ALLIED RAID ON RABAUL

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23849, 19 January 1943, Page 5

ALLIED RAID ON RABAUL

Five Ships Sunk Or Crippled

JAPANESE MOVES EXPECTED

(Special Australian Corresp., N.Z.P.A.) (Rec. 11.30 p.m.) SYDNEY, Jan. IB

The menacing Japanese shipping concentration at Rabaul has again been under damaging attack by Flying Fortresses of General MacArthur’s command. Five more merchant ships, estimated to total 25,000 tons, were sunk or crippled when the bombers struck in three waves early on Sunday morning. In six earlier raids in the last 12 days 21 Japanese ships were sunk or damaged at Rabaul. All our aeroplanes returned from Sunday’s attacks.

To-day’s communique also reports an attack by a Liberator bomber on an enemy transport near Manusi Island, in the Admiralty group. The results could not be observed. - Widespread raids on Japanese aerodromes and bases throughout the entire South-west Pacific Command area are again revealed by the communique. In all, 10 enemy-occupied areas were attacked on Sunday. The Japanese countered with one of their biggest raids for several months. Twenty-four Mitsubishi medium bombers escorted by 20 Zeros made a noon attack on the Milne Bay aerodrome. No important damage was caused. There were no casualties. The raiding aeroplanes are believed to have come from the Rabaul area. Our fighters attempted interception, but the enemy avoided combat. American reports say that the greatest enemy air strength for many months is now based on New Britain, where our bombers attacked aerodromes round Rabaul as well as at Gasmata and Cape Gloucester. Along the north New Guinea coast Madang, Finschhafen, Lae, and Malahang have again been attacked, and in the northwestern sector a Liberator bomber made a reconnaissance flight over Amboina Island. An intercepting fighter was damaged. Amboina ranks next to Batavia as the largest naval base in the Netherlands East Indies. Enemy Bases Watched All these activities tend to support American reports that new Japanese moves in the south Pacific are imminent. Washington sources say that recent enemy war shipping activities round the American-held Solomons are likely to be a prelude to heavier fighting. Attack and reconnaissance activities by General MacArthur’s air forces indicate that the bases at which enemy forces might gather are under constant surveillance. For a week reconnaissance flights have been a feature of our air operations. In our greatest sweep an arc of 2000 miles of enemy-occupied territory, from Celebes to New Britain, was covered. The war correspondent of the Sydney “Sun” to-day refers to “a growing Allied suspicion that the Japanese may be becoming dangerously active along more than 500 miles of the north New Guinea coastline.” A national radio talk by the commander of the Allied land forces in the southwest Pacific (General Sir Thomas Blarney) included a warning to Australians that an early all-out enemy invasion attempt against their country had not yet become an impossibility.

“The vast Pacific theatre is in an uneasy state of balance,. with both sides preparing for new operations,” declares the “New York Times” military correspondent, Hanson Baldwin. “Japan could choose to continue on the strategic defensive while developing her conquests, and so force the Allies to pay 'dearly for every small step forward; but the increase in Japan’s air, as well as shipping strength, suggests that she may strike again shortly.” Mr Baldwin says that the new enemy attack may be against Darwin, north-eastern Australia. Guadalcanar, Midway Island, or Hawaii.

UNDER-ESTIMATING JAPAN

COMMENT IN LONDON NEWSPAPERS

“AUSTRALIA AND N.Z. MENACED ”

LONDON. Jan. 17. The "Sunday Dispatch,” in a special article on the Pacific war, says: “The evil truth is that Australia and New Zealand are harshly menaced. The Pacific, without our realising it, has become as close and immediate as ever was the Atlantic. The removal of this threat will not be an easy task. How they delude themselves who think that once Germany is finished Japan will be child’s play.” The “Sunday Times’’ columnist, "Scrutator," says that the war against Germany must take precedence over the war against Japan, but he adds: ‘‘The danger exists that this logic may be pushed too far to the point of underrating and neglecting the mischief Japan can do us. “The actions of the United Nations governments appear to indicate a tendency to under-estimate both the need for early reconquests from Japan and the possibility of achieving them. The immediate alternatives were to fight Japan either in the Pacific or in Burma. We are at present merely nibbling at both. We should decide at which to bite.”

"Scrutator” argues that the main thrust should be in the Pacific, where the deciding factors are ships and aircraft, in both of which Japan has already lost heavily. Japanese aeroplane losses in the Solomons campaign are now reported to total 755, and 169 enemy ships have been sunk or damaged.

William Hippie, war - correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain in the Solomons, says that the Japanese are using submarines to keep their troops on Guadalcanar adequately supplied with food. Most of the Japanese troops killed recently have been in good physical condition. Scouting earlier reports that 20,000 Japanese troops on Guadalcanar were starving, Hippie declares that American front line officers say that it is wishful thinking to believe that the enemy will be annihilated except in battle.