PHILIPPINES GROUP

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25814, 9 April 1945, Page 6

PHILIPPINES GROUP

SWIFT AMERICAN ADVANCES

DESTRUCTION OF ENEMY WASHINGTON, (Rec. 11.40 p.m.) Apl. 7. “ Below Lagunade Bay, Fourteenth Corps troops spread southward and eastward from the Pagsanjan r San Pablo line to encompass the entire road net in Laguna province,” says General MacArthur’s communique. “ Liberating many towns and villages in the Bicol Peninsula, the 158th Regimental combat team continues to advance in the First and Eleventh Corps’ sector. Our forces are maintaining attritional artillery and air pressure against the enemy in their stubbornly-held mountain positions. “Armoured units of the Fortieth Division swept forward on Negros, 30 miles through the Alecante Caroline aerodrome to the Himugaan River at Fabrica, and reached the northern coastal plain. We have now captured all seven major enemy airfields on Negros. On Cebu our troops continued their systematic destruction of enemyprepared positions northward of Guadalupe. Our attack planes and fighter-bombers on Cebu and Negros wrecked 21 enemy trucks and staff cars and silenced gun positions. The Forty-first Division has practically completed the Zamboanga operations. Remnants of the enemy have scattered and disintegrated into the mountains north of Morov. A total of 2297 enemy dead were counted, and 59 prisoners were taken. Our losses were 131 killed, 2 missing, and 583 wounded.

“ Escorted heavy bombers struck Kiirun, the enemy’s major shipping base in Formosa. Mediums, without interception, bombed and strafed warehouses, barracks, and xailyards at the junction town of Nokko. Escorted heavies struck Kowloon docks in Hongkong, causing explosions. An electric power plant was set on fire, and large buildings in the supply area suffered direct hits. Planes blockading the South China Sea destroyed or severely damaged a 3000-ton freighter-transport and five smaller freighters. Heavies and fighter-bombers attacked a tank farm and radio station in Tarakan (Borneo), and started fires in the supply area at Tawao. Mediums scored two direct hits on an enemy light cruiser under way in the Soemba Strait, either sinking or severely dam-j aging the ship. “Australians in the Wewak sector have killed 790 more Japanese. Mediums and attack bombers continue to neutralise positions near Wewak and also in the McCluer Gulf area in Dutch New Guinea. Australians in New Britain and Bougainville have killed 510 more Japanese.