HEAVY BOMBING

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 163, 12 July 1943, Page 3

HEAVY BOMBING

SOLOMONS FIGHTING Progress Made Against Jap. Defenders N.Z. Press Association —Copyright Rec. noon. SYDNEY this day. "In New Georgia, our torpedo and dive-bombers, with fighter cover, attacked enemy bases during the morning, dropping 67 tons of heavy bombs on anti-aircraft positions, bivouac and supply areas," states a communique from General MacArthur's Headquarters in New Guinea. "Our ground forces have established a road-block on the trail between Munda and Bairoko. Two enemy groups attempting a passage were repulsed with at least 60 known to be dead. Our casualties were light. "Dispatches indicate-that elements of our forces have secured Enogai Inlet, two miles north-east of ] Bairoko. I "Two enemy fighters and four bombers ineffectively raided an artillery position. Enemy Naval Force' Bombed "In the Solomons Sea, during the night; our medium and heavy bombI ers attacked an enemy naval force of flight cruisers and destroyers approaching New Georgia, scoring two hits with 5001b bombs. Further rei suits were unobserved. J "One of our heavy units in a night I raid bombed Vila aerodrome, on (Kolombangara Island, north of New Georgia. At dawn, our medium units, with fighter escort, bombed and strafed an enemy destroyer beached on the south-east coast of Kolombangara. "On Ganongga Island, our medium units strafed an enemy outpost at Buri." The Director of the Office of War Information, Mr. Elmei' Davis, broadcasting last night, said that the landing forces in New Guinea and New Georgia were making slow but satisfactory progress, states a Washington message. After their first counterattack on Rendova with obsolete planes, the Japanese were again using more modern machines, and the disproportion between their losses and ours had declined somewhat.