PHILIPPINES OPERATIONS

Greymouth Evening Star, 26 December 1944, Page 5

PHILIPPINES OPERATIONS

LEYTE CAMPAIGN ENDED JAP. CASUALTIES & LOSSES LONDON, Dec. 25. The American forces on. Leyte Island, are closing in oh Palompon, the last escape port open to the Japanese. Large quantities of supplies have been captured. _ iit , A communique from General MacArthur’s headquarters says:— “Our air force and flak shot down 20 enemy aeroplanes on Mindoro Island. There is no enemy ground activity. “The destruction ot enemy troops trapped in pockets in the Ormoc corridor. and to the east, has been completed. The 11th Airborne Division, not previously announced, is carrying the heaviest fighting of the Leyte campaign, the mountains south-east of the corridor having been entirely cleared. The 77th Division is continuing the advance to Palompon. “Heavy bombers made a surprise attack on Clark Field, Luzon, destroying and damaging most of the 100 enemy aeroplanes on the ground. We shot down eight enemy fighters. Heavy units of fighter bombers, on successive days, dropped more than 10 tons on Panay, Negros, and Cebu aerodromes, severely damaging light runways. Light naval units sank a small freighter loading supplies at Visayan and shelled shore installations at Masbate. Our guerrilla forces captured Capiz, Panay. “Patrol aeroplanes off the north coast of Borneo destroyed two small freighters and damaged four.” JAPAN’S GREATEST DEFEAT (Recd. 1 p.m.) WASHINGTON, December 25. General MacArthur announced that the Leyte-Samar campaign has been closed. Japanese suffered 113,221 casualties and they lost 2,748 planes. American casualties were 11,217. He adds that Yamashita sustained perhaps the greatest deteat in Japanese history. Admiral Nimitz’s headquarters announced that United States warships shelled and Superfortresses and Liberators bombed Iwo Jima on December 23. BONIN BOMBARDED (Rec. 10.55 a.m.) NEW YORK, December 25. The Tokio radio stated that a dozen enemy cruisers and destroyers bombarded shore installations at Bonin Island from 10.20 a.m. to 1 p.m. today. Various types of enemy aircraft simultaneously carried out raids. The radio also reported that three Superfortresses dropped incendiaries on the Tokio, Yokohama, and bmzuoka areas this afternoon. SUPERFORTRESS RAIDS NfeW YORK, Dec. 24. The Tokio radio says that a single Superfortress dropped bombs and incendiaries on Tokio at dawn on Saturday. ~ , Another Superfortress reconnoitred Hong Kong on Friday, and Mustangs twice raided Canton, one attack lasting more than’ an hour. JAPANESE ALLEGATION NEW YORK, December 24. The Japanese Foreign Office has protested to the United States Government, alleging that American aircraft violated international law on December 12 by sinking the Japanese hospital ship Maramaru. JAPANESE CRUELTIES. (Rec. 1.1 a.m.) NEW YORK, Dec. 25. A nurse who remained in Guam after the Japanese occupation said that residents shortly before the Americans arrived found 13 beheaded and two badly mutilated native children, partially buried in a common grave, reports the Associated Press Guam correspondent. The two injured girls, both aged 16, told that the Japanese accused them of being spies because they were not living in a compound. They struck them repeatedly with swords and threw them into the grave where they were found a week later.