HEAVY CASUALTY LISTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25797, 19 March 1945, Page 5

HEAVY CASUALTY LISTS

CIVILIAN CORPS ORGANISED NEW YORK, Mar. 16.

Tokio radio quotes a Japanese Information Board spokesman as saying that many townsmen were bombed out, thousands severely injured, ahd thousands burned to death in the Tokio, Nagoya, and Osaka raids. Colonel Whitesides, a chemical warfare expert, revealed that the new M. 69 fire bomb used against Tokio, Nagoya, and Osaka is a six-pounder. It burns 8 to 10 minutes at a temperature above 3000 deg Fahrenheit. it clings tenaciously to any surface, and in flight sprouts four cotton gauze streamers acting as tiny parachutes to regulate the bomb’s speed and penetrative force. The bomb, after detonating, coughs flaming gasoline jelly 25 yards in all directions. Tokio broadcasts admitted heavy loss of life and damage in the recent Super-Fortress raids. The Asahi Shimbun said the number of deaths in Tokio, Nagoya, and Osaka in the past week could never be called small. A special civilian attack corps has been organised for home defence following Government warnings that an invasion is expected. The Cabinet decided to evacuate the civilians from five of the biggest cities. The Chinese Army newspaper Sao Tang Pao said one Japanese Cabinet Minister and 14 members of the Diet were killed in the recent Tokio air raids.