WORRY FOR JAPS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 119, 22 May 1945, Page 5

WORRY FOR JAPS

R.A.A.F. CATALINAS

Minelaying Operations Along

China Coast

N.Z. Press Association—Copyright

Rec. 1 p.m. MELBOURNE, this day,

R.A.A.F. Catalina flying boats for some time have been mining the • coast, paralysing Japanese shipping and forcing enemy vessels into deep water to be destroyed by submarines and long-range bombers from the Philippines. The Minister for Air, Mr. Drakeford, said that the Catalinas, exploiting their long range, were carrying on where American minelaying Super Fortresses left off. R.A.A.F. Catalinas had been directly responsible for sinking several thousand tons of merchant and naval shipping. Largely due to their activities, many China coast ports had ceased to be of any real value to the Japanese. The work is probably the most hazardous and exacting ever undertaken by Australian-manned Catalinas. They have to operate at night and find their targets in mist, fog and low cloud. They lay their mines precisely, against a barrage from enemy shore batteries, and from shipping.' Many Catalinas have narrowly escaped crashing into the sides of mountains while minelaying in land-locked harbours.