BATTLE FOR MARIANAS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 149, 26 June 1944, Page 5

BATTLE FOR MARIANAS

JAP AIR POWER BLANKETED

RUGBY, June 24. An eye-witness account reveals that the United States Fleet was off Guam, the southernmost of the Marianas, when it was attacked on Sunday by Japanese carrier planes. The commander of the Fifth Fleet, Admiral Spruancc, disposed his fleet, the correspondent says, so as to prevent an attack on the American transports and' ground troops at Saipait,

His move prevented the Japanese from landing to refuel and "made it virtually certain that no planes survived the aerial battle which raged over 100 miles of sea." The enemy personnel losses were almost 100 per cent., since Admiral Spruance controlled the area. As for aircraft—on one field of Guam only five-planes remained next morning of more than 100 which the Japanese had planned to save there.

The correspondent added: "We never did catch the Japanese Fleet and today nothing remains anywhere in the waters east of the Philippines except a few pieces of floating wreckage and some huge oil slicks."—B.O.W.