PACIFIC AIR WAR

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 28, 1 August 1942, Page 5

PACIFIC AIR WAR

GREATEST BATTLE YET*

FOUGHT OVER DARWEJ

(By Telegraph— Pres* Association—SopyrlfhfjL (Special Australian Correspondent) SYDNEY, July 31. The greatest air battle of the war in the south-west Pacific was fought over Darwin yesterday afternoon. Seven Japanese heavy fighters and two bombers were shot down for the loss of one Allied plane! when fighters intercepted a Japanese raiding- force of 27 bombers escorted by 22 Zero fighters. The pilot of the Allied plane lost is safe. The action is described in today's Allied headquarters communique as "brilliant." . At the same time another Japanese force. was attacking Port Hedland.' which is 300 miles south-west or Broome on Australia's north-west coast. This is the furthest point south to be. raided by the enemy. Bombing from a great height, the nine planes em-, ployed caused little damage and only one casualty. . . Port Hedland is approximately 1000 miles north of Perth by air line. A previous air attack on this coast was made by the Japanese on March 3; when Broome and Wyndham, 480 miles further north, were attacked. Port Hedland is the terminus of the railway from the mining centre of Marble Bar, and it is a regular port of call for vessels -trading along Australia's northwest coast. Enemy bombers yesterday also made light and ineffectual attacks on Port' Moresby and oh Horn Island in Torres Strait. ALLIES HAVE INITIATIVE. In the New Guinea sector yesterday" the initiative was with the Allies." Heavy bombers scored five direct hits on a medium-sized Japanese transport 100 miles off the north-eastern coast. The ship was set on fire, and the blaze was visible 30 miles away. An escorting destroyer was raked with machine-gun fire, and its anti-air-craft fire was silenced. An Allied re-, connaissance plane in the same area ! shot down one enemy fighter and proibably destroyed a second. From aIT these operations three planes are massing. During this intensified air activity there has been a temporary lull in the t Papuan land fighting in the Kokoda] sector. Kokoda village is still in no. man's land. The country in which the' fighting is taking place * comprises! alternating rolling kunai grasslands' and thick jungle. ' The kunai grass areas are stated to be capable of ready conversion to aerodrome's merely by cutting the grass, and it has. been estimated that an emergency landing field could be cleared in four hours. Landing in uncleared kunai areas would be hazardous, and such landing fields could be used only in dry weather. DAMAGE NOT DISCLOSED. It is estimated that about 150 bombs were dropped at Darwin, but none caused any damage to permanent installations. Following the usual tactics,] enemy machines remained at a high altitude,' between 26,000 and 27,000 feet.! Defendirig-fighters succeeded in breaking up the enemy formation. The transport attacked by the Allied bombers off the New Guinea coast is stated by observers to have been obviously headed for the new enemy base at Gona. It was sighted by an Allied reconnaissance plane, which, quickly brought the bombers to the attack. .