ATTACK ON HANKOW

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 200, 25 August 1943, Page 5

ATTACK ON HANKOW

U.S. PLANES’ SUCCESS Recd. 6 p.m.. Chungking. Aug. 23. The Liberators, Mitchells, and fighters which took part in the raid on Hankow on Saturday destroyed 39 planes in the air, probably destroyed 13 more, and damaged two in a series of battles, says the Associated Press correspondent at United States headquarters in China. The Liberators alone shot down .35 Zeros, probably destroyed nine and damaged two when they were attacked by about one-fifth of the Japanese fighters in Central China. They made a run up the west bank of the Yangtze strewing heavy explosives along a four-mile warehouse area. Despite Japanese interference the Liberators laid their bombs among the big supply installations in the “Chicago of China” from which the Japanese equip their forces in the central and upper Yangtze areas. About 45 minutes after the Liberators struck, the Mitchells attacked the Hankow aerodrome and warehouses with fragmentation bombs, and are believed to have destroyed a number of planes on the ground. Thirty large fires later were observed burning fiercely in Hankow.

Twenty-seven Japanese bombers, with small fighter escort, appeared over Chungking to-day, but Chmese fighters and anti-aircraft fire- prevented the raiders from bombing the city. Bombs fell in the suburbs. Simultaneously 27 bombers raided Wanshien, 150 miles further east. The last raid on Chungking was on August 31. 1941. Chungking’s 800,000 people calmly took refuge in dug-outs, the sirens having given nearly two hours’ warning.