JAPANESE CRUISER IN FLAMES

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XLXI, Issue 15237, 30 December 1942, Page 3

JAPANESE CRUISER IN FLAMES

RABAUL AGAIN RAIDED | OTHE WIDESPEAD AIR ATTACKS i DEFINITE ALLIED AIR SUPERIORITY. I United Press Assn.—By Electric Telegraph—-Copyright. (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, Dec. 29. I liberators scored three direct hits j with 5001 b bombs On a large JapauI ese cruiser in Rabaul - harbour The I cruiser was left in flames, and it is ! believed to have been destroyed. This j latest raid on Japan’s key south Paj cifio base was made on Monday ! morning in bad weather which again j prevented full observaton of results. | After tlie attack on shipping in ; the harbour, our planes bombed the i township with high explosives and ! incendiaries. Later reconnaissance | showed the cruiser burning fiercely ’ and beginning to buckle, i Reconnaissance following Sunday s i raid on Rabaul by Fortresses and j Liberators showed the 15.000-ton , transport still lying on its side m the harbour, while tlie two smaller j vessels were burning off Sulphur ; Point. This devastating, week-end ;\t- ! tack, made by three waves of heavy ! bombers, was tbe greatest raid on ; Rabaul since the sustained offensive ! in the last week of November, when | major battles were being louglit m j the Solomons. Rabaul has now been, raided six times during December. In other widespread Allied a.ir attacks, runways and enemy aerodromes at Finschliafen, in New Guinea, and Gasmata, were bombed by Liberators. Beaufighters and Hudsons kept ui> relentless attacks against enemy targets in Timor. Fighters attacked store dumps aud traffic on the Laiva,i-Laga road and bombers scored hits on undisclosed targets at Laivai and Fuiloro. An intercepting Zero was shot down. The Laivai-Foilaro area in which the Japanese are building an aerodrome and accumulating supplies, has nowbeen attacked on four successive days Large parties of Japanese were apparently at work on the drome. Discussing the heavy Allied air blows against the Japanese in this theatre during tbe past few days, the .Sydney Fun today says editorially- “It is pleasing to observe that Allied armen have a definite and notable superiority. But Japan will not crumple because of slow attrition in tbe South Pacific. Only by blows at her heart will the war be won. At the present we are. twistng her little finger. No doubt it is painful to-her, but while w© apj>ear to have stemmed the course of invasion. w© have not yet begun to drive her back to any considerable extent.” Dr. Peter Russo, former resident in Japan, also wit nig i 7l the Sun todav, declares: “Ther© is reason to •believe that Japan is holding in reserve tremendous resources and forces comparable in their surprising effectivitv to tbe materials she used dll mg tbe early days of the Pacific war.”