FIGHTER BATTLE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 91, 14 October 1943, Page 5

FIGHTER BATTLE

JAPS LOSE EIGHT PLANES

(Special P.A. Correspondent.) SYDNEY, October 13. Against odds of 11 to 1, an Allied fighter patrol over Wewak, New Guinea, yesterday destroyed -eight Japanese fighters and probably destroyed two others. Four Thunderbolts formed an intercepting patrol, and they attacked an 'enemy formation of 32 fighters and 12 bombers. They first destroyed a Zero at 20,000 feet, and then tackled the rest of the forma--* tion at 12,000 feet. General Mac Arthur's latest communique, which reports this air engagement, also reports the destruction by Liberators with two direct hits of a small enemy tanker at Fakfak, in Dutch New Guinea. >

An Allied night patrol attacked a Japanese convoy of six merchantmen sneaking into St. George's Channel, between New Britain and New Ireland, on Monday night, scoring a hit on one ship and near-misses against others. The convoy was possibly iieeing from the recent Vella Lavella naval engagement when the Japanese lost a cruiser and two destroyers.