WIDE AIR SWEEPS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21385, 21 April 1944, Page 3

WIDE AIR SWEEPS

ALLIED BOMBERS TIMOR TcTcAROLINES no enem'Topposition (Special Australian Correspondent.) (10 a.m.) SYDNEY, April 21. No Japanese air opposition was again encountered in widespread attacks reported in a communique issued by Allied Headquarters in the South-West Pacific yesterday. Allied bombers ranged from Timor in the west to Bougainville in the east and the Carolines in the north. Some enemy fighters were seen by Liberators from Solomons bases which again bombed Momoi, 150 miles southeast of Truk, on Monday, but the Japanese planes avoided combat. The Liberator crews found that the runway on Satawan airfield, which had been cut up in the previous day’s attack, had been repaired. They again tore up the runway with a further 27 tons of bombs. No ground fire was encountered and bombing runs against airfield and personnel areas were made at medium altitude. i Striking in daylight on Tuesday, other Liberators returned to Woleai in the Carolines, starting new fires on the aerodrome and supply dump areas. Dauntless, Avenger and Mitchell bombers from the Solomons on Monday destroyed more gun positions and supply dumps .at Rabaul. Adverse ’weather hindered air operations along the northern New 'Guinea coast, but Allied patrol planes were able to attack scattered targets from Madang to Aitape. On the South coast of Dutch New Guinea, Liberators defied bad weather to make daylight raids on the Japanese aerodromes. Manakwari, Waren and Momei, a cluster of airfields around Geelvink Bay, were attacked on Tuesday without enemy fighter opposition. An 'BOO-ton small ship was damaged and a lugger sunk by Allied aircraft operating over waters north of Australia. '