Flying Fortresses Cause Havoc Among Shipping

Manawatu Times, Volume 67, Issue 271, 16 November 1942, Page 5

Flying Fortresses Cause Havoc Among Shipping

SIX TRANSPORTS AND THREE WARSHIPS DAMAGED (Special Australian Correspondent.) Received Sunday, 8.30, p.m. SYDNEY, Npv. 15. Allied bombers of General MacArthur’s Command have made further smashing attacks against Japanese waxships and transports in the Solomons. In attacks on Friday and Saturday two enemy light cruisers and a 12,000-ton transport were hit and near misses scored against a destroyer and an 8000-ton transport. This transport was later observed to be burning. The 12,000-ton transport is stated to have been heavily loaded and was part of the Japanese convoy raided pn Saturday near New Georgia. Other enemy vessels were attacked by Flying Fortresses in the BuinFaisi roadstead at the southern tip of Bougainville Island in the Northern Solomons at dawn ,on Friday. This raid though it did not involve a large number of aircraft was remarkably effective. In the first light of the morning the attacks were pressed home from altitudes as low as 1000 feet. Heavy anti-aircraft fire fr,om the ships and shore batteries was encountered but all our aircraft returned. The Kahili aerodrome at Buin was also raided, bombs being dropped on the runways and dispersal areas. Six enemy transports aggregating 57,000 tons as well as two cruisers and a destroyer have been damaged in the Solomons raids made on three consecutive days by Allied bombers of the South Pacific Command.