SOURABAYA BOMBED

Grey River Argus, 22 May 1944, Page 5

SOURABAYA BOMBED

BY LARGE ALLIED FORCE From Three Commands WORKS AND SHIPS HIT. (Special to N.Z. Fress Assn.? (Rec. 9.30.) SYDNEY, May 21. Co-ordinated attacks by aircraft from three Allied commands dealt a powerful blow at the Japanese naval case at Sourabaya, in Java, on Wednesday last. About a hundred carrierborne ’planes from South-east Asia, and the Central Pacific area co-oper-ated with Australian-based Liberators of General MacArthur’s Southwest Pacific Command. This was the first time that forces of the three commands joined in a combined strike. The official announcement of the raid came from the headquarters of General MacArthur, in whose command area Sourabaya is situated, a special communique issued last night, lists the following destruction: The important Braat naval engineering works were demolished; two floating dry-docks were heavily damaged; ten ships in the harbour totalling 35,000 tons were directly hit, including a tanker and possibly a destroyer; the Monokroma oil refinery was destroyed; twenty-one Japanese ’planes were destroyed (nineteen on the ground and two in the air); and heavy damage was done in the railway 'marshalling yards. One of the ships hit blew up.' Others were probably sunk. There was a hospital ship close to the target area. It was carefully avoided. When the power station was blown up and oil storage tanks at Monokroma refinery were set on fire, smoke rose five thousand feet. A complete surprise was effected. The Allied losses were only three ’planes. Japanese ground f‘ re was weak. There were escorting naval units for the carrier-based ’planes. There were British, American, Australian, French and Dutchmanned ships. These naval forces suffered neither damage nor casualties.

Following the first blow by British and American carrier-based ’planes at dawn on Wednesday, a follow-up raid by American-manned Liberators from an Australian base was made about midnight. These heavy bombers found huge fires from the daylight attack still burning, and they concentrated their bombs on the same general target area, causing further extensive damage. All the ’planes returned from the round flight of 2,500 miles. This devastating air strike against Sourabaya is of the first importance as demonstrating clearly the co-ordinated nature of the plans of the separate Allied Commands in the war against the Japanese. Such a daring thrust into Java waters gives further convincing proof of Allied initiative, and discloses new possibilities of aggressive moves. While General MacArthur’s forces were leap-frogg-ing along the Dutch New Guinea coast close to the Philippines and the Netherlands East Indies, Lord Mountbatten’s forces recently attacked Sumatra from the sea. At the same time Admiral Nimitz has been making a series of bold thrusts through the Central Pacific. This was the seventh Allied air attack on Sourabaya. Earlier raids were by Austra-lian-based bombers, the most recent being on March' 20. Sourabaya is about 1,250 miles north-west of Darwin. It is 1,370 miles south-east of” Sabang, which was raided by British carrier-borne aircraft from the Indian Ocean on April 20. Allied fleets which participated in the battle of the Java Sea on February 25, 1942, assembled at Sourabaya. The Japanese seized the port on March 7, 1942, and they rebuilt installations destroyed by the Dutch. , Sourabaya’s wharves and anchorages can accommodate e'ghty warships. Its firstclass naval installations, including docking facilities, had been extensively used bv the Japanese. Sourabaya is also one of Java’s most important oil refining and distribution centres. Before the war it was the centre of administrative and cultural life in the Indies, having a population of 330,000 Indonesians and 25,000 Europeans.

(Rec. 1.10.) NEW YORK, May 20. T’okio radio reported a big double attack by Allied bombers on the Japanese naval base at Sourabaya. Sweeping in from the direction of th? Indian Ocean, fiftv carrier-borne bombers launched the first attack on Sourabaya. Then on Thursday Liberators from the Pacific bombed Sourabaya.

The Associated Press of America says: The attack serves a military as well as a psychological purpose. Damage and destruction of port facilities will further aggravate swiftlymounting Japanese maritime difficulties. Dutch officials in New York believe the attack will demonstrate tn the native population a growing weakness on the part of the Japanese and a Dutch intention to return.