HALMAHERA AGAIN

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 79, 17 August 1944, Page 2

HALMAHERA AGAIN

RELENTLESS ALLIED RAID j VITAL JAP POSITIONS BOMBED SAILING BOATS SUNK NEAR CERAM Sydney August 16. Bombers of General MacArthur’s Command are maintaining their relentless shammering of the Japanese stronghold of Halmahera on the road from New Guinea to the Philippines. Despite bad weather Liberators and Mitchells on Monday attacked vital enemy installations and warehouses. At Ternate off the west coast of Halmahera a great explosion was followed by a 4000-foot column of smoke which may have been caused by a direct hit on a bomb dump. Heavy anti-aircraft fire was encountered but all the raiders returned. To-day’s South-West Pacific communique also reports that patrolling Mitchells sank eight sailing boats off the north-west coast of Ceram on Monday. The use of sailing boats may indicate a growing Japanese shipping shortage. CHINESE PRISONERS RESCUED Five members of President Chiang Kai-shek’s Army have been rescued from the Japanese in Guinea. They were found by Americans on the .Driniumor river line facing General Adachi’s Japanese Eighteenth Army. The Chinese had been taken prisoner in the battle of Shantung (China) and were impressed into labour units and sent to New Guinea a year ago. They were given scant rations and inadequate medical attention and were, forced to do heavy manual tasks. When American ground and air blows disorganised the Japanese the prisoners seized the first opportunity to escape.—P.A. Special Australian Correspondent. LIBERATION OF GAUM Rugby, Aug. 15. His Majesty has sent President Roosevelt a message conveying warm congratulations on the liberation of Guam from the brutal enemy’s occupation. “This successful feat of arms marks yet another notable stage in the brilliant advance of the United States forces in the Central Pacific, and has roused our deep admiration,” he said. “It is a splendid augury of the coming defeat of Japan, to which the forces of the British Commonwealth of Nations also will make an increasingly powerful contribution.” WIDESPREAD AIR RAIDS SHIPS AND PLANES DESTROYED Washington, Aug. 15. More widespread air raids are reported in a Pacific Fleet communique. Liberators attacked Paramushiro last Friday. Shipping near the island and an air strip at Suribachi were bombed. Of 15 to 20 enemy lighters which intercepted three were shot down and five probably destroyed. Venturas bombed defence installations on Araidc Island on Saturday and sank a patrol vessel .the same day. A single Ventura bomber Shumushu. Liberators atacked Iwojima on Sunday, dropping 35 tons of bombs on an airfield and adjacent installations. Mitchells attacked Pagan Island in the northern Marianas on Sunday hitting gun positions and runways. Rota Island was bombed arid strafed the same day. Venturas bombed Nauru while Dauntlesses and Corsairs hit remaining enemy positions in the Marshalls.