HUGE NAVAL BATTLE

Grey River Argus, 22 June 1944, Page 5

HUGE NAVAL BATTLE

PREDICTED IN PACIFIC Jap Fleet Assembled EAST OF PHILIPPINES. (Rec. 5.5) NEW YORK, June 20 The Japanese Fleet has moved into a position east of the Philippines which may lead to a decisive naval battle, declared Admiral Nimitz, in an announcement issued in Pearl Harbour. He added that there was reason to hope that some damage was inflicted against the Japanese Fleet on Monday. “If a full-dress knockdown, drag-out naval battle comes, it will be a development worked for bv the Pacific Fleet since the Midway Island Battle. Ido not know of anything else we can do to provoke the Japanese into battle.” Admiral Nimitz added: “Americans Invaded the Marianas on the assumption that the Japanese would bring out everything they possibly could, but we put enough muscle into the Fifth Fleet to take care of everything the enemy could muster. The Japanese Navy must fight soon or abandon its entire ocean defence ring to the Americans. The presence of strong Japanese units, possibly their entire fleet, in the area westward of the Marianas, indicates the possibility of a major sea engagement. Unfortunately, I do not control their movements. If I did there would be a fight. I can safely say that we have enough power off the Marianas to be favourable to us in a decisive engagement. We hope the Japanese Fleet will stay in that area. As long as they stay, we have a chance to get them. The Japanese are resisting strongly at Saipan, because they wish to deny the Americans use of the Marianas as a springboard for offensive operations against Japan. Not a single American combat unit has been sunk so far in the Saffian operations. Some near misses damaged auxiliaries and landing craft, but they are still working. We made a' good start on capturing the Marianas, but we do not think that it will require only two or three days. There are at least twenty thousand Japanese on (Saipan and lots of Japanese on the other islands. Possession will be money in the bank. It will protect operations hundreds of miles westward and northward.” Admiral Nimitz added that his objective in the Marianas was to protect American seapower westward into the last big area of the Western Pacific under enemy control. General MacArthur was able to protect the southern area with search planes while planes and ships, based in the Marianas, could protect the northern part. He could not speak too highly of General MacArthur’s co-operation in the current operation. The Fifth and Thirteenth Air Forces had made neutralising raids on Truk, Ponape and other Caroline bases, to prevent enemy bombers harassing the American Fleet in the Marianas. Admiral Nimitz said: The Americans now held two Saipan airfields, Aslito aerodrome, which would be ready for operations very soon, and a small strip on the beach north of Charan Kanoa. Searchplanes were already operating from Saipan across the sea between the Marianas and Japan. The “New York Time’s” Pearl Harbour correspondent says that the Japanese Fleet was located yesterday. It is not yet disclosed whether the opposing surface forces had been engaged or whether American carrier planes attacked the enemy fleet. Announcing that a huge battle was taking shape, Tokio radio, promised the Japanese people a decisive victory. Other Axis broadcasts sard that the entire United States Pacific Fleet was concentrated around the Marianas, adding that both sides would fight bitterly for possession of Saipan Island.

“MAY HAVE ALREADY STARTED.”

NEW YORK, June 20

A broadcast by the Columbia Broadcasting System correspondent . said: “Stung by the American invasion of the Marianas, strong Japanese naval units, possibly the whole Japanese Fleet, have appeared and a naval engagement may already have started. "The American Fifth Fleet, in the last few days, possibly destroyed six hundred Japanese planes, including three-hundred wiped out on Sunday.” Battle Raging JAPANESE REPORT. , (Rec. 11.25) LONDON, June 21. Reuter's quotes the Japanese News Agency for a report that a fierce naval 'battle is raging in the waters of the Mariana Group. TOK IO BROADCAST. SIGNIFICANCE OF NAVAL ACTION (Rec. 9.15) NEW YORK, June 21. A Japanese naval spokesman, broadcasting over the Tokio Official Radio, said that war results of the immediate future should be closely watched. The big naval battle .of the Marianas area would haye farreaching results in the Pacific war situation. Half of Saipan NOW IN AMERICAN HANDS. (Rec. 8.15.) WASHINGTON, June 21. A Pacific Fleet communique states: American troops now hold the entire southern part of Saipan Island, from the southern outskirts of Garapan, the chief town, to the centre of the western shore of' Maciciente Bay. Marines and army infantrymen are continuing to advance on the island, closely supported by aircraft bombing, Army and Marine artillery, and naval gunfire, against severe enemy artillery fire. Airfields on Tinian Island, yesterday, were bombed bv our aircraft and shelled by our surface units. JAPANESE ADMISSIONS. (Rec. 5.5.) NEW YORK, June 20. The Tokio Official Radio quoted . a High Command admission that the Japanese had suffered considerable losses in ships and ’planes at Saipan, where the . United States was attacking with a great task force. “The enemy, with powerful offensive movements hitherto not existing, is menacing the Central Pacific. If we allow the enemy to construct a base on Saipan, Super-Fortresses can reach Japan in five and a-half hours, and commence putting pressure on the coastal cities of our homeland.” Biak Success ALL THREE AIRFIELDS CAPTURED. SYDNEY, June 21. All three airfields on Biak Island are now ih American hands. The Borokoe and Sorido fields were taken after the American invasion forces smashed the Japanese resistance in defensive positions to the north of the fields. The enemy losses are heavy. ' I At Manokwari, Allied planes de-

stroyed a 1000-ton freighter, a smaller coastal vessel and four barges.

JAPS’ DOGGED RESISTANCE.

(Special to N.Z. Press Assn;. (Rec 10.30.) SYDNEY, June 21. After smashing powerful Japanese defences on dominating ridges, Amencan invasion forces have captured the last two enemy-held airfields on Biak Island, Dutch New Guinea. All three airfields on Biak are now in America hands. The Japanese garrison lost heavily in their fierce' defence of Borokoe and Sorido fields, which were finally taken at eleven o’clock, yesterday morning. Enemy troops. in Biak have displayed all the fanaticism which characterised the Japanese resistance in earlier New Guinea campaigns, and have fought to the deatn, only a few prisoners having been taken. Allied use of the Biak airfields will make an important contribution to the crushing- of the remaining Japanese strongpoints in Western Dutch New Guinea, as well as in the extension of General MacArthur’s aerial offensive to more distant enemy bases in the Netherlands East Indies and towards the Philippines. Near Biak Island, at the western tip of Geelvink Bay, Boston attack bombers striking at Manokwari Harbour, sank a 1,000-ton freighter, a coastal vessel and four barges. One Boston was lostIn British New Guinea, coastal positions of the beleaguered remnants of the Japanese 18th. Army in the Wewak-Aitape sector are still being attacked by bombers and strafing ’planes. Naval units at night, bombarded enemy gun positions at Wewak.

Tn six days, General MacArthur’s Liberators, supporting American land, sea and air operations in the Marianas, have pounded the enemy base g Truk, in the Carolines with 450 tons of explosives. Tn their latest raid, the bombers encountered neither Japanese fighters nor anti-aircraft fire. In previous raids, strong enemy fighter opposition had been met LIBERATORS’ RECORD. A Liberator bomber unit, stationed in North-west Australia, has destroyed eighty-two thousand tons of Japanese shipping, and at least 15G enemy ’planes, in the last year. Manned by Americans and Australian crews, the Liberators, have ranged as far as Balikpapan, Borneo, in flights taking up to seventeen hours. In the year, thee have flown more than three million combat miles, and dropped 3,125 tons of bombs. Their combat hours total twenty thousand. April was their most successful month. In two hundred sorties, the Liberators, in that month, destroyed fifty-seven enemy aircraft. Of these, twenty-seven were shot down in dogfights. TRUK BOMBED AGAIN LONDON, June 20. A Washington message says: Liberators bombed the Truk atoll on Sunday. Airfields on Moen Island were the principal targets, reports a Pacific Fleet communique. A single Liberator bombed Ponape on Sunday. Mitchells bombed emplacements and buildings at Nauru on Sunday. Other aircraft attacked enemv positions in the Marshalls day and night m Sunday U.S. SUB. SUNK RUGBY, June 20. The United States Navy announced the loss of the 1475-ton submarine iGrayback, presumably in the Pacific.