PACIFIC GAINS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 117, 19 May 1945, Page 5

PACIFIC GAINS

PHILIPPINES AREA

U.S. Successes On Mindanao And Luzon

N.Z. Press Association—Copyright Rec. 2 p.m. NEW YORK, May 28. American forces on Mindanao have captured the important Japanese strongpoint of Valencia and two nearby airfields. General MacArthur's communique says that United States planes are already using the airfields from which to bomb the Japanese forces on Mindanao. United States troops on Luzon have captured the big Ipo reservoir dam, which supplied Manila. The dam was captured intact The Associated Press Luzon correspondent says that the Japanese commander who so skilfully defended the Balete Pass, in central Luzon, Philippines, proved to be the bespectacled little Colonel Hayashi, who was given a safe escort from Santo Tomas internment camp last February in exchange for the safety of several thousand internees. Hayashi is now withdrawing his force toward the Cagayan Valley. Ten thousand Japanese dead were counted in the Balete sector, and 120 were made prisoner. General Mac Arthur's communique says the 31st Division on Mindanao, in an advance of over six miles along the central highway, reached the' outskirts of Valencia, under two miles from the main airfield.

On Luzon, the 43rd Division is drawing its lines more tightly round the enemy's isolated force in the Ipo pocket. In the northern sector, the 25th and 32nd Divisions are steadily driving the enemy back on Santa Fe.