FIGHTING IN PAPUA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 August 1942, Page 3

FIGHTING IN PAPUA

CASUALTIES INFLICTED ON JAPANESE ENEMY SHIPS BOMBED SOUTH OF TIMOR. SEVERAL BADLY DAMAGED. (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, August 11. Our troops in Papua have engaged the Japanese and driven them back from their prepared positions at Kokoda. Casualties were inflicted on the Japanese. This was announced in today’s communique from General MacArthur’s headquarters, which also reports attacks by Allied bombers on enemy shipping south of Timor. A mediumsized cargo vessel received three direct hits and was heavily damaged and left ablaze, and another smaller cargo ship was hit twice and probably sunk, while a large enemy destroyer was badly damaged by at least three direct hits. All our planes returned from this operation. Medium bombers maintained the attacks on the enemy aerodromes in the Rabaul area and large fires were started which were visible 50 miles away. An enemy bomber was destroyed. Considerable significance is attached to the Allied bombing raids on the enemy shipping concentration south of Timor, but no clear indication of the battle raging on a huge front is yet available at the south-west Pacific headquarters.