JAPANESE NAVAL FORCE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25276, 13 July 1943, Page 5

JAPANESE NAVAL FORCE

SPEEDING TO THE NORTH (N.Z.P.A. Special Aust. Correspondent) (Rec. 11.30 p.m.) SYDNEY, July 12. The Japanese force of light cruisers and destroyers reported on Sunday to be approaching New Georgia, Central Solomons, has turned and fled to the north. The warships were last reported 15 miles north of Kolombangara, making in the direction of the Buin-Faisi area, the Japanese naval concentration point in the Northern Solomons. No fresh aerial attacks against the ships have been reported, but observers consider it unlikely that the enemy force was able to reach New Georgia to land reinforcements or supplies for the beleaguered garrison of Munda. General MacArthur’s latest communique makes no reference to the land situation at Munda, where the threat to the garrison has been increased by the establishment of a road block between the airfield and Bairoko Harbour, to the north. This completes the isolation of Munda. At the same time the American forces which landed at Rice Anchorage, east of Bairoko, and at Zanana, are closing in against the airfields’ defences. The Allied air force is keeping up its battering of the area. On Sunday strong formations of Avengers and Dauntless dive-bombers dropped 52 tons of high explosives on anti-aircraft positions and bivouac areas at Bibelo Hill, 300 yards from the Munda airstrip. Our planes are also maintaining pressure against the Northern Solomons, from which area the Japanese might be able to launch a counter air action. Liberators on Sunday dropped 40 tons of bombs on Kahili aerodrome.