JAP AERIAL RETREAT

Grey River Argus, 22 August 1944, Page 5

JAP AERIAL RETREAT

FROM MOLUCCA ISLES Way to Philippines Easier (Special to N.Z. Press Assn.) (Rec. 10.50) SYDNEY, Aug. 21. Another battle on the road -° 1 - Philippines has been won by General MacArthur’s forces, who have Japanese planes from the air over Halmahera and adjacent aslant s o the Moluccas. The enemy, are, apparently, withdrawing their air strength to bases further west which are temporarily beyond Allied bomber range. Maintaining an unrelenting pressure Allied airmen are discovering that many Japanese air bases are now inoperative, and others are stripped of planes. In some instances the abandoned airfields have been ploughed up, or strewn with logs, suggesting that the enemy’s air retreat is final. With the development of Allied air supremacy over the Moluccas, (powerful Japanese garrisons are being isolated from sea communications and supplies. Their mobility is being destroyed. They have thus become impotent for anything except local action. In these circumstanses, a new westward drive by General MacArthur's forces should thus be possible without the necessity of costly frontal ao saults to clear the way. General MacArthur’s communique to-day points this out. The communique stresses that enemy strongholds m the Moluccas, which have formed an interlocking chain of positions are being “strategically sterilised.” Ajr seaplane, and sea bases, that formerly were mutually supporting, are becoming dependent upon their individual resources. Through a process cf isolation and bypassing Generai MacArthur, rapidly and at remarkably small cost, is clearing a way for an atta'ck on the Philippines. Today’s communique does not reportany further Allied air blows on the Moluccas area. Frobably this is because of unfavourable weather.

Japanese shipping again constituted main targets for the South-west Pacific aerial offensive. Liberators sank a 500-ton freighter and damaged a three-thousand ’ton vessel near Menado at |Rie north-eastern tip of Celebes an Saturday. Oft Ceram, R.A.A.F. Beaufighters destroyed or damagd a five-hundred ton freighter, three luggers and six barges. Jap Cruiser Sunk BY U.S. BOMBERS. (Rec. 11.50.) LONDON, August 21. A Chungking report states that American bombers sank a large Japanese cruiser in the South China Sea.

General Stilwell, in a communique, reports that Liberators on patrol on Saturday sighted a 14,000-ton Japanese cruiser one hundred miles from Hong Kong. Four bombing , runs ovex- the target produced three direct hits and on© probable hit. Pilots participating in a fourth run saw tne cruiser sink.