JAPAN’S FEAR

Timaru Herald, Volume CLIII, Issue 22477, 12 January 1943, Page 3

JAPAN’S FEAR

Lae Next Objective

Of Allies

Frantic Attempt To Build Up Strength

By Telegraph—N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright

SYDNEY, January 11. "The dispatch of this considerable convoy to Lae and the lavishness of its Zero cover emphasises Japan’s determination to hold on to her bases on the coast of New Guinea. To that end she is ready to sacrifice many soldiers, even ships, so long as some reinforcements can be got ashore. The loss of fighter aircraft on such a devastating scale may be a different

matter. Zeros, once masters of the island skies, are being shot down

This editorial comment on the convoy battle off Lae was made by the “Sydney Morning Herald” to-day. Australian observers agree that the Japanese evidently fear that Lae will be the next objective of the Allied drive southwards and, with the final collapse of their campaign in Papua possibly a matter of days only, they are trying frantically to build up their concentrations at Lae.

Inspiring stories are being told of successes scored by Allied fighters in clashes with Zeros. At the peak of the battle more than 100 planes were in combat over Lae at one time. A flight of 14 Kittyhawks in dogfights with 18 Zeros shot down 13, and probably destroyed one, and damaged two for the loss of a single plane. Lockheed Lightnings shot down 50 Zeros. The Japanese convoy was “fluked” by an Australian-manned Catalina, which made its first “kill” when it sank a 14,000-ton transport with at least 1600 troops abroad. A Catalina, the first flying-boat of the type on service in Australia, was returning from a raid on Gasmata in pitch darkness on Thursday morning when the pilot sighted the phosphorescent wake of ships. Ship Blown Up "We counted 10 black moving objects like blots on a bigger blot,” said the pilot. “We picked the biggest moving blot and made five runs over it before we were satisfied to drop our bombs. Then we let our bombs go from 4000 feet. We hit with three of them. The ship must have been loaded with ammunition as well as troops, for it blew up with a terrific explosion. Three Japanese destroyers turned their spotlights on the blazing transport but did not attempt to rescue the crew or soldiers. They stayed only a couple of minutes and then set off like hounds of hell. The transport sank almost immediately. The troops who were not burned to death must have been drowned.” Strong Allied air forces six months ago could have prevented the invasion of Papua, the reconquest of which entailed so much suffering and loss, declared the “Sydney Morning Herold,” in discussing the implications of the smashing victory in the air. Moderate replenishment of the air pool in this country now might very well turn the scales in the South-west Pacific area and enable counter-attacks against the Japanese to be pressed home.” It is now known that 85 Japanese aircraft were destroyed, and another 29 probably destroyed, in the Allied air attack on the Japanese convoy off Nev/ Guinea.