HEAVY RAIDS ON SINGAPORE

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23541, 20 January 1942, Page 5

HEAVY RAIDS ON SINGAPORE

Most Casualties In Native Section ENEMY TRANSPORT ATTACKED I f (Received January 19, 10 p.m.) / SINGAPORE. January 18. Big forces of Japanese aeroplanes raided Singapore this morning, the Japanese still directing their main attack to the outskirts of the city. British fighters went up and were seen pursuing the Japanese bombers at a groat height. Yesterday’s air raid casualties are now believed to be higher than previously estimated. First-aid posts worked throughout the night digging out the victims. • The scene of the worst civilian casualties was (he congested native section, in which as many as 40 or 50 persons live in a single house. Throe Royal Australian Air Force fighter pilots took on 24 Japanese bombers high over South Malaya yesterday, and the whole enemy force was effectively dispersed and driven away from' its targets. One Japanese bomber was probably shot down. Details of successful attacks by the Air Force in Malaya against Japanese mad and rail transport are given in an Air Ministry bulletin. Diving out of the clouds to within a few hundred feet of the ground, states the bulletin. Royal Air Force. Royal Australian Air Force, and Dutch bombers, supported by British and Austialian fighters, caused considerable ruvoc amongst enemy transport and ti op concentrations on Friday. One o.me heaviest was in the TainpinGcmas area. The fighters came down so low that the pilots could almost read the numbers on the cars and t rU cks While the bombers were bombing the marshalling yards at Gemas, Royal Australian Air Force Buffalos machine* run/ved the long serpentine linos ot f 4port vehicles. The pilots estimai'rfudVat these column? of enemy transpfcHSst>hiclcs stretched for miles along : the Tnmpin-Gemas road. . | "There were about 1000 vehicles of all types in one lot which we attacked.” said an Australian pilot, who scored a “probable” in an encounter, with enemy bombers on the previous day. "We sneaked up and dived almost into the middle of them. r°u( should have seen them,■ scatter. Th.’> j could not get off the road quirkl' i enough. Tanks burst into flames and transports wore left burning. ’ The fighters returned to their base with scarcely a round of ammunition left amongst them. Railway Yards Attacked Meanwhile bombers heavily attacked railway yards and convoys, starting more than a dozen fires amongst trucks in the marshalling yards at GemasThe convoys were completely dislocated a? the Japanese haphazardly tried to disperse in the jungle. From these operations all our aircraft returned safely. In land fighting in Malaya, the Japanese have made little further progress. Eight enemy aircraft were destroyed in one sector. At a point further north, I.’JO miles north-west oi Singapore, Australian troops strongly insisted a Japanese attack, and drove them back with heavy casualties, A Japanese armv fighter was destroyed. Royal Australian Air Force machines bombed Japanese bases in the Caroline Islands. All the machines returned. A seaplane and several launches and barges were destroyed. Near misses were scored on a Japanese merchant 1

vessel of 6000 tons in the same vicinity. The Tokyo radio said that dispatches from the front reported that all British aerodromes on the Malayan mainland came into Japanese possession, with the occupation of an aerodrome, near Baturabat, 70 miles north-west of Singapore I