OKINAWA FIGHTING

Grey River Argus, 17 May 1945, Page 5

OKINAWA FIGHTING

SEVERE ON TUESDAY Enemy Attacks Repulsed (Received 10.40 p.m. May 16) WASHINGTON, May 15 Admiral Nimitz’s communique states: No material changes were made in our Tenth Army’s lines on Okinawa Island on Tuesday. Heavy fighting occurred in the western and centra] sectors, where enemy forces mounted a counter-attack in ■ the Sixth Marine Division’s sector. Marines in the suburbs of Naha met an enemy assault on Tuesday morning. They beat it off in hand-to-hand fighting with heavy losses to the enemy. Naval gunfire broke an enemy attempt to land small craft behind the Marines’ lines in the Machinate sector. Marines continued to attack high ground in the vicinity of the town of Wana. The Seventyseventh Infantry Division, after a difficult five days’ battle captured Chocolate Hill, east of Ishimmi, inflicting major losses. AMERICAN ADVANCE ON OKINAWA. (Rec. 11.50). NEW YORK, May. 16. A United Press correspondent on Okinawa Island reports: Marines shattered the Asato River line in spile of heavy mortar and machine-gun fire. They battled their way into the main section of Naha, less than two miles from the last Japanese airfield on the island. The enemy’s elaborate defence line, stretched across five miles of the waist of the island, is crumbling under onslaughts of four Marin e and Army divisions. The Japanese defenders are now packed into an area of forty square miles, with their backs to the sea. U.S. AIR RAIDS IN JAPAN (Received 10.10) p.m. May 16) WASHINGTON, May 15 According to Admiral Nimitz’s latest communique, aircraft from 'a carrier force on Saturday night last bombed airfield installations at Kokobu, Konoj'a, Chiran, Kakoshima, on the Jpanese mainland island of Kyushu. Twelve enemy planes were shot down. Fleavy strikes were launched against airfields in Kyushu and the port of Shikoku on Saturday' night. In tvzo days, American aircraft destroyed seventy-one planes and one barrage balloon in the air, and ninety-three planes on the ground and also destroyed or damaged 109 more aircraft on the ground. Kyushu railroad installations were heavily hit. An oil train, four locomotives, a railroad station, a chemical plant and large buildings were destroyed or seriously damaged. American planes destroyed buldings, barracks, and aviation installations at many aerodromes on Kyushu and Shikoku. Two motor-boats and two luggers were sunk, and others were damaged. Preliminary reports indicate that the American forces lost about ten aircraft. Escort and carriers’ aircraft attacked airfield installations in the Sakishima Islands on Monday and also on Kume Island and Amatis.

JAPAN'S ANXIETY. (Rec. 11.40.) NEW YORK, May 16. The Japanese Cabinet unanimously voted to abrogate all Axis treaties, including the anti-Communist pacts, because of the unconditional surrender of Italy and Germany, reports Tokio radio. This action was taken after Togi stressed that Germany not only sought peace with Britain and America, with whom Japan was still fighting, but ( also proposed to continue war against Russia, with whom Japan was not at war. The president of the Japanese new “Sure Victory” Party, General Jiro Minami, said that the war was turning unfavourably for Japan, because the war effort could not even be considered fair. He warned that if the people neglected their duty, the war would yield a terrible result. It had now' reached a crucial, fateful and decisive point. _ The Munitions Minister, royoda, urged an immediate boost in aircraft production, and the decentralisation of large factories. The United Press says: A recent broadcast disclosed shortages of materials and fuel oils, which seriously impaired Japanese attempts to maintain air strength.

JAPAN’S MAIN FORCES WASHINGTON, May 15. Rear-Admiral Dewitt Ramsey, Chief of the Navy Bureau of Aeronautics, said seventy per cent, of Japan’s army, numbering from five to eight million men, is concentrated in Manchuria and the J'apanese home islands. Instancing Allied supply difficulties, he said that seventy tankers were needed to supply the Philippines with one tanker load of gasoline daily. Fifty of the tankers were at sea between the west coast of the Philippines, and ten each were at loading and unloading depots.