BIG PUSH BEGINS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 59, 7 September 1937, Page 11

BIG PUSH BEGINS

JAPANESE FORCES

SHANGHAI FRONT

MERCILESS BOMBARDMENT

United Press Association—By Ele'jtric Tele-

grapli—Copyright.

LONDON, September 6. 1 Supported by heavy artillery, warships, and 'planes, which are mercilessly bombarding Hongkew and the Yangtzepoo area, the Japanese began their much-heralded big push on the Shanghai front at dawn. The Chinese artillery at Kiangwan is replying energetically.

A seven-hour lull in the fighting was rudely ended at 2.30 a.m., when the opposing forces oh all sectors exchanged artillery and machine-gun fire.

The Japanese warship Idzumo moved to a new position at the Jukong Wharf and led the bombardment, the remaining Japanese warships at Woosung raking the Chinese lines. By 5.30 a.m., the Chinese batteries at Kiangwan and the Japanese at Yangtzepoo were engaged in a most fierce duel, its reverberations shaking the city. • The Japanese objective appears to be to clean up the1 Woosung Peninsula, where the Chinese, preponderating in manpower, are hanging on tenaciously. The Shanghai correspondent of "The Times" says that undoubtedly the original Japanese objective, which;was either to cut off the Chinese main forces centred at Kiangwan or force their retirement westward, has failed. The Japanese have now landed many more men and batteries, but there are still long gaps in their line between Woosung and Yangtzepoo and Woosung and Lotien, while the Chinese are not reducing the pressure. Fifty Japanese transports, filled with men and supplies, lying in the Yangtzekiang, show that the Japanese realise that a large-ly-increased ♦force is necessary.