BLOW AT ENEMY SHIPPING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25386, 18 November 1943, Page 5

BLOW AT ENEMY SHIPPING

(N.Z.P.A. Special Aust. Correspondent) (Rec. 9.45 p.m.) SYDNEY, Nov. 17. Twenty-three Japanese planes have been destroyed and 10 probably destroyed, a transport sunk, a cargo vessel damaged and beached, and a second cargo vessel damaged in Allied air operations reported in General MacArthur’s communique to-day. The raids reported included the heaviest R.A.A.F. Beaufort bomber raids yet made against Rabaul, where an 8000ton transport was sunk by a masthigh attack and another large merchantman damaged. The Beauforts were over Rabaul for two hours on Sunday night, and the pilots reported that a considerable concentration of enemy shipping was still in the harbour. They dropped 17 tons of bombs, and probably caused more extensive damage than that claimed officially. Searchlight glare and intense anti-aircraft fire hindered observation. The raid offers evidence of the rising strength of the R.A.A.F. in the New Guinea area.

The third Japanese shipping loss reported to-day occurred off the New Ireland coast, where Catalinas scored direct bomb hits on a vessel and forced it to beach. The main Japanese air losses were inflicted when a Kittyhawk fighter patrol intercepted enemy planes raiding Allied forward aerodromes at Adaab and Gusap, in North-east New Guinea. They shot down 20 Japanese planes, with six others probably destroyed. Our losses were light. Some damage, however, was done on aerodromes which provide air support for our ground operations in the Ramu Valley. A counter raid by Allied bombers, which dropped 76 tons of explosives on the enemy’s forward aerodromes around Alexishafen, met with no fighter interception. These aerodromes similarly provide air cover for the Japanese forces! in the Ramu Valley. This was the fifth big Allied air attack on the area in the past 10 days,