HEAVY TOLL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 December 1943, Page 3

HEAVY TOLL

OF JAPANESE AIRCRAFT & SHIPS TAKEN IN SOUTH-WEST PACIFIC LARGE VESSELS DESTROYED OR DAMAGED. BLASTING OF NEW BRITAIN CONTINUED. (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, December 22. Tn the air and on the sea the Japanese in the South-West Pacific are receiving heavy punishment. New successes in the stepped-up Allied offensive are reported by General MacArthur’s communique today. Anti-aircraft gunners on ships in an Allied convoy scored a signal victory when they shot down 14 and probab.y destroyed six Japanese planes off the Huon Peninsula, New Guinea. Between 40 and 50 aircraft attacked the convoy, which was travelling empty. The sole Allied loss was a 200-ton vessel, which was sunk by a direct hit. Severe toll has been taken of enemy shipping, of which more than 16,000 tons is reported damaged. Some of the enemy ships were probably destroyed. The main losses were inflicted when Unites States Catalina aircraft and a Liberator struck at a convoy of eight ships apparently headed from Kavieng, New Ireland, to Rabaul. Direct hits with 10001 b. bombs were scored on three ships. Two of them, of 8000 and 6000 tons respectively, were left burning fiercely, and the third, of 6000 tons, probably sank. A fourth Japanese ship, also of 6000 tons, was damaged. -In the air attack against Rabaul an enemy cargo ship of undisclosed tonnage was sunk, and two others were set on fire. An air battle over the harbour saw four Allied and four Japanese planes shot down. These telling blows against Japanese shipping did not mark the limit of the Allied air offensive. Liberators and Mitchells, strongly escorted by Lightning fighters, maintained the relentless blitz against the Japanese western New Britain strongpoint of Cape Gloucester. A further 189 tons of bombs was dropped, bringing the total since December 1 to more than 2300 tons. There was no enemy interception and only moderate anti-aircraft fire. Our fighter patrols, strafing the Wide Bay area, destroyed 14 small surface craft.