FEW MORE PLANES

Grey River Argus, 20 October 1943, Page 5

FEW MORE PLANES

MIGHT OUST THE JAPS.

(Rec. 6.30.) SYDNEY, Oct. 19. The transfer of a few of the ’planes now in use in America, which is comparatively safe, could bring disaster to the Japanese in the Pacific, writes Frank Kluckhohn, the “New York Times’s.” correspondent at General MacArthur’s Headquarters. These additional ’planes could make possible a successful move north against the Japanese. Mr. Kluckhohn adds: “The crux of the whole war in the Pacific is that the Japanese air fleet is at present unable to halt the movements of our troops and naval vessels in areas hitherto denied to them.” >■ .

MORE ACES SOUTH PACIFIC AIRMEN’S FEATS. (Special to N.Z. Press Assn. 1 ) (Rec. 6.30.) SYDNEY, Oct. 19. At least a dozen Allied pilots are expected to emerge from Friday’s and Saturday’s heavy air actions as new South-west Pacific aces. A pilot is accredited as an ace when he has had five confirmed “kills. The number of definite “combat kills” (sixty-one Japanese fighters and thirty-one bombers shot down) recorded by General MacArthur’s communique yesterday was easily the largest in anv ot the 555 communiques issued to “ate from the South-west Pacific Headquarters. The destruction of sixtyfour ’planes in the Bismarck Sea battle last March was the greatest number of Japanese aircraft P ouslv shot down in combat in this area. Lockheed Lightnings and Thunderbolt fighters were mainly responsible for a decisive smashing ot this latest Japanese challenge to Allied air power in the Southern Pacß fic. They accounted for twenty-six enemy bombers and fifty-two fighters as well as a further twenty-one aircraft probably destroyed ■