FIERCEST YET

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 29 April 1942, Page 5

FIERCEST YET

AIR BATTLE OVER DAR»,.N SEVEN ENEMY MACHINES DESTROYED London, April 28. Three Japanese bombers and four fighters were destroyed to-day in another raid on Darwin. A communique issued by the Allied general headquarters in Australia says the Japanese used 17 heavy bombers and an escort of nine Zero fighters. The Allied losses were light. This brings the enemy’s losses over i Darwin to 18 planes since Saturday. It. was the longest and fiercest engagement in this area. Four groups of bombers with the fighters guarding their flanks and tails made the attack. Their objective was an aerodrome. Allied lighters pounced from clouds, and fierce dogfights developed. The fighting lasted so long that observers considered it is doubtful whether the Japanese planes had enough petrol left to reach their base. Allied planes yesterday attacked enemy shipping oIT the north-west coast of New Ireland, and sank a transport. Other Japanese transports were successfully attacked off Faisi, near enemyoccupied Bougaineville, in the Solomon Islands.

TUBE TRAIN COLLISION

FIVE DEAD IN JERSEY CITY ACCIDENT New York, April 27. Five persons were killed, 400 injured, and hundreds of others trapped in a smoke-filled tunnel 75 feet below Exchange Place station, Jersey City, when a collision occurred between two trains. Fire broke out after the crash. the flames feeding on oily waste in the road-bed. Many ol the victims were hurt in panic-stricken efforts to break out of the windows of the cars before the doors were opened. The smash is described as the worst accident in the history of Jersey City. The train motorman has been arrested and charged with manslaughter and also with operating the train while under the influence of liquor. The train entered Exchange Place ; station at a speed estimated at more than (50 miles an hour. Derailed cars ripped up 50 feet of tracks. A car crashed into the station platform with . such terrific force that trucks were sheared off and the car shot, without its wheels, on to the platform.-—P.A.