JAPAN'S LOSSES

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 24971, 14 August 1944, Page 4

JAPAN'S LOSSES

EIGHT SHIPS SUNK AIRCRAFT DESTROYED ALLIED PACIFIC BLOWS By Telegraph—l'ress Association—Copyright (Spocial Australian Correspondent) (Heed. 7.30 p.m.) SYDNEY, Aug. 13 Powerful blows against Japanese strongholds at Halmahera and in Dutch New Guinea are reported by South-west Pacific communiques. They include the sinking of eight ships ranging up to 2000 tons, the damaging of several others, and the destruction of about 40 planes at Halmahera. Enemy shipping losses at Halmahera, the Japanese baso between Dutch New Guinea and the Philippines, in the two days' operations were: —Sunk, two 2000-ton and three 1000-ton freighters, as well as many small craft; seriously damaged or left sinking, one 3000-ton and two 2000-ton five coastal vessels, 28 barges. In addition, ten seaplanes caught at their moorings were sunk, and 31 parked aircraft on the Galela airfield were destroyed or seriously damaged. At Vogelkop, Western Dutch New Guinea, Allied planes, in a co-ordinated sweep with naval patrols, sunk three 1000-ton freighters, seriously damaged a fourth, and destroyed or seriously damaged five smaller vessels and eight barges. These attacks cost the Allies two planes, but one pilot was rescued. In spite of the heavy destruction of grounded aircraft, the communiques make no mention of enemy fighter de- ■ fence, which has been absent since 45 Japanese planes were lost in the first big Allied raid on July 22. This absence of interception suggests that the enemy has been attempting to conserve his dwindling air reserve. South-west Pacific aircraft have also been over the Philippines. For the fourth time in a week, they made a night bombing attack on Davao, Mindanao, concentrating on the waterfront. SUPER-FORTRESS RAIDS LONG FLIGHT TO PALEMBANG (Reed. 5.35 p.m.) WASHINGTON, Aug. 12 Both the Palembang (Sumatra) and Nagasaki (Japan) attacks by United States bombers were night missions from which three Super-Fortresses failed to return, says a Twentieth Air Force communique. The Palembang raid entailed the war's longest bombing mission—a 3600mile round trip. The aircraft came from a South-east Asia Command base. The raid will tend to force Japan to transport crude oil to her home refineries and reship aviation fuel to the fighting fronts, imposing a heavier strain on Japan's shipping. The Pladjoe oil refinery at Palembang is the largest Japanese source of oil in the Far East and the major supplier of high octane spirit. Several crews observed large fires and explosions in the target area. Anti-aircraft fire and enemy fighter opposition were weak to moderate. Simultaneously, from bases in China, a medium force attacked for 90 minutes industrial targets at Nagasaki. Bombing results were good. One of our planes made an emergency landing at a forward base in China and was strafed after landing by four enemy fighters, of which at least two were shot down by fighters attached to that base. TRANSFER TO SAIPAN AMERICAN FLEET BASE NEW YORK. Aug. l'-> Vice-Admiral I{. K. Turner has announced the transfer of the Amphibious Pacific Ffeet headquarters from Pearl Harbour to Saipan Island, reports the United Press correspondent with the fleet in the Marianas. Vice-Admiral Turner added that the headquarters would be maintained there until he could move to a more fonvard base. Headquarters were under construction, both for his force and for the commander of the Pacific amphibious troops, bringing the tactical direction of tne transpacific offensive 1500 miles from Japan. "We have got the number of the Japanese," added Vice-Admiral Turner. "We know how to do it. General MacArthur knows how. the Navy knows how, the soldiers and airmen know how. We are going to walk down Tokyo's Ginza soon." In a message to Vice-Admiral Raymond Spruance, Commander of the Fifth Fleet. Vice-Admiral Turner described the capture of the Marianas as the greatest naval victory the United States had ever won. NEW AIR BASES USED BOMBING IN VOLCANO GROUP (Reed. 5.35 p.m.) WASHINGTON, Aug. 12 Army Liberators bombed Iwo Jima, in the Volcano Islands, south of the Bonin Islands, and 800 miles south of Japan, on Thursday, dropping 47 tons of bombs on an airfield and adjacent installations, says a Pacific Fleet communique. The attack was the first full-scale heavy blow from the newly-won airfields in the Marianas, says the Pearl Harbour correspondent of the Associated Press. This starts a new stage in the Seventh Air Force's leapfrogging neutralisation campaign across the Pacific, AMERICANS EXECUTED SEQUEL TO PRISON ESCAPE (Reed. 5.35 p.m.) WASHINGTON, Aug. 12 Three, escaping American prisoners of war, two marine non-commissioned officers and one navy seaman, w-ere recaptured by the Japanese, tried and executed on July 31, 1943. The Navy Department announced that the International Red Cross reported that a month earlier the Americans escaped from a prison camp in Manchukuo. They accosted a police inspector and endeavoured to obtain food. They tried to pass as Gorman airmen, explaining that their plane had crashed. The inspector and two Mongols went to the scene of the supposed accident, but on route the American prisoners killed the inspector and seriously woundod one Mongol. The other Mongol fled and obtained assistance. The Americans were arrested, tried by a military court and condemned to "\death. V The execution of the prisoners eftocked Army and Navy authorities, who seriously doubted the authenticity offtho Japanese assertions in view of pa&t barbaritios. However, it is admitted that if the circumstances are correct, the Japanese have not violated international law, since the killing of the inspector would be punishable by death. / The Japanese statement revealed for Abe first time the presence of American /prisoners in Manchukuo. IN HIDING ON GUAM ' NEW YORK, Autf. 12 After evading the Japanese forces occupying Guam for two and a-half Tears, a United States sailor escaped by swimming to an American warship operating off the coast. He is Chief Radioman George Tweed, aged 42. When the Japanese landed on the island over two years ago, Tweed was asleep in his house, which had been almost wrecked by the terrific Japanese aerial bombing. Next day he escaped to the hilla in a car under heavy fire.