BRITAIN’S PART IN PACIFIC

Southland Times, Issue 25548, 16 December 1944, Page 5

BRITAIN’S PART IN PACIFIC

Debt To Southern Dominions (Rec. 11.30 p.m.) LONDON, Dec. 15. The creation of the British Pacific Fleet is described by The Times in an editorial as “an impressive and welcome intimation of the nation’s capacity in the sixth year of war to take up what must be the principal burden of the coming years.” After stating that the stimulating influence of the present massive process of building up Allied naval strength in the Far East will be felt by the 14th Army in Burma, The Times adds: “The first, however, to feel their hands strengthened will be the forces of the people of the two British Dominions in the Pacific itself. “The men of the Pacific Fleet and their friends who will follow their fortunes from this side of the globe, will be conscious that their own debt to New Zealand and Australia is beyond calculation,” says The Times. “They will never forget how, in the darkest hour, armies from two southern Dominions left their own countries —already under the lowering menace of Japanese aggression—to hold the land bridges of the Empire in the Middle East, and today they rejoice that the three communities should be linked afresh, directly and powerfully, and that seamen from the Mother Country should be bearing their part in ridding the Pacific of the threat of aggression, making the land it washes finally secure for the British way of life under southern skies.”

ENEMY INDUSTRY BOMBED

SUPER FORTRESSES IN ACTION (Rec. 9.30 p.m.) WASHINGTON, December 15. Many bomb hits were observed on military and industrial installations during the Super Fortress attack on Nagoya, says a 20th Air Force communique. Clear weather aided precision bombing and the crews reported good results. Direct hits were observed on the Mitsubishi aircraft plant and numerous bursts were seen in the areas adjacent to the main target. Large fires were visible as the Super Fortresses started homeward. One Super Fortress has not reported and must be presumed lost. Several hours later, a substantial force of Super Fortresses from India struck at key military targets in Thailand and at important Japanese military transportation centres at Bangkok. Rangoon was also bombed. The returning crews reported good results at Bangkok, despite considerable cloud cover, and excellent results at Rangoon, where the weather was clear over the marshalling yards. MANY DIRECT HITS

The Saipan correspondent of the Associated Press of America says that remarkably clear photographs of the Nagoya attack yesterday have disclosed many direct hits on Mitsubishi’s giant Hatsudoki aircraft factory. Early photographs showed 47 direct hits on the Hatsudoki machine shops and assembly departments. The pictures also showed that some planes released their bombs too early and set fire to suburbs.

A number of bombs dropped harmlessly in rice paddies but the general impression from the pictures is that amazing accuracy was achieved In laying most of the bombs in a half mile pattern on the aeroplane plant from an altitude of upwards of five miles. The Tokyo radio said that 11 Super Fortresses attacked Rangoon today and five of them were shot down.

ADVANCING NORTH OF ORMOC

American Troops On Leyte

(Rec. 11.30 p.m.) WASHINGTON, December 15.

The American 77th Division, advancing north of Ormoc, captured the enemy’s main supply depots a mile to the northward after bitter resistance, says General Douglas MacArthur’s communique. Long-range artillery supporting the advance destroyed an enemy barge nest. In the 10th Corps’ sector, the Americans continued to maintain pressure from the north. Enemy planes attacked shipping and eight raiders were shot down.

In the Leyte-Samar campaign up to the present, the enemy has sustained 82,554 casualties, of which 33,801 were abandoned dead on captured ground and 253 prisoners. In addition, 18,500 more enemy are estimated to be casualties, comprising abandoned dead not yet collected and those handled by the enemy within their own lines; it is also estimated that 30,000 enemy troops outside of the crews have been drowned or killed from the 10 convoys totally or partially destroyed in the enemy’s endeavour to bring in reinforcements in the 55 days of this campaign. This represents an enemy daily loss of 1500. American casualtiies are 2176 killed, 7976 wounded and 257 missing.