JAPANESE BATTLESHIP

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 April 1944, Page 4

JAPANESE BATTLESHIP

TORPEDOED NEAR PALAU ISLAND BY U.S. SUBMARINE 25 Enemy Ships, Including Two Destroyers, Sunk SEVENTEEN OTHER VESSELS DAMAGED AT LEAST 150 JAPANESE AIRCRAFT DESTROYED LONDON, April 7. Admiral Nimitz, Commander-in-Chief of the United States naval forces in the Pacific, reports that in the attack on Palau Island, towards the end of last month, 25 enemy ships, including two destroyers, were sunk. Seventeen other Japanese ships were damaged, some of them being set on fire. At least 150 Japanese fighters were destroyed in combat or on the ground. More than 50 other enemy aircraft were probably destroyed or damaged. The operations cost the Americans 25 aircraft. Not a single American ship was damaged. Admiral Nimitz also reports that on the night before the attack on Palau a United States submarine torpedoed a Japanese battleship as the latter was leaving the island. Although considerably damaged, the battleship was able to escape at moderate speed, under escort. A battleship is among the 46 Japanese ships sunk or damaged in United States Navy attacks on Palau and other bases in the Central Pacific between March 29 and March 31, says a Pearl Harbour communique. The battleship was torpedoed by a United States submarine. In the same period, 214 Japanese planes were destroyed, probably destroyed or damaged.