"SKIP" BOMBING

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 80, 5 April 1943, Page 3

"SKIP" BOMBING

HITTING JAP. SHIPS

Latest Air-Sea Battle Points Need For More Planes

N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent Rec. noon. SYDNEY, this day. Fewer than 12 bombers took part in the week-end attack which sank three Japanese warships and severely damaged at least two others in the Silver Sound, New Ireland. The small number of planes which participated in the raid, which is officially described as "one of the most devastating made in this area," heavily underlines the agitation for an increased allotment of aeroplanes to the Southern Pacific. "That his losses will stir the enemy to yet greater efforts to recover fighter supremacy on the New Guinea coasts is not to be doubted," declares the Sydney Morning Herald in an editorial to-day. "For the rebuffs he has suffered challenges his hold on this area. The truth should by now be appreciated in Washington that the United States has committed its arms so deeply here that it cannot afford to deny reinforcement in support of what those arms have already achieved." Flying Fortresses, lighting up their targets wi>h flares, made many of their attacking runs "at wavetop" height. The raid, lasting 30 minutes, was perhaps the most successful exploitation to date of "the skip" bombing tactics formulated and developed in this command area, by which bombs are "skipped" from a low level into the hulls of ships holing them at the water line. Some of the Flying Fortresses were damaged by anti-aircraft fire from the warships, but all returned safelv to their base, and no member of any crew was injured. The warships manoeuvred violently in unsuccessful efforts to avoid the attacks. «, „ Captain Fred Wesche, of New Jersey, who sank a destroyer in a lone attack off Finschafen, New Guinea, a few days ago, got home the first direct hit which started a fire on a heavy cruiser. Japanese sailors were seen scurrying along the decks making frantic efforts to put out the flames. But succeeding attackers scored other direct hits. One of the 5001b bombs must have penetrated the powder magazine because the ship blew up with a terrific explosion. The light cruiser sank within a few minutes of four direct hits by "skip" bombing. , Lieutenant William Humriehouse, who sank a heavy destroyer with two direct hits, flew so low that his plane nearly collided with the mast as the warship zig-zagged wildly to escape bombs, which were throwing up huge water spouts around it. "I made a head-on attack, and, at one stage, it appeared that a collision was inevitable," the pilot said. 'The Japanese must have got a fright. He twisted away when I was almost on top of him. There was only a few feet between me and the masthead when I dropped my bombs."