SUPREMACY IN AIR WON

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 279, 22 August 1944, Page 6

SUPREMACY IN AIR WON

MacArthur’s Drive To Philippines ENEMY WITHDRAWAL (Ry Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Received August 21,10.50 p.iu.) SYDNEY, August 21. Still another battle on the road to the Philippines has been won by General MacArthur’s forces, who have now driven the Japanese from the air over Halmahera and the adjacent islands of the Moluccas. The enemy are apparently withdrawing their air strength to bases further west temporarily beyond Allied bomber range. Maintaining their unrelenting pressure, onr airmen are discovering many Japanese air bases inoperative and others stripped of planes. In some instances abandoned airfields have been ploughed ■up or strewn with logs,, suggesting that the enemy’s air retreat is final- . , With the development of Allied air supremacy over the Moluccas, powerful Japanese garrisons are being isolated from‘their sea communications and supplies. Their mobility destroyed..they have thus become impotent for anythin}* except local action. In these circumstances the new westward drive by General MacArthur s forces should thus be possible without the necessity of costly frontal assaults to clear the way. General MacArthur s communique today points out. The communique stresses that enemy strongholds in the Moluccas, which have formed an interlocking chain of positions, are being “strategically sterilized.” Air. seaplane and sea bases formerly mutually supporting are becoming dependent upon their individual resources. . Thus, through a process of isolation and bv-passing. General MacArthur rapidly and at remarkably small cost is clearing the way for the attack on the Philippines. Probably because of the continued unfavourable weather, todays communique does not report further Allied air blows on the Moluccas area. . Japanese shipping again constituted the main targets for the South-west Pacific aerial offensive.