USE OF MUNDA BASE

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 24022, 10 August 1943, Page 5

USE OF MUNDA BASE

Americans Enlarge Airfield SUSTAINED RAIDS ON VILA (Special Australian Corresp.. N.Z.PA.) (Rec. 11 p.m.) SYDNEY, Aug. 9. American construction battalions are already rushing the rebuilding of the Munda airfield, on New Georgia, which is being enlarged to accommodate all types of aircraft. In a few days heavy bombers with fighter escort will be Able to operate as far as Rabaul. This is reported by an Australian war correspondent in the Solomons. The work of repairing the Munda airfield, he says, is proceeding without interruption The area round the air-

field is free ot Japanese, although enemy groups are being mopped up along the north-west coast of New Georgia as far as Bairoko. ' The Japanese are reported to be reinforcing their garrisons at Vella Lavella and Kolombangara, in preparation for what may be Admiral Halsey's next moves. Maintaining Allied attacks against Japanese naval and supply units. Liberator bombers from south Pacific bases yesterday flew half-way to the great enemy base of Truk, in the Caroline Islands, to bomb another convoy. It was the furthest penetration to the north yet made by our bombers in the southern Pacific. Truk is about 800 miles north of the central Solomons. The convoy was sighted west of Greenwich Island, and about 300 miles north-east of Kawieng, in New Ireland. The Liberators attacked an 8500ton freighter or transport, another cargo vessel, and a destroyer. The results were not observed. Sixty-three tons of bombs, many of them of 10001b and 20001b, have been dropped on the enemy base of Vila, on Kolombangara Island, in sustained daylight attacks. Avengers and Corsairs attacked the town of Vila, gun positions, supply dumps, and barracks, during the morning, and in the afternoon other bombers with strong fighter escort attacked Kape Harbour, the naval depot 19 miles north-east of Vila. Adverse weather yesterday hampered all air operations in the southwest Pacific area. Vella Gulf Victory The enemy warships sunk in the Vella Gulf on Friday are revealed to have been packed with troops. Most of these must have lost their lives. The American ships were unmarked and did not suffer a single casualty. They remained in the gulf for several hours after the action, rescuing Japanese survivors. The battle, which was fought within sight of enemy shore garrisons, again demonstrated the completeness of American naval superiority. The Japanese warships carrying reinforcements are believed to have come from Rabaul. Pilots of Allied aircraft on night patrol watched the action. They saw the enemy cruiser burst into flames, which quickly spread to the magazines. Heavy explosions tore the warship as she lay helpless in a sea of blazing oil. Flames spreading over the water illuminated three accompanying enemy destroyers, and shells were poured into them. General Mac Arthur has sent a message to Admiral Halsey congratulating him on tnis newest Allied naval victory. He said: “Please express to commanders and all ranks and ratings of the task force engaged my admiration of their brilliant action in the Vella Gulf. It is but further evidence of the magnificent fighting qualities of our naval forces.” Japanese Naval Losses A continuation of the slow attritional warfare in the islands is involving Japan in a crippling expenditure of aircraft, merchant vessels, and warships. In the last five weeks the Japanese have lost 22 warships in the central Solomons—four cruisers, 17 destroyers, and a 9000-ton seaplane tender. Five enemy destroyers were protu ably sunk and six more were damaged. Allied ships reported sunk in the same period have been a cruiser and two destroyers. The Japanese task force of a cruiser and three destroyers which was wiped out on Friday night was the fifth “Tokyo express” intercepted by Allied air or naval forces since the New Georgia offensive began on June 30. The failure of their power barges to run our central Solomons blockade probably led the Japanese to renfew their attempts to supply their forward bases with fast naval craft. Vila, on Kolombangara Island, which is believed to have been the warships’ objective. is the sole remaining enemy strongpoint in the central Solomons. “The capture of Munda means that the United States forces are now in a position to drive the Japanese from the Solomons by the end of the year,” says Mr Joseph Driscoll, correspondent of the New York “Herald-Tribune” at headquarters in the south Pacific. He adds that the Allied drive must be accompanied by a greatly increased flow of aeroplanes and war materials. "This will be necessary because the Japanese are expected to make a last ditch stand on Bougainville Island in the Northern Solomons, and at Rabaul on the New Britain front,” he says. Commenting on the “doleful” American comment that at the present rate of advance it will take the Allies many years even to wrest her newly won possessions from Japan, the “Sydney Morning Herald” to-day says that the capture of outlying bases “the hard way” is an inescapable necessity. Although Rabaul may eventually have to be taken in similar fashion, the difficulties and sacrifices involved are not without compensations which eventually should assist to make the Allied task less formidable with each forward bound. AMERICAN WOUNDED ATTACKED JAPANESE ACTION ON NEW GEORGIA (Rcc. 8 p.m.) SYDNEY. Aug. 9. Twenty wounded American soldiers were clubbed or bayoneted, and four of them were battered to death, by a Japanese guerrilla force near Munda airfield. New Georgia. The wounded Americans were killed as they lay in foxholes. The story of this atrocity, release of uhich was delayed pending official verification, is told by war correspondents in the area. The wounded men were being carried on stretchers by medical personnel when the party was ambushed. The bearers fought off one attack. When the Japanese made a second assault the wounded were placed in foxholes for their protection. Finally, a greatly superior enemy force drove off the stretcher bearers and some engineers whom they had joined, Furvivors say they saw the Japanese crouch over the foxholes and club the wounded with their rifle butts. Some were bayoneted. The Japanese then callously dumped the bodies of the Americans and placed their own wounded on the stretchers.