LARGELY UNCHANGED

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 151, 28 June 1943, Page 5

LARGELY UNCHANGED

ENEMY FLEET AT RABAUL (Special P.A. Correspondent.) SYDNEY, June 27. The .concentration of Japanese shipping in Rabaul harbour now includes a small converted aircraft-carrier. The latest reconnaissance also shows 170 planes on the Rabaul airfields, a slight increase on the numbers recently sighted. , It is possible that the carrier has been used to ferry aircraft to this enemy base. The Japanese shipping: concentration at Rabaul, including warships, remains substantially unchanged. Aircraft on Vunakanau aerodrome and the Rabaul dock installations were again attacked by General Mac Arthur's heavy bombers on Saturday. More than 20 tons of high explosives and incendiaries were dropped. Intense anti-aircraft fire was encountered, and two of our bombers are missing. Today's communique makes no specific claims of damage inflicted. An Australian Beaufort bomber on Friday scored a near miss on one of three 1000-ton Japanese vessels in a convoy between New Britain and the northern Solomons. A destroyer was escorting'the merchantmen, which appeared to be heading in the direction of Bougaiaville. The Beaufort attacked 65 miles south-south-east of Cape St. George, in the Rabaul area. Lac, in northern New Guinea, has been, under heavy attack by Allied medium^ bombers, but dense smoke prevented an accurate assessment of the damage. The Madang and Finschliafen areas were also raided in the past 48 hours.