SHELLED FROM SEA

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 124, 21 February 1944, Page 5

SHELLED FROM SEA

Rabaul And Kavieng MANY SHIPS SUNK (By Telegraph.—Press Assn. —Copyright.) (Special Australian Correspondent.) (Received February 20, 10.30 p.m.) > SYDNEY, February 20. Allied destroyers have shelled the key Japanese South-West Pacific bases of Rabaul, New Britain, and Kavieng, New Ireland. Great damage was caused to enemy shipping aud installations by these daring new surprise blows, which, in conjunction with the moves in the Central Pacific, are strikingly significant of the mounting Allied supremacy in this theatre of war. The attacks were made simultaneously early on Friday morning, and they apparently caught the enemy garrisons unprepared. Only feeble opposition .was offered by shore batteries at Kavieng, and these were quickly silenced; at Rabaul a single Japanese destroyer ventured outside the harbour, but on viewing the opposition turned tail and fled. The shelling ot’ Rabaul followed fl devastating aerial assault by 150 aircraft, which smashed the. shipping caught in the harbour. Enemy Shipping Loss. In these attacks, together with the earlier air assault which virtually annihilated the 15-ship enemy convoy caught off the coast of New Ireland, it has been unofficially estimated that some 80,000 tons of Japanese shipping has been either destroyed or damaged. The naval blows against Rabaul and Kavieng were the first since their occupation by the Japanese in the earliest days of the Pacific war. Details are given m General MacArthur’s latest communique, which says: “Kavieng, New Ireland. Our naval uuits qit dawn shelled the harbour and shore installations. A tanker was hit and exploded, and hits were scored on a number of smaller vessels in the harbour. Coastal batteries were, silenced, and many fires were started in the dock area. We sustained no damage, “Rabaul, New Britain. Our escorted torpedo and dive-bombers from Solomons bases attacked enemy shipping with 44 tons of high explosives, scoring direct .hits on 12 ships and among 20 barges. Among the enemy losses were four med-ium-sized cargo vessels possibly sunk, aud a tanker, two destroyers, and a patrol vessel heavily damaged. In the air, of some 50 defending fighters we shot down eight, and probably destroyed two. Four of our planes failed to return. In the afternoon our fighters raided Rabaul without opposition. “The following morning our naval units, under cover of a smoke screen, shelled ■ Simpson Harbour. Shore batteries were silenced and large fires started. Our units retired undamaged. Catalina flying-boats directed the fire of the stacking destroyers and observed the results.”

At Kavieng our ships closed in. to within four miles of the shore. Shell hits were scored on 12 ships averaging between 1500 and 2000 tons. At Rabaul, Vunapope baracks and the supply dump area was heavily pounded. Enemy shipping in Keravia Bay also suffered from our naval attack, but details of the damage are not yet available. No reference is made to. any Japanese aerial counter-attacks against otir warships. but the airfields in both areas bad been badly smashed in the earlier neutralizing blows. General MacArthur’s communique today also reports that light Allied naval units shelled Japanese bivouac areas on Pulie River, in the Arawe area, where American forces continue the work of consolidating their beach-head. Widespread Allied air attacks in all sectors are reported by the weekend communiques. „ ~ „ Allied ground patrols at Saidor, New Guinea, report having killed or found dead 340 Japanese stragglers to the south of the American positions. CLASH ON NISSAN Japanese Patrol Wiped Out Official War Correspondent, N.Z.E.F. NEW ZEALAND BATTLE H.Q., February 19. 'Twenty Japanese from a motor torpedoboat and two barges which were previously shot up on the shore of birot Island by gunboat fire have now been eliminated in a sharp day and. night jun gle clash on the northern tip of the : slund A New Zealand patrol led by the former All Black, Doug. Dalton, now a captain in the New Zealand Division, wiped out the enemy from wellhidden defensive positions on ns in„ around The extraordinary difficulties ot the fighting in thick, jungle country and poor visibility is shown by the fact that it took more than six daylight “Qujs, plus a full night, to clean out the Japanese. and another full day to complete the patrol of this wooded coral fragment, which is 3500 yards long. In point ot fact, that' was very fast work. The full story shows that the enemy fought desperately to a finish. Commanding Dalton’s left flank platoon was Lieutenant E. G. Taylor, whose party first made the contact. The Japanese were moving from tree to tree as the New Zealanders encircled them and the wellarmed enemy caused machinegun casualties. A small party of New Zealanders moving forward was . cut off when tne Japanese broke, the . ring, temporarily severing the communications ot Lay lor with his platoon. Corporal’s Coolness.

Then there stepped into the picture Corporal Philip Davidson, Te Aroha, who grouped his section advantageously, keeping up a heavy . fire to assist the cut-off party. Davidson killed a Japanese officer and four men wnh a tommygun, and twice ran forward to throw grenades, one silencing the machinegun which had pinned down his officer s forward party. Davidson saw three Jap anese escape through a gap, but was unable to bring his fire to bear on them. As Taylor dashed back to his men lie hacj a miraculous escape, bullets cutting one boot heel as he dived over. Regrouping the whole party, Daitoa drove through the Japanese bivouac area, the men shooting it up thoroughly as they went through. Fourteen Japanese we,e killed at small cost, and our troops and the patrol drew back for the night, during which the men had an eerie expertence of spasmodic night sniping from and against the enemy, who, though only a few yards away, were yet invisible. Dawn found the remaining six Japan ese dead. As. at Treasury Isiand, the New Zealanders again proved themseive’ able to outfight the Japanese at his own game, the night engagement. The Japanese had been extremely well fitted oui with uniforms, rations and weapons Three 20-millimetre automatic anti-tank guns were captured intact, and much ammunition, which could have made out fnifial entry to the Nissan lagoon on Tuesday morning costly if it had oeen used.

JAPANESE CONVOY Almost Entirely Wiped Out (Received. February 20, 10.30 p.m.) SYDNEY, February 20. Almost the entire Japanese convoy of 15 ships which attempted to pierce the Allied blockade of the Bismarck Archipelago has been wiped out. Twelve merchant vessels aggregating 36,500 tons were sunk or otherwise destroyed by Allied planes in attacks made on Tuesday night and Wednesday. Japanese airmen left the convoy to its fate. Though the entire action took place within 70 miles of the big enemy air base at Kavieng, New Ireland, no fighter opposition was encountered by ojt bombers. United States Fifth Air Force planes from a number of bases maintained a non-stop shuttle service to accomplish the virtual .annihilation of the convoy, which was attempting to reinforce the. hard-pressed enemy garrisons in the Bismarck Archipelago. The destruction of the ships was aeeorapanied by heavy Japanese, loss of life. In most instances the entire ships’ personnel, together with the troops on board, were killed. The ships made des-

perate attempts to escape our bombers, which struck from mast height. General MacArthur’s communique on Friday announced the destruction of an °9OO-ton tanker, a 6000-tou transport, three loOOtou cargo ships, and a destroyer. Yesterday’s communique reported the iollowing additional sinkings: A 7000-ton tanker, a 6000-ton transport, three 1500ton freighter and two escorting corvettes. The t tanker mentioned in yesterday s communique blazed like a torch before it disappeared. One of the corvettes blew up when it was hit amidships. Catalina flying-boats and Liberator bombers bepan the attack, but the main battle honours went to low-flying Mitchells, which inflicted the major destruction. The Japanese losses will further reduce their power to counter the almost daily Allied air blasting of Rabaul and Kavieng.