GREAT AIR FEAT

Otago Daily Times, Volume 25193, Issue 25193, 6 April 1943, Page 3

GREAT AIR FEAT

HAVOC AT KAVIENG 12 SHIPS SUNK OR DAMAGED (N.Z.P.A. Special Aust. Correspondent) (Rec. 11.30 p.m.) SYDNEY, Apl. 5. The Japanese naval and merchant shipping concentration at Kavieng has been either destroyed or dispersed. General MacArthur’s latest communique tells a graphic story of the three-day attack in which seven warships and five merchantmen were sunk or heavily damaged. Specially-selected Flying Fortress crews, who used a new secret Wattle technique against the enemy ships, gathered at the northern end of New Ireland. The victory of the strictly limited Flying Fortress fleets (a grand total of only 26 planes being employed) ranks with the Bismarck Sea battle as one of the greatest air feats of the war.. Only to-day did General MacArthur’s spokesman reveal that the three-day action was a carefully-planned battle and not merely a succession of follow-up blows on a chance target. Every pilot was a veteran especially chosen for the job. Our force consisted of 10 heavy bombers in the first attack and eight in the succeeding two. Each blow involved a flight of 1100 miles Factors contributing to this decisive victory were the neutralisation »f enemy airfields, the utilisation of darkness as a screen, and the accomplishment of initial surprise, an effect obtained by an extraordinary extension of our bomber range of attack.

No more striking indicatiqn of the #uccess obtained could be given than by the official “ box score ” which was released to-day. This analysis of the three-day battle reads:— WARSHIPS Saturday A heavy cruiser: Four direct hits, •Inking. A light cruiser: Four direct hits, sunk. . A destroyer: Two direct hits, sinking. Two destroyers: Direct hits, boin damaged. Two warships: Bombed with unobserved results. Sunday A light cruiser or heavy destroyer: One direct hit, damaged. A destroyer: Direct hit, damaged. A destroyer: Bombed, with unobserved results. CARGO SHIPS Friday 10,000 tons: Two hits, damaged. 6000 tons: Straddled, sinking. Saturday 0000 tons: Direct hits, damaged. Sunday 7000 to 8000 tons: Bombed, with unobserved results. 6000 to 8000 tons: Hit, damaged. 5000 to 6000 tons: Direct hits, damaged Over the three days 10 warships and gix merchantmen have.been sunk or damaged, or bombed with unobserved results. The official story of the attacks indicates that the Japanese “scarcely knew what hit them." For thrde days Allied pilots contrived .to continue the elements of surprise which on the first day caught the enemy ships absolutely off their guard. Not a bomb was wasted. Several of the 26 bombers employed were engaged not against, enemy shipping, but in neutralising the Kavieng aerodrome. Nevertheless, on the second day of the battle a total force of fewer than 12 planes registered the amazing performance of scoring 11 direct hits with 5001 b bombs, in addition to two damaging near-misses and two “straddlOn Saturday Captain Fred. Wesche, of New Jersey, who sank a destroyer

in a lone attack off Finschhafen a few days ago, got home the first direct hit which started a fire on the heavy cruiser. The Japanese sailors were seen scurrying along the decks, making frantic efforts to put out the flames. But the succeeding attackers scored other direct hits. One of the 5001 b bombs must have penetrated the powder magazine, because the ship blew up with a terrific explosion. The light cruiser sank within a few minutes of four direct hits by “skip” bombing. Lieutenant William Humriehouse, who sank a heavy destroyer with two direct hits, flew so low that his plane nearly collided with the mast as the warship zigzagged wildly to escape the bombs, which were throwing up huge

waterspouts around it. “ I made a head-on attack, and at, one stage it appeared as if a collision was inevitable,” the'pilot said. “The Jap. must have got a fright. He twisted away when I was almost on top of him. There were only a few feet between me and the masthead when I dropped my bombs.” "That his losses will stir the enemy to yet greater efforts to recover fighter supremacy on the New Guinea coasts is not to be doubted,” declared the Sydney Morning Herald in an editorial to-day. “The rebuffs he has suffered are a challenge to his hold on this area. The truth should by now be appreciated in Washington that the United States has committed its arms so deeply here that it capnot afford to deny reinforcement in support of what those arms have already achieved.”