PHILIPPINES RAIDS CONTINUE

Dominion, Volume 38, Issue 21, 19 October 1944, Page 5

PHILIPPINES RAIDS CONTINUE

(By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Received October 18, 10 p.m.) ■ WASHINGTON, October 18.

The Navy has announced that Army troops recently occupied the Ulithi atoll in the western Carolines, unopposed. The landing was made under cover of warships. ■ ’' \ The Ulithi atoll is shown midway between the Palau group and Guam. Today’s communique reveals that American planes have been laying mines in Japanese waters. . . Carrier aircraft are continuing their attacks on the Philippines. , Tokio radio stated that American planes * struck at Clark airfield, north; west of Manila, also the port of Legaspi on Tuesday morning. Formosa Air Victories. “During the fighting since October 10 between our carrier task forces and the enemy air forces based’ on shore , in the Ryukyu Islands, Formosa and Luzon, oiir battleships and carriers suffered no damage of consequence," states . the Pacific Fleet communique. “Two mediumsized ships which were hit by aircraft torpedoes are retiring from the area. Fortunately the casualties on these two ships were small. “During October 13410, 191 enemy planes, day and night, attacked one of our task groups off Formosa. Our fighters and ack-ack shot down 95 planes. We lost live planes. Fighters from two carriers. on October 15, shot down 50 more enemy aircraft of approximately 60 which attempted to attack our damaged ships. Search and patrol planes from our carriers, on the same day, destroyed an additional 15 enemy aircraft.” An earlier Pacific Fleet communique said that the American carrier planes attacking the Philippines had destroyed another 89 to 104 Japanese planes, bringing the total enemy "aircraft shot down or destroyed' on the ground to over 700 for the past week of widespread raids in Japan’s home waters.