FAR WEST OF HOLLANDIA

Grey River Argus, 2 May 1944, Page 5

FAR WEST OF HOLLANDIA

ALLIES CARRY WAR Naval and Bomber Attacks TO ISOLATE JAPS’ 18th, ARMY. (Special to N.Z. Fress Assn.) (Rec. 11.5.) SYDNEY. Mya 1. General MacArthur’s air and' naval forces at the week-end struck hard at points on the Dutch New Guinea coast from which the Japanese might send relief to the trapped remnants or their Eighteenth Army. In bold thrusts during the week-end they carried the war hundreds of miles beyond Hollandia into enemy-occupied territory. The latest communique trom the South-west Pacific Headquarters records powerful blows on .P ane se strongpoints west or Hollanoia, and reports that T’ami airiield, twelve miles from Hollandia, has now been occupied bv American invasion troops. A . audacious attack was made by Allied warships O n Saturday morning I hey shelled Wakde Island, one hundred and ten miles west of Hollandia. Wakde Island is the nearest point from which effective air support could be given to sixty thousand isolated enemy troops on the north coast of New Guinea. It had been a target for several recent heavy air attacks. Warships hit Wakde with seventy-five tons of five and six-inch shells, setting fire to many installations.

The naval shelling was accompanied by a further air blow, Liberators dropping fifty-one tons of bombs on supply and defence areas Sanni, on the New Guina coast near Wakde, was also raided.

Other Liberators attacked Sorong and Schouten Islands, about 350 miles west of Hollandia. 4 The main target in the Schouten raid was Mokmer airfield on' Biak Island, 120 miles west of Manokwari. There, a bomb load of seventy-seven tons wrecked fifteen parked ’planes. Smoke from burning fuel dumps rose five thousand feet. Twenty Japanese interceptors came up. The Liberators shot down three, and probably destroyed two others, without loss to themselves. The Allied air and sea offensive was also heavily concentrated against Wewak and Hansa Bay, in British New Guinea. These are the mam bases for the trapped Japanese Eighteenth Army. . Patrol torpedo-boats sank six loaded barges, two of them crammed with troops, in this area last Friday night. About a hundred Japanese perished. At Wewak, Bostons blew un portion of limited supplies remaining to the beleaguered Japanese, while at Hansa Bay Airocobras struck at an enemv motor park, destroying or damaging twenty trucks.

During recent attacks on Wewak, onlv slight anti-aircraft, fire has been encountered, find little activity has been observed This suggests that the Japanese have made a dispersal in the hills and villages away from the town of Wewak. Raids bv Solomons-based bombers on Rabaul (New Britain) on Friday resulted in new craters in Rapopo and Vunakanau aerodromes, and the destruction of supply dumps at Vunapope.