BRIEF LAPSE

Evening Star, Issue 25344, 28 November 1944, Page 5

BRIEF LAPSE

ANOTHER RAID ON TOKIO

SUPER-FORTRESSES AGAIN STRIKE AT INDUSTRIAL TARGETS

WASHINGTON, November 27

General H. S. Hansell's Twenty-first Bomber Command returned to Tokio today for another daylight raid on strategic industrial targets, states the War Department. The mission was mads from bases in Saipan. Further details will be released when information is available.

Tokio official radio reports that several formations of Super-Fortresses dropped bombs and incendiaries on Tokio at 1 p.m. to-day, _ slightly damaging non-military facilities. The raiders ilew at extreme heights. Drizzling rain and low-hanging clouds prevented accurate bombing of important targets. Correspondents in the Marianas state that the Super-Fortresses left Saipan at one-minute intervals. The force was practically the same size as that which bombed Tokio on Friday, but had different crews on board. They point out. as' an indication of the bombeT strength based in the Marianas, that many Super-Fortresses on Saipan have not yet been used. A London message says that a substantial force of Super-Fortresses based in India struck at Bangkok, in Thailand.

Super-Fortress _ crews reported that one of the machines lost in the Tokio raid was rammed by a Japaneso " Tony " (fighter plane) and crashed. The ' Herald-Tribune's ' Saipan correspondent says that with the rescue of a Super-Fortress crew at sea the personnel losses in the raid were confined to the crew of one plane and the tail gunner of another plane, who died of wounds while returning to base. The Office of War Information, refuting the popular conception that Tokio is a tinderbox city, said the capital has a highly-efficient' fire-fighting system, and is probably as well prepared as any city in the world to withstand bombing attacks: The city bristles with anti-aircraft weapons, and can be expected to stand up to bombing raids equally intense as those against. Berlin and Cologne. Japan has had ample opportunity of studying bombing, and Tokio is prepared physically and psychologically for mass raids. The United Press correspondent at Twenty-first Bomber Command headquarters on Saipan says that as astounding as the brief lapse, between the raids against Tokio was the fact that to-day's force was equally large as the previous raid. The arrival of additional machines, the successful return of the Super-Fortresses from the previous trip, and the fact that many bombers have duplicate crews permitted the second raid in four days.