LIBERATOR RAID

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25111, 30 December 1942, Page 3

LIBERATOR RAID

RABAUL HARBOUR ATTACK | CRUZSER LEFT IN FLAMES ! (N.Z.P.A. Special Aust. Correspondent) j (Rec. 11.30 p.m.) SYDNEY, Dec. 29. j Liberators scored three direct hits ! with 5001 b bombs on a large Japan- ; ese cruiser in Rabaul Harbour. The ; cruiser was left in flames and is be- . lieved lo have been destroyed. '< The latest raid on Japan's key ' South Pacific base was made on I Monday morning in bad weather, \ which again prevented full obser- I vation of the results. After the attack on shipping in the harbour our planes bombed the township -with high explosives and incendiaries. Later reconnaissance showed the cruiser burning fiercely and beginning to buckle. Reconnaissance' following Sunday's raid on Rabaul by Fortresses and Liberators showed that the 15,000-ton transport which was hit was still lying on its side in the harbour, while two smaller vessels were burning off Sulphur Point. This devastating week-end attack, made by three waves of heavy bombers, was the greatest raid on Rabaul since the sustained offensive in the j last week of November, when major' battles were being fought in the Solomons. Rabaul has now been raided six times during December. In other widespread Allied air attacks runways on enemy aerodromes at Finschhafen (New Guinea) and Gasmata were bombed by Liberators. Beaufighters and Hudsons have kept up relentless attacks against enemy targets in Timor, and fighters attacked store dumps and traffic on the LaivaiLaga road, while bombers scored hits on undisclosed targets at Laivai and Fuiloro. One intercepting Zero was shot down. The Laivai-Fuiloro area, in which the Japanese are building an aerodrome and accumulating supplies, has now been attacked on four successive days. Large parties of Japanese are apparently at work on the aerodrome. Discussing the heavy Allied air blows against the Japanese in this theatre during the past few days, the Sydney Sun to-day says editorially: " It is pleasing to observe that Allied airmen have a definite and notable superiority. But Japan will not crumple because of slow attrition in the South Pacific. Only by blows at her heart will the war be won. At present we are twisting her little finger. No doubt it is painful to her, but while we appear to have stemmed the course of invasion, we have not yet begun to drive her back to any considerable extent." Dr Peter Russo, a former resident of Japan, also writing in the Sydney Sun to-day, declares: " There is reason to believe that Japan is holding in reserve tremendous resources and forces, comparable in their surprising effectiveness to the materials she used during the early days of the Pacific war."