HEAVILY POUNDED

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVI, Issue 22935, 4 July 1944, Page 6

HEAVILY POUNDED

Japanese Defences In Geelvink Bay Daylong Sea And Air Attacks By Telegraph—N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright (8.55 p.m.) SYDNEY, July 3. The Japanese defences on Noemfoor Island, in Geelvink Bay, Western Dutch New Guinea, were pounded in daylong air and sea attacks on Saturday. Strategically situated only 55 miles west of .Biak Island, which is now firmly in Allied hands, Noemfoor was also the target for heavy bombing raids on Friday. Planes of the sth and 13th United States Air Force, recently amalgamated under Lieutenant-General G. C. Kenney's command, on Saturday combined to attack troop and supply areas with 230 tons of bombs. Their strikes, which lasted throughout the day, were concentrated on the north-west corner of the island. Later, under cover of darkness, Allied light naval units bombarded possible enemy gun positions in the same sector. No Japanese air opposition was encountered. Persistent Allied bombings have driven enemy planes off Noemfoor’s three airfields. Good Airfields Noemfoor, lying midway between Biak and Manokwari, at the western tip of Geelvink Bay, is an oval-shaped island about 15 miles long by 12 miles wide. Its three airfields are Kamiri, Korasoren and Namber. The first two, only three miles apart, are both 5000 feet long but are capable of extension. Namber, on the south-west coast, is 4000 feet long. American ground forces in this sector are still mopping up enemy pockets of resistance. On Biak Island they killed 177 more Japanese, bringing the total of enemy dead in this campaign to 3055. In the nearby Sarmi-Maffin Bay area, where the Japanese are holding stubbornly to two airstrips, 347 more enemy troops have been killed in local fighting, bringing the Japanese losses to 2763, including 30 prisoners. Liberator bombers operating from New Guinea bases made their first strike against Boeroe Island in the Banda Sea just 250 miles east of the Celebes Group. Big fires followed the dropping of 58 tons of bombs on the barracks and airfield. Three parked planes were destroyed, and an intercepting fighter was shot down. West of Boeroe a 1000-ton enemy cargo vessel was sunk with a direct bomb hit. The AitapeWewak sector of the British New Guinea coast, where elements of three Japanese divisions are trapped, is being attacked from the sea and the air. Destroyers on Thursday night fired 1000 shells into targets in the area. Six barges were sunk at Wewak and a number of small ships was damaged. Enemy’s Inhumanity Forced to accompany Japanese troops retreating from Madang to Hansa Bay, British New Guinea, Chinese residents captured in the area were beaten with swords to make them travel faster. Dysentery and malaria exacted their toll, and at least 16 Chinese failed to survive the 120 mile ordeal. Two are stated to have been killed by Japanese because they were too ill to keep up with the main party. The 70 survivors were later abandoned and left without food by the Japanese. They were discovered by Australian patrols. Their number included infants in arms as well as aged and enfeebled men and women. The Japanese also felt the strain of the gruelling trek, and a number of men, desperately sick and weak, were given grenades with which to commit suicide.