PACIFIC BLOWS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 2, 3 January 1945, Page 6

PACIFIC BLOWS

JAP BASES BOMBED In Philippines, Formosa, Iwo Jima And Marshalls Rec. 2.30. WASHINGTON, Jan. 2. General Mac Arthur has announced that American planes caused widespread damage to warehouses, railway installations, power plants and wharves on Luzon Island, Philippines, on New Year's Eve. Yesterday medium and fighterbombers, in the deepest penetration yet made by land-based aircraft, swept enemy shipping concentrated in Lingayen Gulf, says General MacArthur's communique. Three freighter transports of 8000 tons each, two small cargo ships, two destroyers and one destroyer escort were sunk or so seriously damaged as to warrant the belief that they sank shortly after. Fighters ranging over southern Luzon exploded an ammunition train and damaged three others by strafing. Heavy bombers attacked the Neilsen aerodrome, Manila. Reconnaissance patrols destroyed five enemy planes, and night fighters and anti-aircraft defences shot down three enemy planes of 15 attacking Mindoro. ... Bombers from the Philippines today set fire to five coastal freighters east of Formosa. Liberators again bombed Iwo Jima yesterday, says a Pacific Fleet communique. Other planes attacked Babelthaup and Rota, in the Marshalls. An enemy plane attacked air installations on Saipan Island and dropped a single bomb without causing any damage.