500,000 FIRE BOMBS DROPPED

New Zealand Herald, Volume 82, Issue 25202, 15 May 1945, Page 5

500,000 FIRE BOMBS DROPPED

area of nine square miles covered • By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright (Received May 14, 8.50 p.m.) WASHINGTON, May 14 More than 500 Mariana-based Super-Fortresses—a record num ber blasted Nagoya, the third largest city of Japan, today on an incendiary mission. , The Super-Fortresses, flying without fighter escort, assembled off the Japanese coast at 8.15 a.m. and completed the raid in under 90 minutes. From a medium altitude they dropped 3500 American tons of incendiary bombs (500,000 bombs) on five great circles in the city designated as the target areas. These included the Chigusa factory, producing heavy guns and ammunition, a large electrical plant, leading machine-tool factories, aircraft and munition plants. Thousands of home factories producing electrical parts and various instruments were also in the target areas. The bombing covered an area of nine square miles, bordered on the south by burned-out Nagoya castle area and on the north by the bend of the Yata River. Nagoya's heavier industries were smashed in earlier raids, which destroyed five square miles of the city, including the Mitsubishi aircraft plant. u ' Nagoya has a population of more than 1,000,000 people. The density of population in the target areas is estimated at 22,000 to 75,000 persons to the square mile. The attack on Nagoya came shortly after 900 carrier-based aircraft from a task force hit Kyushu, southernmost island of Japan. The Tokyo radio announced that carrier planes from two enemy task forces, each consisting of two or three carriers and two battleships, continued their attacks today on Kyushu, Shikoku and south Honshu.