AIRSTRIP IN OPERATION

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVIII, Issue 23257, 19 July 1945, Page 5

AIRSTRIP IN OPERATION

Control Extended At i Balik Papan Bombers Range Wide | Area By Telegraph —N.Z I-rrss Assn.—Copy rig H LONDON, July 17. An Aiislral.an Army statement says that. Scppingang' airstrip is in operation. It is expected that fighters, bombers and transport planes will use this strip, which was constructed in 1G days. Routine patrolling continues in all areas of the Balik Papan front. Our patrols continue to nibble at the Samartanda Read. One has cut a road, another has moved west of Soember Kiri. On Labowan more activity by natives against the Japanese has been reported from the Brunei Bay area. Long-range Ninth Division patrols are pushing out in every area, although little or no contact has been made. North of Beaufort, in the Papan area, the Japanese continue to wander about in isolated, aggressive parties. Enemy activity on the cast bank of the Appadas River has been reported. The Australian forces, expanding their control of the Balik Papan area, continued to drive the enemy steadily inland, reports General MacArthur's communique. The Sepinggang airfield is now in operation. Air and light naval units supported the ground operations in effective attacks on enemy concentrations. Bombers Over Kyushu In a widespread co-ordinated attack escorted heavy and medium bombers and fighters of the Fifth and Seventh Air Forces struck the Kyushu airfields, rail and water transport and military centres. There was no opposition. The onlv airborne enemy plane in the central Kyushu was shot down. A number of small ships off the west coast were set on fire or damaged by strafing. Two of our planes were lost. Our aircraft continued by day and by night the neutralisation of Formosa. Storage facilities on Hoko Island, in the Pescadores, were damaged by strafing. The Mako boatyards were bombed at night and many supply installations on the south-east coast of Formosa were destroyed or damaged. Two coastal ships were wrecked off the East Coast. • . In the wake of a night raid on the Canton industrial area, heavy bombers attacked the Honan Island arsenal facilities and the nearby Tienho airfield. causing fires and explosions. Blockading and search planes bombed and strafed enemy shipping in the Amc Swatow and Honguong areas, wrecking more than 100 river ships and inflicting other heavy damage and personnel casualties. Bombers wrecked military installations and barracks on Hainan Island and struck supply areas adjoining the Sidate and Fade aerodromes in the Northern Celebes. Light surface units sank four enemy vessels in Macassar Strait. Air units harassed enemy personnel areas and transport in the Halmaheras and Lesser Sundas, exploding a fuel-laden barge. Medium and fighter bombers attacking enemy rear area installations in New Guinea, the Bismarcks and the Solomons eliminated several outpost positions, started fires at Kavieng and destroyed storage tanks and fuel barges near Rabaul.

Strategic Peak Captured Tough Fight In New Guinea

(8.50 p.m.) SYDNEY, July 18. The capture of “The Blot,” the final peak on the Wewak flank of the Prince Alexander Mountains, produced the toughest fighting since the capture of Wewak itself, said the correspondent of the Sydney “Sun” in New Guinea. in the last three months tie Australian unit involved has suffered more casualties than in two years of fighting in the Middle East. News of the fall of “The Blot” was signalled down the ravines by a police boy on a native drum. A human conveyer belt was used to run an entire defended camp on to the peak of the summit, 1630 feet high, 30 minutes after the Sixth Division assault troops had taken it. The men scaled up grades, which some said were worse than the Owen Stanley Ranges.