THREE TRANSPORTS DESTROYED

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 48, 26 February 1942, Page 7

THREE TRANSPORTS DESTROYED

MORE ENEMY LOSSES

LONDON, February 25. From the Netherlands East Indies the main news is still of fierce enemy air raids on Java, where there are indications that the Allies' ability to hit back is growing:.

Batavia said today that three more Japanese transports had been sunk off Macassar, in south Celebes, and a Washington communique says that nine enemy bombers were turned back over Java. The latest Japanese bombs on Java fell during violent attacks yesterday when Batavia's harbour was the objective. The raid lasted an hour, but the damage was small. Sixteen Japanese planes took part in the attack, and a little later another forma-.. ! tion of 16 planes came over, but was broken up by the ground defences.

Other enemy raids, none of them large, were carried out on an aerodrome near Batavia; at an aerodrome at Bandoeng, the army headquarters in Java; and on naval objectives near Surabaya. Damage at all places is described as slight.

Allied planes have been most active over Sumatra and in a recent attack three plansc were destroyed on the ground near Palembang, and other offensive air activity against the enemy is reported from Canberra.

Details of the new Japanese landings ;at Timor are awaited, Yesterday enemy parachute troops landed at Kupang, in Dutch Timor, and a strong Japanese naval force was seen off Portuguese Timor near Dili, which was reported to be on fire.