WAR NEWS

Kaikoura Star, Volume LXII, Issue 22, 19 March 1942, Page 2

WAR NEWS

23 JAPANESE VESSELS damaged. LONDON, March 18. in a naval battle between American ami Australian and Japanese vessels, 23 enemy ships were destroyed or damaged, including eight cruisers, the Allies losing only one aeroplane. THE LIBYAN FRONT. LONDON, Alarch 17. I o-day’s Middle East communique ■ say r/~ “There was increased enemy move ment in the forward areas in Libya throughout yesterday. A strong enemy column, including tanks, moved forward in the Kherima area, but withdrew on the approach of our mobile forces. A successful action by mixed forces in the Kherima area resulted in casualties being inflicted on the enemy. ’ ’ FIGHTING IN BURMA.

LONDON, Alarch 17. It is learned in London that the Japanese suffered severe casualties as a result, of the successful divcrsional action by Imperial troops in the Shwegyin area of the Burma front. U.S. ARMY UNITS IN AUSTRALIA. OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT IN WASHINGTON. LONDON, March 17. The United States Secretary for War (Mr H. 1.. Stimson) announced in Washington that United States Army units, including air and ground troops, in considerable numbers, were now in Australia. No information about the strength or designation of the units, or their location, it at present available for publication.

JAPANESE RAID DARWIN. TWO MEN KILLED; 11 WOUNDED. CANBERRA, Alarch 17. Two servicemen were killed and 11 wounded in yesterday’s raid on Darwin by 14 Japanese heavy bombers. The attack, according to a communique issued at Canberra to-day, was directed at Royal Australian Air Force objectives. No attack was made on the township. About 100 bombs were dropped. There was some damage to buildings, but no aircraft were destroyed. The enemy machines operated from 15,000 feet.

BOMBS DROPPED IN TURKEY. UNIDENTIFIED PLANES ATTACK AULAS. LONDON, Alarch 16. Eleven unidentified aeroplanes dropped 12 bombs on Milas (Turkey) and district early in the morning of Alarch 15, says a report received in Vichy from Ankara. The aeroplanes first dropped /flares on the outskirts, and then bombed the suburbs and centre of the city and also machine-gunned buildings. It is officially stated in Ankara that two persons were killed and one injured and several houses were damMilas is in south-western Turkey, 12 miles from the coast.

RUSSIANS HAMMERING KEY POINTS. DRIVE TO CAPTURE KHARKOV. LONDON, Alarch 17. The Soviet armies are continuing their hammering of key points in the long German defence line. The latest Moscow communique says that there was no material change in the general line during the night, but the Moscow newspaper Pravda says that a big battle is developing in Donets Basin, where Marshal Timoshenko’s armies are making a detrmined drive to capture Kharkov. At oTie point in this area Soviet forces drove the enemy from a village and captured IS guns, 10,000 shells, and a large quantity of cartridges. The Soviet forces pushed on ami captured two more localities.

The Red Star, the organ of the Russian Army, predicts the early fall of Kharkov. It states: “If the Germans do not surrender they wilt all be wiped out. ’ ’