NEW JAP. 'DROME

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 35, 11 February 1943, Page 4

NEW JAP. 'DROME

IN COCONUT GROVES SURPRISE U.S. DISCOVERY The Japanese had aircraft operating from their new aerodrome in the Munda area of the New Georgia group before we knew they were building it. Apparently they constructed the field in the coconut groves of the Stanmore plantation while the palms were still standing.

Aerial reconnaissance and even aerial photographs had failed to reveal this second base in the area under construction. So wrote a Melbourne Herald correspondent aboard a U.S. warship in the South Pacific in an article published last week. The Japanese, he said, evidently worked under the natural camouflage of the trees while preparing the surface, and then they partially sawed through the trunks. Finally one night they knocked down the entire groves of palms and hauled them away Next morning a bomber 'strip, 7000 ft long, was revealed with Japanese bombers taking off. Serious Menace This base, on Kolombangara Island, is a more serious menace than the field on Munda Point. Kolombangara, one of tlie larger islands of the New Georgia group, is off the north-west coast of New Georgia Island, and is 20 miles north of Munda Point.

An impressive cone-shaped island, covered with dense vegetation, it rises stark from the ocean. A distinctive landmark is an extinct volcano 1750 ft high. The 4000 Japanese, sleeping in tents on the Stanmore plantation early on Sunday morning, must have thought this volcano was erupting. They awoke to heavy explosions and screaming projectiles which dealt out sudden death to many. The navy task force, which moved in to shell them, was carrying out one of the most daring bombardments of the Pacific war. It moved into the dangerously enclosed waters within i 0 minutes' flying time of Japanese air bases and bombed the new Japanese nest for an hour at close range. Then it turned and hurried out at high speed. We were so close to land that we could nearly "spit on the shore." It was a bright, moonlit night, and the targets were clearly seen as the ships shelled systematically, patterning the whole area.

Heavy Enemy Toll Fires and explosions indicated hits on fuel and ammunition dumps. How many of the garrison ashore were killed is not known, but it is considered that hundreds must have died in that hour of the concentrated shelling. At 3 a.m. the ships turned and raced for the open sea. An hour later the fires on Kolombangara Island were still visible. The bombardment, according to a Washington announcement, "virtually wiped out" the Japanese base. It would be optimistic, however, to believe that the airfield had been permanently destroyed. Experience at Munda and elsewhere shows that the Japanese are using bulldozers to fill in shell and bomb craters quickly, and they generally have the field operating within 24 hours of an attack. Must Be "Watched These two fields in New Georgia will need constant attention from our airmen if we are to deny them to the Japanese. If the Japanese were to succeed in using them we would be back where we were last September. The Japanese would again have air cover under which to substantially reinforce Guadalcanar by sea, and that island would again become the Pacific's bloodiest battlefield.