WAVES OF TROOPS AND PLANES ATTACK

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 83, 9 April 1942, Page 7

WAVES OF TROOPS AND PLANES ATTACK

BAT AN HARD-PRESSED Americans And Filipinos Resist Stubbornly U.P.A. and Britisili Wireless. Rec. 2.30 p.m. LONDON, April 8. The latest United States war communique states: "Fresh Japanese troops are continuing their forward drive in Batan with great vigour. A heavy attack on our new positions is in progress. Dive-bombers and attack aircraft are bombing and machine-gunning our front lines, while heavy bombers are continuing attacks on our rear areas. The present Japanese attack is the longest sustained drive of the enemy since operations at Batan began. "Waves of shock troops have attacked almost continuously without regard to casualties, which have been heavy. American and Filipino troops, including naval and marine contingents, have stubbornly resisted every advance. Repeated efforts of the enemy to land troops behind our lines have been frustrated by our beach defences, manned largely by naval and marine personnel. "During the past 24 hours tfcpre have been no air attacks on Corregidor. The guns of our harbour defences broke up a concentration of enemy barges and small craft in the vicinity of Patungan, on the southern shore of Manila Bay. "General Wainwrlght has been advised of a successful raid by one of his patrols at Mindanao, the southern island of the Philippines, which captured Japanese outposts in a surprise attack and forced a withdrawal of several hostile units. "There is nothing to report from other areas." A tactical withdrawal in Batan Peninsula is announced in an earlier United States War Department communique, which states: "In order to rectify our lines in Batan. which had been penetrated by the Japanese, our troops withdrew during Tuesday night to a previously prepared position." A tactical withdrawal in Batan Peninsula is announced in the latest United States War Department communique, which states: "In order to rectify our lines in Batan, which had been penetrated by the Japanese, our troops withdrew during Tuesday night to a previously prepared position." Vice-Admiral T. C. Hart, commander of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet, revealed that a small United States naval force is still operating in the Philippines. He said the 4th Marine Regiment, with a strong sailor detachment and several ships of the gunboat class, had remained in the Philippines despite superior Japanese naval strength there. But for these small ships the Japanese could have been all over Manila Bay in small craft, at the army's back door, employing the same infiltration tactics which worked so well in their advance against Singapore. It was stated at General MacArthur's headquarters in Melbourne to-day that the Batan Peninsula is still part of General Mac Arthur's supreme Allied command, and that he is in constant touch with the garrison there.