MARINES ON TOP

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 86, Issue 230, 30 September 1942, Page 5

MARINES ON TOP

PATROL OPERATIONS IN SOLOMONS HEAVY TOLL OF JAPANESE BOMBERS (B- Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Recd 8 p.m.) Washington, Sept. 28. Marines on Guadalcanar and Florida Island in the Solomon Archipelago are continuing active patrol operations against the Japanese ground forces, says a Navy Department communique. Navy Marine bombers supported our ground forces in both search and attack. Several small enemy detachments have been engaged and destroyed. Our positions have been somewhat extended. During the "period from September 25 to 28 Army and Navy Marine fliers destroyed 42 and damaged three enemy aircraft without combat loss to United States planes. On September 25 heavy Army bombers attacked Recata Bay and Tonolei Harbour, also Japanese ships south-east of Buka passage. An enemy seaplane was damaged on the waters of Recata Bay and several small gun emplacements were strafed. A bomb hit was scored on an

enemy cruiser in Tonolei Harbour. Three seaplanes were shot down and a Japanese seaplane tender was damaged by a bomb hit in action south -east of Buka Passage. On September 26 heavy Army bombers in force attacked enemy ships near Shortland Island. One cruiser was hit and left burning, a large transport or cargo ship was heavily bombed, set on fire and probably sunk. Six enemy seaplanes were shor down and a seventh damaged. On September 27 eighteen bombers, escorted by 13 fighters, attacked our positions at Guadalcanar. Marine Navy fighters intercepted and shot down four bembers and five fighters. On September 28 twenty-five bombers, escorted by 18 Zeros, attacked Guadalcanar installations. Navy Marine fighters interepted, forcing the attacking bombers to jettison their bombs at sea. Twenty-three enemy bombers and one fighter were destroyed.

JAP FLEET AT BAY EFFECT OF ALLIED AIR MASTERY (Special Australian Corresjjondent—N.Z.P. A.) Sydney, Sept. 29. Guadalcanar has proved an unsinkable aircraft-carrier many times more powerful than any seagoing carrier in effectiveness, and . Allied air power in the Solomons | is believed here to lie behind j Japan’s hesitancy to send her main fleet into action to recapture the 1 islands. While Japan still has substantial naval shipping she no longer has a margin of strength enabling her to taks risks. “United States air power is such that the Japanese have not dared, after their initial attempt, to bring in convoys and big ships,” states the New York Times’ correspondent, Tillman Durdin, in a dispatch from Guadalcanar. “Japanese warships wait 150 miles away until dusk, and then come in at high speed to escape before dawn.” Discussing the effectiveness of j American air power over Guadalca-1 nar, Durdin says that the Henderson ■ (Kukuri) airfield has already pro-1 duced aces who surpass top-ranking American airmen on any olher Allied front. ‘‘lf Japan loses many more naval ships she will risk everything she has gained,” says Rear-Admiral Woodward in the New York journal American, “but Allied offensive operations may compel the Japanese fleet to come out and light rather than lose important bases, with the resultant threat to Japan’s communications.” He says she may consider her chances better now while our forces are widely spread in protecting Hawaii, Panama and the Aleutians.' “On the other hand the Japanese do 1 not know whether the Allied plan is to move north from the Solomons, or east from Hawaii, therefore she must prepare for both contingencies and is forced to concentrate her naval strength.” American fighter and bomber attacks on reconnaissance planes have been a factor rated as high as 50 per cent, in the defence of the southern Solomons, says the New York Times. In addition they have been important as a striking force in hitting Japanese bases and ships not constituting an immediate threat to this part of the Solomons. ’ Without the Kukuri airfield, American Marines alone might never have held Guadal- 1 canar, and the United States Navy alone would have suffered great in attempting to prevent large-scale; Japanese reinforcements from land-' ing. Australian based Flying Foi-i tresses have played a substantia!. part in curbing the menace of Japanese shipping concentrations at Rabaul, believed to be intended to reinforce enemy strength in the Solomons. In a Aveek five enemy vessels have been put out of commission by bombing raids on this base, and a sixth has been probably damaged. Not a single aircraft has been lost in these raids. Newest proofs of the devastating effects of the marked supremacy of Allied air power in the Southwest Pacific make it clear that Japan will be compelled severely to challenge that supremacy as a prelude to any naval action designed to restore her position in this theatre.