BATTLE OF JAPAN

Greymouth Evening Star, 28 July 1945, Page 5

BATTLE OF JAPAN

FURTHER ALLIED OFFENSIVES BOMBERS’ WIDESPREAD TOLL WASHINGTON, July 26. More Allied attacks on airfields in the Shanghai area are described in to-day’s communiqLie from General MacArthur’s headquarters. Aircraft of the Allied Forces have struck at targets in the Japanese home islands, in Borneo, and in. other Japaneseoccupied territory. The communique is as follows: — “The Far East Air Force has dropped more than 400 tons of bombs on enemy airfields and shipping in the Shanghai area. Allied planes set fire to installations at the Kiangwan, Woosung, Lunghwa, Tachang, and Tinghai aerodromes. They hit six freighter-transports in Hangshoow Bay and a gunboat on the Whangpoo River. “Reconnaissance bombers hit the town of Fusan and waterfront facilities in Korea. They harassed enemy coastal craft off South China and damaged others in the Gulf of Siam. In spite of adverse weather heavy bombers of the 7th Air Force from Okinawa cratered runways on Kiwai Island, in the Riukius, and struck at the important Tsuij. air centre in Northern Kyushu, setting fire to fuel storage "facilities. Thirty, enemy fighters were intercepted. Seven were shot down and one was probably destroyed. One bomber was lost. Patrol planes were active over a wide area, bombing the Otake aerodrome in Southern Honshu. “R.A.A.F. and light naval units started large fires, and explosions wrecked many motor-vehicles, m attacks against enemy coastal concentrations in Borneo. A Navy patrol bombed and destroyed a freighter near Kuching. Enemy planes ineffectively raided the Balikpapan area before dawn, and Australian fighters destroyed one of them. R.A.A.r. search units cratered the Tanamon airstrip and attacked the enemy barracks at Kendari, in Celebes. “Fighters of the Netherlands Air Force' destroyed enemy watercraft : and inflicted casualties in northwestern New Guinea. Marine medium bombers, with R.N.Z.A.r. fighters, started numerous fires m Kawieng. Workshops and storage areas were burned in Rabaul. Enemy remnants in Bougainville were also “Elements of the ■ Australian 7tn Division in Borneo pressed steadily forward along a main highway lead-; ing north-east from Balikpapan, ano. made contact with a small enemy group.” . , * j • i A communique from Admiral Nimitz’s headquarters says thai marine aircraft, yesterday bombed and attacked with rockets radio and radar stations on Amami Island m the Riukius. Privateer aircraft sanx three fishing vessels and damaged five others in the Sagami Gulf, south of Tokio Bay. Search aircraft sank a small freighter in the Tsushima Straits. ' ALLIES’ PROCLAMATION. LONDON, July 27. According to a broadcast by the Tokio radio, Japan proposes to ignore the proclamation calling on her to surrender. The radio added that Japan would prosecute the war in Asia m accordance with a fixed policy. It has been pointed out that the Soviet was not associated with the proclamation, the text of which has’ been published in Russian newspapers without comment. . No effort is being spared by Britain and the United States to acquaint the Japanese people with the text of the proclamation. It is being broadcast by radio stations on the Pacific coast ol America and in the Marianas. Leaflets will also be dropped by Superfortresses over the Japanese home islands. DETERMINED TO RESIST NEW~YORK, July 27. The Domei News Agency’s commentator, Hiroshi Oyama, discussing the unconditional surrender declaration pointed out that the United States demanded Germany’s unconditional surrender when the Reich was already on her knees, therefore the outcome was obvious. “The East-Asia picture is different. American forces have no nearby major base, but instead had won only a few small parts of Japanese islands. After four bloody years not a single enemy soldier stands on Japan’s mainland, nor is likely to without paying a terrible almost prohibitive price. The bitter lessons learned on all Japans tiny invaded islands should impress on the American mind that Japan was firmly and doggedly determined to re- ■ sist and will battle tooth and nau for every inch of her sacred soil.

JAP. CABINET DECISION. LONDON, July 27. The Associated Press correspondent at Potsdam says the Tokio radio’s reply I to the ultimatum that Japan intended ’fo prosecute the war to the end, according to the fixed plan, was picked up by all military listening posts, ana passed on to delegations at Potsdam. I The Japanese disclosure that Suzuki’s Cabinet met for three hours, is considered more significant than the bit,ter end defiance from Tokio. It is considered that the Japanese must have weighed heavily the fact that although the ultimatum came from, Churchill, Truman and Chiang Kai-shek, it also /came from the locality, where not i Chiang, but Stalin was present. russianJupport. NEW 'YORK, July 26. The Washington correspondent oi the New York “Herald-Tribune” says that many observers believe that the Ihree-Power ultimatum to Japan was in effect a four-Power document, in that it had an implied blessing from Russia. , J . . . , The correspondent points out that Mr. Churchill, President Truman, and Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek were probably in the happy position of men who “knew something” when they authorised the statement. Furthermore, what they knew was divided into two parts, the first giving them something definite to believe that Japan may be ready to fold up if given a “face-saving” chance, and the second giving them the knowledge that Russia would soon be in the war if the Japanese failed to capitulate. CHANGES JN COMMAND NEW YORK, July 27. “Military observers believe that a realignment of commands in the Far. East may be announced after the Potsdam conference,” says the Washington correspondent of the “New York Times.” “Admiral Mountbatten, the correspondent stated, would be charged with .the responsibility of cleaning out the estimated §OO,OOO Japanese in south-west Pacific islands and south-east Asia, leaving General MacArthur to concentrate on the invasion of Japan. “A British military spokesman who arrived from Admiral Mountbatten’s theatre refused to comment regarding the matter, but acknowledged that it was logical to expect future command changes to follow such a pattern. The Royal Navy is already deployed in the Pacific, but the question of the extent to which British ground and air forces will be co-ordinated with the American forces has not been clarified. “There are authoritative indications that British air units will join in the assault against Japan, and it is also believed that token British forces, composed of soldiers from various

parts of the Empire, might join General MacArthur's command for the invasion of Japan. However, the bulk of the British ground forces is expected to continue to operate in southeast Asia and the Netherlands East Indies, because of the sphere- of interest involved, the great distances and the transportation difficulties.” JAP. PLANE~SHORTAGE. LONDON, July 27. Acknowledging the shortage of Japanese aircraft, ■ the Tokio radio said that all available planes were being saved “for the coming , homeland battle. We are patiently awaiting the Superfortresses trying to crush our fighting strength and demoralise our people.” ■ A correspondent of the Dome! News Agency, writing from a front-line base in the Japanese homeland, reported that the Japanese tank corps 'was strenuously practising by day and night. A tank corps commander when interviewed, said: “We can bring into full play our strategy of tank warfare by taking every advantage of the peculiar topography of the- Japanese mainland.” He added that the fathomless mountains and valleys would overwhelm the enemy, whose tanks would be rendered immobile. American flame-throwing tanks would be the spearhead of the attack, but they were slow and vulnerable to Japanese “body-crashing tactics,” he concluded. JAP. LOSSES Fn BURMA. COLOMBO, July 27. “Since the break-through attempt began in July 21, more than 3000 enemy bodies have been counted, and more than 400 prisoners have been taken,” says to-day’s communique .from South-East Asia Command Headquarters. “Our troops continued to round-up parties of Japanese in the area between the Sittang River and the 77-mile stretch of the MandalayRangoon road between Toungoo and Nyaunglebin. “After occupying a village five miles north of Nyaunglebin, our troops repulsed two counter-attacks during the night, and pushed eastwards towards the Sittang River. “In the Pyu sector, our troops captured a village eight miles north of a town on the Mawchi road (east ol Toungoo). The enemy has continued to shell our positions.”

JAPS. BROKEN RUGBY, July 27. The Japanese are the broken men of Burma, writes a military observer at headquarters in South-east .Asia. Their dead actually counted in the operations of the last lew days are many more than 2000. There were nearly 300 prisoners. These men I had been “rotating” several weeks in ■ the jungle-covered hill ol Pegu 'Yomas, west ol the main RangoonMandalay road and the railway. This was their final atempt to win a way <->ast over the road across the Sittang River and into the wilds of the Shan Hills. Then they have a 200-rnile walk south if they are to reach Bihn and Moulmein and rejoin their fellows. The vast majority are still struggling in the jungle and paddyfields'; Their chances of survival, let alone escape, are problematic. Oui troops, Indian and British, have never at any time been in higher fettle m Burma. The count of prisoners is the largest ever taken in Burma. Even villagers bring in prisoners trussed .like fowls and hand them to our forces on the road. All the prisoners are in a shocking physical state. Ihoy have had more than, they can stand, from our arms, from the monsoon, and from the jungle. AUSTRALIAN FORCES CANBERRA, July 27. • The Australian Army’s operational strength is to be cut from its present six divisions to three divisions, with a relative reduction in ancillary and base troops and _ administrative personnel. The Air Force is to be proportionally reduced from. 53 squadrons in the South-west Pacific area to a figure not yet determined, but estimated at probably 36 squadions. , ■ . , . Announcing these drastic cuts in the House of Representatives to-day, the Prime Minister (Mr. Chifley) said: “A reduction to these strengths i will entail the release of a considerably greater number than the 64,000 now authorised.” Mr. Chifley [added that the reduction would take’ palace as soon as operational plans 'would permit. Reorganisation could {be carried out and the orderly resettlement of discharged personnel [could be planned and arranged. For

the main offensive against Japan, it was proposed that Australia’s contribution should be, first, an Australian naval squadron under its own com- ■ mander, and second, an expeditionai y r force of the land and air forces 5 which would operate under Austra- ’ lian commanders in a similar manner to that of the A.I.F. in the Middle 1 East. ~ .. •! Mr. Chifley said it was a matter oi ’ [vital importance to .the future ol ’ Australia and her status at the peace ’ table, that her military effort against ’ Japan should be maintained on a ’ scale which, with her earlier record 1 in the war, would be maintained at - the present strength. Mr. Chifley ’ added that it had also been proposed that a token force should be associated. if possible, with the British forces in operations for the recapture o Singapore to avenge the defeat ol 1942, and to contribute to the libera- • lion of Australian prisoners of war. AUSTRALIAN WINS V.C. CANBERRA. July 26. The King has awarded the Victoria Cross to Corporal Reginald Roy Ratley of Barmedman. New South Wales. The award was made for “most conspicuous bravery” on South • Bougainville on March 22, when, single-handed and firing his Bren gun from the hip, he rushed several times into heavy enemy fire and silenced Japanese automatic weapons in a strongly-held enemy position, which was holding up the advance of his company. N.Z. PRIEST MARTYR "SYDNEY, July 27. A story of the heroism and of the torture 'and death at the hands of the Japanese of a New Zealand Roman Catholic priest in the Philippines was told bv a Filipino guerrilla officer to a priest in Sydney. The New Zealand priest was Father Douglas, who had been stationed for two years at Pillila thirty-five miles from Manila. Pillila was a centre of activity for guerrillas to which Father Douglas acted as chaplain. The Filipino, Kqpni Kuizon, said that Father Douglas was called sometimes to the mountains to hear' confessions of guerrillas who had been wounded in clashes with Japanese. Spies reported him to the enemy, who sent soldiers to raid his Monastery. The only witness to the subsequent interrogation was a Filipino houseboy, who said that the Japanese asked Father Douglas what the guerrillas bad told him of their activities. Father Douglas, according to the houseboy, replied: “That is a question you have no right to ask. It would be against my conscience to answer it.” The Japanese Captain was enraged and began to use violence on Father Douglas. His death occurred two days later, but investigations by the Apostolic Delegate ; failed to locate the body.