SECOND DARWIN RAID

Grey River Argus, 16 June 1942, Page 5

SECOND DARWIN RAID

FOILED ON SUNDAY Four Jap Planes Shot Down ENEMY'S ALTITUDE STILL HIGHER. BOMBERS GO BACK LOADED UP. (Special to N.Z. Press Assn.) (Rec. 10.35) SYDNEY, June 15. Interception of the enemy aircrait by Allied fighter planes frustrated a second Jfapanese attempt to raid Port Darwin at the week-end. These attacks on Saturday and Sunday were the first air attacks oh the Australian mainland since April 27. Sunday’s action is described by an (Allied Headquarters communique as “brilliant.” The Allied airmen shot down four out of a force consisting from eighteen to twenty-five Zeros. One Allied plane was lost. lhe pilot, who bailed out, suffered a broken leg. He w,as machine-gunned by the enemy fighters as he descended Japanese bombers, for which fight- ’ ier planes formed a protective screen, were not engaged. They did aot >. however, penetrate to their objective. They returned to their home bases complete with their bomb loads. Allied fighter planes, which were on patrol, engaged.the enemy m tne early afternoon at a height of abou twenty-tight thousand teet. P° Darwin now has had seventeen air raids. 'The biggest one was on lebruary 19. On that occasion seventytwo bombers and fighters participate and the raid was made from a of fifteen thousand feet. Later Japanese raids were made from a heig of eighteen thousand feet. In tne next series the height was twenty thousand feet. Saturday s raid was at a height of twenty-five thousandDarwin’s defenders claim that tne Japanese have a habit of bombing •necial days. The habit is becoming monotonus. Sunday was the United Nations Flag Day. Saturday was MacArthur Day. Previous raids have taken place on Good Friday, Anzac Dav and Easter Monday. The Japanese fighters that have been attacking Darwin are believed to be based on Koepang Island, some four hundred miles away. The fight ers are fitted with belly-tanks. They have a range up to four hundred miles i_ The Allied air defences in the north have been considerably strengthened since the ~^ a battle. It is now revealed that Allied land-based planes played an important part in determining the outcome of that battle. Renaissance planes from the- northern bases found the Japanese naval f °rces. They gave regular reports of the r progress. Allied bombers from the same bases took a prominent part in the actual Coral Sea battle. The general impression as to how the Coral Sea battle began had been that Japanese naval forces advanced between the island of New Britain and the Solomons, to engage an Allied fleet [somewhere south-east ot the Louisiade Archipelago. it appears, however, that only part or the Japanese forces came down the straits. Most of the enemy ships, including aircraft-carriers went around the top of the Solomon Islands, and then down their east coast, and around their southern tip. Whether they were bound by a circuituous route for Port Moresby, or hoped to make an encirclement of an Allied force which they imagined to be in those waters, the fact is that they met a much superior force and were turned north again. Australia regards the proof of tne effectiveness of land-based air power as the chief lesson of the Coral Sea battle*. j-Land4based aircraft, in sufficient numbers, and of modern type with plenty of range, can make Aust/aJia safe from iseaborne invasion,” declared a military observer.