RAID IN SIAM

Grey River Argus, 23 March 1945, Page 3

RAID IN SIAM

N. Z. AIRMEN TAKE PART iN Z E F. Official War Correspondent.] BURMA. March 22. Making one of the longest flights possible to British aircraft in this theatre of war, many heavy bombers of the Eastern Air Command on Mondav blasted vital railway communications, held by Japanese at Nien, west of Jumbhorn on the east coast ot the Kra Isthmus in Siam. It was a round trip of more than 2.500 miles, and lesulted in the devastation of the Nien marshalling yards, and other installations. Vast quantities of supplies wero destroyed. New Zea.la.nders had a large share in the attack. Taking off at sunrise, the bombers returned singly. Tlie crews made the long journey on a course which was virtually- an ocean crossing, where there were only isjands occupied by the Japanese. They reached their base between ten p.m. and midnight, bringing ,a’ story of huge lives started, blazing trains, vivid explosions, and dense pillars of smoke, indicating that oil supplies were hit. Owing to cloud down to 33,000 feet most of the attacks were made from a low level. Some of the crews reported flying over prisoner of war camps, where they saw th e upturned faces of men, watching the raid. It was a heavy blow at the Japanese. The importance of the raid lies in the fact that since the disruption of the BurmaSiam railway, the Japanese have been bringing much of their supplies by ship to J’umbhorn, as well as assembling them at Nien, and running them across the isthmus on a line specially built, to head to Victoria Point, where they are re-embarked for Rangoon. The disruption of this line means the enemy will be forced to take supplies round by Singapore, an added journey of 1400 miles. Describing the raid one of the New Zealanders, Warrant-Officer D. M. Stewart, of Christchurch, said: “We saw a terrific explosion just before we went in, lovely fires were blazing, and many buildings had already been burnt out. There was no sign of enemy fighters.