PACIFIC CAMPAIGNS

Greymouth Evening Star, 22 May 1943, Page 5

PACIFIC CAMPAIGNS

U.S.A. VICTORY ON ATTU

JAP. NAVAL CHIEF KILLED

NEW YORK, May 20. American forces on Attu Island, in the Aleutians, are making steady progress against the Japanese, and have driven them out of two bays. Ihe junction of the American forces m the north and south of the island has cornered the Japanese in another bay, where they are being ceaselessly pounded by American bombers, The Americans are now using a big antiaircraft battery which they captures, and they are also using a runway which the Japanese were building.

REMNANTS’ LAST STAND

RUGBY, May 21.

A United States Navy communique states: During the night of May 19/20 eight Japanese bombers attacked Guadalcanal, causing minor damage. United States fighers shot down two enemy planes. . Operations op Attu in the Aleutians continued. The Japanese forces established a position on high ground east of Attu village. United States Army bombers attacked the Japanese entrenchments in the area of Sarama the Japanese on Attu as “remnants,” an Agency message from Washington says they are trapped in a fifteen square mile area and are prepared to make a last stand.

LONDON. May 21

The Japanese have begun to evacuate Attu, according to (he Vichy radio.

JAP. COMMANDER KILLED

LONDON, May 21. Tokio has 'announced that Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, Commander-in-Chief of the combined Japanese naval forces, was killed in a war aeroplane last month, during an air duel with enemy aircraft, while he was directing a strategic operation. Admiral Yamamoto directed the Japanese assault on Pearl Harbour, which began the war in the Pacific. He was born in 1884, and served on board Admiral Togo’s flagship in the Russian-Japanese war. His first important post was as naval attache in Washington, in 1925. In 1929 he was a delegate to the London Naval Coni’erence. The following year he became commander of the Ist Naval Air Corps, and in 1933 chief of the Technical Department. In 1934 he led the Japanese delegation to the Naval Conference. Brom 1936 he was Vice-Minister of the Navy, and in 1938 chief of the Aviation Department. His appointment as com-mander-in chief came in 1939. He was a firm believer in combined sea and air power. His aggressive and ambitious character was illustrated by a letter he was reported to have written to a friend some time before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour. In this letter, broadcast from Tokio after hostilities had begun, Admiral Yamamoto said: “I am looking forward to dictating peace to the United States in the V 7 hite Hous eat Washington.” He added that in the event of war with the United States he “would not be content merely to' capture Guam and the Philippines, and occupy Hawaii and San Francisco.”

SOUTH PACIFIC RAIDS

(N Z PA. Special Australian Correspondent)

SYDNEY, May 21. Small scale Japanese air raids on four Allied bases in New Gunca were reported m General Mac Arthur’s communique to-day. a total of 21 enemy aircraft were employed in harassing attacks on x 011 Moresby, Milne Bay, Dobodura, and Douglas Harbour. Three ol the i aids were made under cover oi darkness. The strongest attack was a noon raid by 12 aircraft on the Douglas Harbour area, which was also attacked the previous day. A I'-ton supply lugger was burned and beached and another small vessel was slightly damaged. We also suliered light casualties. Two raids, making a total o- 10, againts Dobodura were made by single aeroplanes on Wednesday night. Fifteen light , bombs were dropped, causing minor damage. Four enemy aeroplanes dropped iu bombs in the Milne. Bay area on. too same evening, causing no casualties, but setting fire to a small dump. Three Japanese aeroplanes raided Port Moresby, dropping six bombs harmlessly in the bush. Allied Liberators and Flying Fortresses in two formations on Thursday made a pre-dawn raid on Vunakanau aerodrome and Keravia Bay, south-west of Rabaul. They dropped 18 tons of daisy-cutter and incendiary bombs, starting many fires in the dispersal area. According to to-days communique these may have neon burning aircraft. Three raids were made by Liberators on Gasmata aerodrome, which had already been made unserviceable by previous attacks. Persistent Allied attacks against the Rabaul and Gasmata aerodromes may be intended as a precaution against the intensification of enemy air raids on oiir New Guinea bases. Since the Lae and Salamaua airfield have been made useless by our incessant bombmg, Gasmata has become an important refuelling ana possibly assembly point. Rabaul, of course, is the enemy’s main air, as well as supply, base in the north-eastern sector ol the South-west Pacific area.

PACIFIC COUNCIL MEETING

LONDON, May 20

Mr Churchill and Mr Roosevelt met the Pacific War Council, to-day, according to a Washington message. Afterwards members indicated that they gave an optimistic review of the general war situation. Lord Halifax, the British Ambassador, said the council received a genera,* picture of the whole problem, and one main element stood out—shipping. Australia's views were outlined by Dr. Evatt, who said later that the meeting had been satisfactory. Colonel Frederic Smith, Chief of Staff of the United States Fifth Air Force and Commander of the BunaPapua air task force, told Press representatives that the Japanese now have twice the number of Aflied aeroplanes in the South-west Parfic. The Japanese air strength in New .Britain had almost doubled dming the last five months. “I think this increased strength is primarily a defensive development,” said Colonel Smith, “but I may be wrong."

U.S.A. PRESS COMMENTS

NEW YORK, May 21

Mr. Churchill’s conference with Dominion representatives and his military stall' is described by the “New York Times’s” Washington correspondent as an “unusual council of war.” Both the “Times’s” and “Her-ald-Tribune” ■ correspondents stress the Pacific flavour of to-day’s Washington talk. The latter comments: ’‘The emphasis placed on the Far Eastern situation served to indicate that Mr. Churchill and President Roosevelt are determined to strike some blow in the. Pacific which will effectively silence critics who bemoaned that it is a neglected area.” There is increasing speculation how and when Mr. Churchill’s pledge to help the R.A.F. to bomb Japan’s cities

to ashes will be implemented. The “Herald-Tribune’s” military correspondent, Major Eliot, regards- the battle of Attu as a prelude to the new Pacific offensive. He expresses the opinion that Japan’s failure to send reinforcements is probably an (indication that she is either preparing to launch her own offensive or resist an Allied thrust elsewhere. Major Eliot regards the South and Southwest Pacific as a likely scene of the next big engagement.

HOSPITAL SHIPS’ SAFETY

CANBERRA, May 21. To safeguard hospital ships in Australian waters against a repetition of the Japanese attack on the Centaur, the introduction of a new system of reporting position by these ships is being considered by the Minister of the Navy (Mr Makin). The basis of the new scheme would be a regulation that hospital ships must report their position, course, and destination at frequent intervals. This would enable the ship’s course to be accurately plotted. In the event of an unexplained interruption in the reporting schedule, an immmediate search could be made. This would remove the danger of survivors of another sinking being compelled to spend many hours in the water. British hospital ships in the Mec'/terranean follow a four-hourly reporting schedule.

JAPANESE MESSAGES

(N.Z.I’.A. Special Australian Correspondent)

SYDNEY, May 22. The Japanese Commander at Salaimaua, Admiral Nakamura, has macle a habit of sending messages to Australian jungle troops in the area telling them he is “going to have a crack at them.” He has attempted to make good his boast on several occasions always with disastrous results for his own forces. Australian soldiers who have been .fighting on the Salamaua-Wau-Mubo I front- for almost a year have now returned home on leave. Their Comimander, Captain Norman Winning, formerly of Java, said: “I am Scottish, but I would not wish-for any better fighting men than my bunch of Australians.” He added that at one stage he became “friendly” with Nakamura.

“After our first raid on Salamaua in which we killed 140 Japanese for only two of our men slightly wounded, he sent a carrier to me with a verbal message announcing that he was going to ‘have a crack at us,’ but he did not say when. Last July, when we wiped out a party sent against us, I received a further message. Nakamura said he was going to have another crack at us, but if we proved too much of a nuisance he would withdraw all the Japanese from Salamaua and replace them with Siamese and Dacoit jungle fighters. In all, I received four messages from him. Each time I told him to go to hell.”

Captain Winning estimated that during the campaign his men killed at least 500 Japanese. His men credit Winning with being able to “smell out Japanese snipers.” and with having personally killed 50 with his Tommy-gun.