DARING OPERATIONS
CARRIER-BORNE AIRCRAFT FRINGE OF CHINA SEA (Rec. 9 p.m.) WASHINGTON, Jan. 3. A Pacific Fleet communique says: “ Carrier-based aircraft struck at enemy installations on Formosa and Okinawajima yesterday. Liberators bombed Iwojima airstrip and installations on Monday. Bombers struck Okimura, a town on Hahajima in the Bonins. Fighters strafed Rota, Babelthuap, and Yap.” The raids against Formosa and Okinawajima were supremely daring operations because the geographical position of widely-separated targets necessitated launching planes near the south-eastern boundary of the China Sea, which is strongly guarded by the Ryukyu Islands, says the New York Times Pearl Harbour correspondent. Formosa, with 25 airfields, including eight of major size, has bean the enemy’s strongest outlying Pacific air base for many years and Japan’s most potent backstop to the Philippines. Okinawajima is the strongest base between Formosa and the homeland and has at least three operational airfields, several seaplane harbours, and numerous sheltered anchorages.
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Otago Daily Times, Issue 25735, 5 January 1945, Page 3
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151DARING OPERATIONS Otago Daily Times, Issue 25735, 5 January 1945, Page 3
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