BONINS BOMBARDED

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 25086, 27 December 1944, Page 5

BONINS BOMBARDED

AMERICAN WARSHIPS AIRCRAFT ALSO ATTACK 'Reed. 7.30 p.m.) WASHINGTON, ,Dec. Gr, United States warships bombarded Two Jima, Bonm fslands, on Saturday, in a joint operation with Army and .Vary bombers and fighters and the 21st Bomber Command, reports a Pacific Fleet communique.

Coastal defences were shelled by our surface units, which encountered some enemy gunfire but suffered no damage. Our ships sank an enemy destroyer, a patrol craft and a medium-sized landing ship. Liberators and Lightnings bombed and strafed airstrip installations and shore defences. All the planes returned. Strategic Air Force bombers on the same day attacked .airstrip facilities on Chichi Jima, Bonin Group. The Pearl Harbour correspondent of the New York Times states that the second air and naval blow at Iwo Jima this month was a climax to 17 days of bombing to knock out the aerodromes from which the Japanese are mounting air attacks against the Super-Fortress base on Saipan. Iwo Jima apparently is no longer a threat to our long-range air campaign against the Japanese mainland. TOWARD MANDALAY BRITISH GAINS IN BURMA (Hoed. 6.10 p.m.) LONDON, Dec. '2(5 Admiral Mountbatten's offensive toward Central Burma is moving steadily forward. Fourteenth Army columns arc working inland from the Chiudwin bridgehead and forward troops have covered another ten miles on the road to Yeu, 70 miles from Mandalay. Others, who made the overland march from the Chftidwin to the Mandalay railway, are keeping up their advance beyond a village about 120 miles north of Mandaiav.

CHINESE RAID KWEILIN HIT-AND-RUN ATTACK (Becd. 5.35 p.m.) CHUNGKING, Dec. 25 The Chinese in a hit-and-run attack on Japanese supply lines north-east and north-west of Kweilin, a former Allied air base in Southern China, inflicted 240 casualties on the Japanese and seized supplies, says a Chinese communique. The Chinese repelled a Japanese thrust from Lungshen against the Chinese positions 40 miles north of Kweilin. BOMBS ON SWISS TOWNS AMERICAN PLANE DOWN (Reed. 5.35 p.m.) LONDON. Dec. 25 The Swiss radio quoted an official announcement that Swiss anti-aircraft batteries today shot down an American bomber over the Aargnu Canton. Seven of the crew baled out. Two were killed, one was not located, and the others were interned. Three formations, each containing eight American bombers, just after 2 p.m. dropped about 20 bombs on Tliayingen and Schaffhausen. near the German border, and hit a Swiss brick factory and a food factory. One person wa,« killed and three were injured.