JAPS SURPRISED

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 24, 28 July 1944, Page 5

JAPS SURPRISED

NEW PHASE OF WAR OPENS

COLOMBO, July 27.

The Eastern Fleet opened > a new phase of naval warfare in the East Indies with its daylight bombardment of Sabang, says the Associated Press correspondent on board the flagship of the Eastern Fleet off Sabang.

Having established the complete domination of the eastern Indian Ocean by ..air strikes against Sabang, Sourabaya, and Port Blair, Admiral Somerville's Eastern Fleet is now reaching out into East Indian waters, in which the chief prize is Singapore.

The Allied battleships, cruisers, and destroyers cascaded shells varying from four to fifteen inch into the Japaneseheld naval base. A senior officer commented: "It will take a long time to repair Sabang owing to the difficulties of getting materials from Japan. In fact they won't be able to repair the place before we get there." It is roughly three months since the Eastern Fleet last raided Sabang, but that was a cautious air strike from carriers, the rest of-the fleet remaining well distant from Sabang. This is the first time an Allied naval surface force has been in sight of Sumatra since the dark days of the Japanese sweep through the East Indies in 1942.'

Once again the fleet reached its objective unqbserved. The first thing the Japanese knew of the raid was the intensive strafing by fighters from the carriers. Among the Corsair fighters' targets were three airfields, including one at Kota Raja, on the mainland -of Sumatra, but confirming the suspicion that Japanese air strength was weak, only four aircraft were found and all were destroyed.