SUNK OR DAMAGED.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 64, Issue 33, 18 November 1943, Page 3

SUNK OR DAMAGED.

ENEMY SHIPS AT RABAUL. TWENTY PLANES DESTROYED. (Special Correspondent, N.Z.P.A.) SYDNEY, Nov. 17. Twenty-three Japanese aircraft have been destroyed and 10 probably destroyed; a transport has been sunk, a cargo vessel damaged and beached, and a second cargo vessel damaged, in Allied air operations reported in General MacArthur’s communique today. The raic|s reported included the heaviest yet made by the Royal Australian Air Force Beaufort bombers against Rabaul, where an 8000-ton transport Avas sunk by a mast-height attack at night. Another large merchantman Avas damaged in this raid. The Beauforts were over Rabaul for two hours on Sunday night, and reported a considerable concentration of enemy shipping still in the harbour. They dropped 17 tons of bombs and probably caused more extensive damage than what has been claimed officially. Searchlight glare and intense anti-aircraft fire hindered observation. The attack offers evidence of the rising strength of the Royal Australian Air Force in the NeAV Guinea area. -The third Japanese shipping loss reported to-day occurred off the New Ireland coast, where Catalinas scored drect bomb hits and forced a vessel to the beach. The main Japanese air losses were inflicted when a Kittyhawk fighter patrol intercepted enemy aircraft raiding Allied forward aerodromes in the Ramu Valley, in north-east New Guinea. They shot down 20 Japanese aircraft and six others Avere probably destroyed. Allied losses Avere light. Some damage, however, was done on the aerodromes, which provide air support for ground operations in the Ramu Valley. A counter-blow by Allied bombers, which dropped 76 tons of explosives on the enemy’s forAvard aerodromes round Alexishafen, Avhich, similarly, provide air cover for the Japanese forces in the Ramu Valley, met Avith no fighter interception. This Avas the fifth big Allied air attack on the area in the last 10 days.