WAKDE AIRFIELD

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXIV, Issue 146, 20 May 1944, Page 6

WAKDE AIRFIELD

CAPTURED BY. AMERICANS,

(Rec. 2.15 p.m.) SYDNEY, May 20. The American invasion troops on Wakde Island (Dutch New Guinea) have captured the airfield and are engaging the remaining Japanese defences. 'The American task force which landed on Wakde Island on Thursday morning is encountering strong opposition near the airfield. Troops in the New Guinea mainland" beachhead opposite Wakde Island are consolidating fiieir positions. 11l British New Guinea the Americans now control 60 miles of the coastline cast and west of Aitape, where the landing was made on April 22. The Allied air attacks against the Japanese airfields and bases in Dutch New Guinea and north of Australia are being maintained. Biak Island, in the Sch.outen Group in Geelvink Bay, is an important target. In. the latest raid on this area it was hit with 170 tons of bombs. Off the Tenimber Islands, west ot New Guinea, three 1000-ton enemy freighters were attacked' and one was set on fire. The second was left abandoned on a reef and the third was damaged. According to a Washington message, Liberators on Wednesday bombed Peale Island and Heel Point, on Wake Island, says, a Pacific Fleet communique. Mitchells bombed an airstrip on Ponape Island and ' other aircraft bombed enemy positions in the Marshalls.