy losses in ships, planes and men have been inflicted on the Japanese in the South-West Pacific area. General MacArthur's communique today reports that our reconnaissancec bombers sank a 10,000-ton transport and set on fire a large tanker in a night attack off Kavieng, New Ireland. Two escorting destroyers received, direct bomb hits. The tanker burst into flames, which were visible for 50 miles. The transport also caught fire and was abandoned and later sank. The communique gives no report of the fate of enemy troops carried by the transport. - .Wewak, the important enemy base on the north-east New Guinea coast, has been pounded with more than 100 tons of bombs. Ten of 40 intercepting Japanese fighters wgre shot down. Two of our Liberators were lost. The crew of one of the Liberators were strafed by Japanese pursuit planes as they parachuted into the sea. Airmen who returned from this mission said that five Zeros broke formation to strafe the defenceless parachitists. They flew within 50 feet of the victims.

On the Huon Peninsula, Australian troops are now attacking the Japanese strongpoint of Wareo. At Empress Augusta Bay, on Bougainville Island, in the northern Solomons. American troops made a dairing night raid behind the Japanese lines, destroying ammunition and store dumps. They also inflicted casualties on the Japanese, leaving behind more than 200 enemy killed.