NAGOYA AGAIN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25798, 20 March 1945, Page 5

NAGOYA AGAIN

SECOND HEAVY ATTACK CARRIER PLANES OVER KYUSHU (Rec. 0.40 a.m.) NEW YORK. Mar. 19. The Guam correspondent of the New York Times says more than 300 SuperFortresses rained upwards of 2000 tons of incendiaries in a second raid on Nagoya. General C. Lemay hoped that a concentrated low-level attack would help to complete the ruin in the city’s industrial section, which was begun with not too much success on March 12. The “ Bombs away ” signal was given just as dawn was about to break over Nagoya. The Super-Fortresses swooped down to 6000 feet and unloosed their bombs on practically the same area of the previous raid. One pilot who went on the previous raid said: ‘‘We burned Nagoya for sure this time.” “We burned hell out of it,” reported another pilot who was over the target for 30 minutes. The Tokio radio says the incendiaries were dropped chiefly in the business sections. Fires at various points burned for three hours and a-haif.

Reconnaissance photographs of the Ko.be raids on Saturday showed a smoke pall covering the city, which is believed to have been hard hit, reports the Associated -Press. The Kawasaki locomotive plant and a power plant were devastated. According to Tokio representative Ando demanded in the Diet that firemen be exempt or discharged from military service to cope with fires caused by American incendiaries. He

also informed General Koiso that only 20 per cent, of the total population was evacuated from cities. Evacuation should be carried out on a much greater scale and only essential people should remain.. Those evacuated should be formed into a farm militia to develop agricultural areas. The Prime Minister, General Koiso, replied that measures for decentralising the major cities had been put into effect long ago. “The American carrier force resumed its attacks against Kyushu and Shikoku at 6 a.m. to-day,” says Tokio radio. “ Our interceptors are engaging in fierce battles against the enemy planes.” The radio claims that Japanese aircraft attacking the American task force raiding Kyushu sank cue battleship, one carrier, one cruiser or carrier, and two destroyers, and damaged seven carriers and two unidentifled warships. v , According to the radio, 1400 planes participated in the raid on Kyushu Island, which lasted from 6 a.m. to l p.m. yesterday. The Radio added that the task force remained in adjacent waters until 5 p.m. The raid was concentrated on airfields, with Kumamoto and other cities on Kyushu bearing the heaviest attack. Matsuyama, on Shikohu, and the Wakayama Prefecture were also attacked • Tokio radio stated that the Education Minister, Kodama, told the Diet that all schools except first or lower grade classes will be closed on April 1 for one year, so that teachers and students can be closely linked with national defence and mobilised for wai production.