RIVER OF FIRE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 41, 18 February 1942, Page 5

RIVER OF FIRE

CREATED BY DUTCH

PALEMBANG EPISODE

(By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.)

(Rec. 1 p.m.) BATAVIA, Feb. 17,

Japanese plans to capture Palembang before the Dutch had time to carry out their scorched earth policy were frustrated when the huge oil storage tanks were emptied into the river and set on firk

After parachutists failed to gain control of the refineries, Japanese transports arrived.in the estuary of the Moesi River and the troops began to pour into all kinds of small craft for the assault on Palembang. ,

The iDutch, by this time, decided that the risk of the oil installations falling into Japanese hands was too great and began to carry out a^ .ggs- J tematic scorched earth pottcy v . r -- ( The storage tanks^ jver^.jset r oh fire, and thousands ..of igallonsoiof burning oil poured^ 4nt6 r ;th re > Mcfesi, turning it totO( ba-.river ""of-'fir&'just as the first Jap&^e'^oatS-appeared downstream. Th^n-'Allied fighters and bombers struck/diving down to within a few feet-of the river. ;-

All the leading Japanese boats turned over or caught fire and the river became dotted amid the flames with swimming enemy soldiers."

But more and more boats came up the Moesi and its meandering sidechannels. The odds were too: great, ai..l the city fell, but fighting is going on in the tangled jungle outside it.