ADVANCES CONTINUE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25849, 21 May 1945, Page 5

ADVANCES CONTINUE

OPERATIONS ON MINDANAO IPO DAM CAPTURED WASHINGTON, (Rec. 10 p.m.) May 19. General MacArthur’s communique says: “Driving six miles northward, the Thirty-first Division secured Valencia and two adjacent airfields and pushed on to within 14 miles of Malaybalay. Our planes are already in operation from the fields. Closing in from the north, units of the Fortieth and American Divisions are only 40 miles away. In all sectors of Mindanao the enemy is being forced from defensive positions back into the hills. The Forthy-third Division is mopping up the. enemy's isolated forces west of the Ipo dam, which has been captured. In other sectors, - Sixth Army units continue their reduction of the defences.

“ Naval patrols bombarded shore installations on the east coast. Our combat patrols were engaged in minor clashes with enemy forces in the central hills of Tarakan. Heavy and medium bombers and fighters attacked Formosa. Patrols destroyed three freighters, and long range patrols swept* the China Sea. The Sixth Australian Division captured Cape Boram, flanking Wewak Harbour and Boram Bay. The Australian forces are in contact with scattered enemy groups east of the Hongorai River on Bougainville.”

The New York Times Manila correspondent says that Filipinos and Americans took the Ipo dam after record fire bomb attack by the Far Eastern Air Force. The dam is intact, but the Japanese still hold part of the aqueduct route to Manila.