Naval Planes Blast Enemy's West Forces

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23315, 26 July 1950, Page 7

Naval Planes Blast Enemy's West Forces

(11.30 a.m.) TOKYO, July 25. A British and American task force launched 44 warplane sorties against front-line targets in the south-west battlefront yesterday.

The communique said the operation was planned and carried out in less than 24 hours.

The task force refuelled at sea and prepared aircraft for combat from a special rearming ship. British pilots maintained protective cover over the operation. The rearming job was completed in less than eight hours. While these sorties were in progress North Korean troop columns and vehicle convoys In the central Korean corridor took a terrific hammering from Allied air forces as jets and Mustangs criss-crossed the cloudless skies in search of targets. From dawn 108 sorties were flown against Korean positions astride the road and the railway south-east of Taejon. , Air Force reconnaissance spotted a large North Korean convoy of troops, tanks and vehicles moving down the valley a few miles north of ITamchang. Allied jets and Mustangs called to the scene within a few hours virtually destroyed the convoy. The South Korean forces still hold a line north of Hamchang. , , Transport Pounded

Concerted bombing and strafing attacks were also made yesterday on Communist troops and vehicles heading south from Yongdong and other concentrations attempting a wide pincer movement through south-west Korea. Near Namwon, 60 miles south of Yongdong, between 20 and 25 vehicles were destroyed by planes which also strafed a concentration of Northern troops near Unbong, five miles east of Namwon. General Earle Partidge, commander of the Fifth Air Force, said last night that the emphasis of the air attacks against the Northerners was shifting more to night operations. "We have AU-actically pinned down their movements of supplies during the day and now we mean to harass them at night.” - In Washington, the Air Force spokesman said that American and Australian airmen had destroyed 58 main bridges and damaged 21 others in Korea. However, the North Koreans were still able to bring up supplies and reinforcements because bridges, highways and railway lines could be repaired fairly promptly. Yongdok Shelled By Navy General MacArthur announced that American naval units fired 428 rounds of heavy shells into Yongdok today. The bombardment caught Communist tanks, infantry and supply concentrations. ' , . It.A.A.F. Mustangs, attacking close to the battle line, destroyed or damaged five tanks, five trucks, one armoured car and three guns in clear weather yesterday. reports General MacArthur’s air communique. Superfortress bombers continued to tear holes in the battered Communist communications network behind the lines. Twelve to 15 bridges were seriously damaged. Jet fighters destroyed one North Korean plane and damaged another. . ' Two North Korean planes raided Allied troops in the Hamchang area early today in the first Communist attack on front-line infantry, the air force spokesman announced. He did not specify whether the raid was on G.l.’s or the South Koreans. Allied aircraft yesterday destroyed or damaged 11 Communist tanks.