FALL IMMINENT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25866, 9 June 1945, Page 7

FALL IMMINENT

BATTLE OF LIUCHOW CHINESE IN SUBURBS BITTER FIGHTING REPORTED (Rec 0.30 a.m.) CHUNGKING, June 8. The Chinese High Command announced that the Chinese, in bitter fighting, reached the northern suburbs of ’ Liuchow. The correspondent of • the Associated Press of America says that the unconfirmed report- of its capture has been proved premature, but the announcement indicates that the city’s fall is imminent,- though it is reported to be still strongly garrisoned and fortified.

The Chinese are sweeping the. Japanese out of Fukien Province, 450 miles west of Okinawa. They launched a

series of attacks against enemy units in Futing, covering the southern approaches to Wenshow. A second Chinese force, 640 miles south-west in the Kwangsi Province, captured Mengsdan. With the end of the Okinawa battle in sight, the Chinese have laid open a 105-mile stretch of the Fukien coast above liberated Foochow, and are now under 10 miles from the Chekiang border. The freed coast constitutes a potential American invasion area. Once the Japanese are pushed across the Chekiang border the only Japanese pocket in the whole Fukien Province will be at Amoy, 300 miles northeast of Hongkong.