TOKIO RAIDERS

Otago Daily Times, Volume 25205, Issue 25205, 20 April 1943, Page 3

TOKIO RAIDERS

BOMBERS FROM CARRIERS YEAR-OLD SECRET REVEALED (Rec. 0.30 a.m.) LONDON, Apl. 19. The British United Press correspondent with the North African Air Force says that the American Mitchell bombers that raided Tokio on April 18 last year came from aircraft carriers. This year-old secret was revealed when it was reported that Major-general Doolittle, who led the attack, has 11 of the pilots who accompanied him then with him now in North Africa. They are preparing to celebrate the anniversary. The Japanese previously speculated that the raiders came from carriers about 1200 miles north-east of Yokohama, the correspondent adds. General Doolittle still believes that to bring the war home to Japan by raids will mean her ultimate defeat. Senor Raymon Lavalle, the former Argentine Consular attache at Tokio, broadcasting from New York, declared that the commander-in-chief of the Japanese anti-aircraft defences committed suicide and his entire staff was removed after the raid. A high Japanese naval official admitted that no planes were shot down. Senor Lavalle, who resigned his post as a protest against Argentine neutrality, asserted that Argentina had been the eyes and ears of the Japanese Government in the western hemisphere. He added that the Japanese Embassy in Argentina supplied its home Government with full reports of happenings in the United States, including 60 cable messages every day concerning American war production.