CENTRAL PACIFIC RAID

Grey River Argus, 24 September 1943, Page 5

CENTRAL PACIFIC RAID

BY U.S. CARRIER PLANES

List of Damage

(Rec. 10.45.) PEARL HARBOUR, Sept. 22. Admiral Nimitz detailed results of raids in the Gilbert Islands last week end. He disclosed that an air-carrier task force, in collaboration with land-based Army and Navy bombers, damaged four Japanese bases in the islands The Americans lost only 4 fighters, in spite of a heavy . antiaircraft fire an r i of attempted interception by enemy fighters. The raiders madg more than two hundred sorties against Tarawa. Makin, Apamama. and Nauru Islands during Saturday night and Sunday. A communique listed the damage as follows: Tarawa: Aerodrome facilities heavily damaged, eight bombers destroyed on a runway, and one small vessel sunk. Makin: Airbase damaged, three four-engined seaplanes and a patrol plane destroyed. Apamama: Camp installations heavily hit. /Nauru: Installations damaged. It added: In addition to destroypinv aircraft on the ground our forces shot down six Zeros, and probabl. shot down four others, and damaged eight lighters, and also shot down two medium bombers.

JAP BASES NOW BIGGER.

IN CENTRAL PACIFIC

(Rec. 10.45.) NEW YORK, Sept. 22. The Nev/ York Times’ Pearl Harbour correspondent says Admiral Nimitz’s latest communique indicates that th P Japanese have considerably enlarged their Central Pacific bases since the last American operations there, more than a year ago,. The communique also inferred that the Japanese forces in the Marshall and Gilbert Islands now will face constant bombardment from American aerodromes established in islands within flying range. It is regarded as significant that an aircraft-carrier task force could venture boldly into these waters, which heretofore were considered to be under the enemy s control. The Army bombers participating probably took off from Funafuti Island which was used for previous raids against Tarawa. The planes bombing Nauru may have come from Guadalcanar. The entire operation is taken as an indication that Admiral Nimitz is prepared to blast Japanese forces from the Central Pacific an f i to push them back to Truk. In conjunction with General MacArthur’s forces, such an accomplishment would leave the Allied supply from Hawaii to New Zealand and Australia fre e of any threat, except that of submarines, while, at the same time, confining the Japanese to a shortened inner defence perimeter. The New York “Herald-Tribune, in an editorial, says: It was impossible not to feel elated as Mr. Churchill summarised, with his usual sweep and power, tremendous victories of last year, and impossible not to respect the strategy and statesmanship under which they were achieved.