JAPANESE TAKE KWEILIN

Press, Volume LXXX, Issue 24389, 16 October 1944, Page 5

JAPANESE TAKE KWEILIN

CHINESE DEFENDERS ALL KILLED

“SITUATION AS BAD AS POSSIBLE” (Rec. 9.30 p.m.) NEW YORK, Oct. 14,

The Japanese, according to a ®hyngking communique, have captured Kweilin, killing the defenders to the last man. Bitter street fighting preceded the fall of the city! Japanese poured reinforcements in until the defenders were outnumbered by approximately four to one; "The military situation in China is as bad as possible, and. if the Japanese take Pinglo they- will sever the last east to west communications line. Then the whole eastern section of China will have to look after itself without contact with the central Government and only such food as it can gather locally," says the "New York Times' Chungking correspondent. "The Japanese do not seem to be in a hurry. Apparently they are confident that they can in a few months complete the operations which have reduced Chinese capacity to resist to its lowest ebb and administered a resounding major defeat to our air programme, nullifying two years of hard and fantastically expensive work. “The clipping of the airforce’s wings driving them to the rear bases, is a bitter pill. The Japanese a'mih have the upper hand, as they did in Burma two and a half years ago. They are again on the march, and' in spite of sensational Allied victories in the Pacific the main strength of the Japanese armies is untouched.

The Chinese, primitive in organisation and loosely strung together, are battered' and reeling and are being weakened every day. .But. nevertheless, they can absorb even more conquest as long as ultimate victory is assured,”

General J. W. Stilwell’s communique says 14th Air Force fighter-bombers in concentrated attacks on October 12 and October 13 in the west river area destroyed three steamers, damaged three, and destroyed or damaged 39 barges and 30 sampans loaded with troops dnd suDPlies.

• Fighter-bombers strafed Kingshan airfield, on Hainan Island, * destroyed two bombers on the ground, and combed the barracks with machine-gun pre.

PREPARATION FOR • PACIFIC

LARGE BRITISH NAVAL FORCES

LONDON, Oct. 13. A large proportion of the British Home Fleet has for the last year been stripping for action in. the Paciflq war.

The Fleet’s units had been shedding the protective fittings which were necessary to counter the bitter weather in the North Atlantic and on the Arctic convoy routes. The ships are now preparing for the heat of the no less arduous fighting conditions in the tropics.

Nearly every unit of the Home Fleet, from battleships to- landing craft, has been fitted with some tropical equipment. Many types are already headed towards Japan, and Ceylon has become the focal point for a grpup of vast British forces.