JAP. WARSHIPS SUNK IN SOLOMONS AREA

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 255, 28 October 1942, Page 3

JAP. WARSHIPS SUNK IN SOLOMONS AREA

BATTLE STILL OH

Enemy Thrown Back On Guadaicanar

U.P.A. and British Wireless Rec. 1.30 p.m. LONDON, Oct. 27. Latest reports state that the great air and sea battle in the Solomons is still going on. American reports state that two Japanese warships were sunk and that at least three othors. including a battleship, have been damaged in the South-west Pacific. Two cruisers and an aircraftcarrier are stated to have been hit. The loss is admitted of two small American craft near Tulagi. In the land fighting on Guadalcanar the enemy penerated the American lines at one or two points, but were thrown back and the marines made small gains in heavy fighting on the Japanese flank. The American forces have stubbornly resisted repeated Japanese onslaughts, which have been particularly fierce against the Henderson airfield defended by troops and marines. The United States Secretary of the Navy, Colonel Frank Knox, said today that the American forces were putting up a game fight against strong Japanese forces in the Solomons, and the outcome was not yet clear. He was not foreshadowing results, and was certainly not foreshadowing defeat. Colonel Knox said the aircraft carrier Wasp was lost during convoy duty. The naval battle in the Solomons area was one of manoeuvre, rather than one in which fleets lined up to each other. Both fleets were still in the battle area.

Colonel Knox reminded his Press conference that this was United States Navy Day. In response to a question whether, in view of the losses, this was the blackest Navy Day celebration yet, he replied that in some respects this was the most notable Navy Day in all history because the navy had never put up a gamer fight. He described the Solomons struggle as a war of attrition. All indications were that the Japanese had been goaded by continual bombing to the realisation that their march of conquest had been stalled. They were throwing in everything in a frenzied drive to crack the Allied front. The Pacific situation was about the same as before—a darned tough, stiff fight.

DIVE-BOMBERS STRIKE

Japs. Retaliate By Raids On Airfield FIERCE SOLOMONS CLASHES Rec. 2 p.m. WASHINGTON, Oct. 27. A communique issued to-day by the United States Navy Department says that early yesterday afternoon Douglas - Dauntless dive - bombers from Guadalcanar attacked a force of enemy cruisers and destroyers north of Florida Island, in the Solomons. A direct bomb hit damaged and stopped one enemy cruiser. Shortly afterward 16 enemy divebombers attacked the airfield, and five were shot down. Nine more bombers attacked the airfield soon after, inflicting minor damage.

Late in the afternoon dive-bombers from Guadalcanar again struck at the force of enemy cruisers and destroyers north of Florida Island. One bomb hit was reported on an enemy cruiser. Army Flying Fortresses struck the same force 10 minutes later and gored two bomb hits on an enemy light cruiser, which was left burning and lying dead in the water. Enemy fighters were active over our positions periodically throughout the day. Grumman Wildcats are reported to have destroyed 17 of these planes. A high naval authority in Washington said the United States fleet in the South Pacific was strongly outnumbered by the Japanese. and the recent American Ambassador to Tokyo, Mr. Joseph Grew, again warned Americans against complacencv He said the enemy was fighting bodv and soul, and was spurred on by all the powers of a dictatorship.