ENEMY FIGHTERS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 May 1944, Page 3

ENEMY FIGHTERS

SHOT DOWN IN AREA WEST OF HOLLANDIA SOME INCREASE IN JAPANESE OPPOSITION. ATTEMPTS TO REPEL ALLIED BOMBERS. (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, May 9. Increasing Japanese opposition to Allied air blows west of Hollandia, Dutch New Guinea, has necessitated the proviion of fighter escort for Liberators striking at enemy bases in the Schouten Islands. Geelvink Bay. Allied fighters are believed to come from recently captured airfields ai Hollandia. Of 12 Zeros which attempted interception on Sunday, nine were shot down without loss to our planes. Liberators over the same area on Saturday encountered 17 enemy fighters; shooting down one. The heaviest air attacks reported by General MacArthur’s communique today were on the Wakde-Sarmi area, about 100 miles west of Hollandia, which was hit by more than 100 Allied planes on Sunday. Mitchell and Liberator bombers dropped 295 tons of explosives. Airfields, bivouac and supply, areas were heavily damaged, and smoke from large fires covered thetarget. American casualties since the landing on Hollandia have been 28 killed in action or died of wounds and 95 wounded. About 800 enemy dead have now been counted in the area, while more than 150 Japanese have been taken prisoner. Allied planes continue to blast Japanese trapped in the We’wak-Hansa Bay sector of British New Guinea, and patrol torpedo-boats are adding to the enemy’s troubles with damaging strikes. At Wewak on Friday night they destroyed five barges and strafed trucks on the coastal road. Solomons-based Liberators bombed Woleai in the Carolines on Saturday morning, destroying two grounded aircraft. Liberators on Friday located an enemy convoy of five small vessels 175 miles west of Truck, and sank three. The ships were from 100 to 500 tons.