The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-07-29
ALLIED PATROL
 BEAT JAPANESE
Ccontlnued from Page D

CContinued from Page D Guinea to the great Allied base ct Port Moresby on the south coast.
 Allied patrols had met the Jap- anese, in a light skirmish, at the village of Awala, 22 miles northeast of Kokoda, on Sunday.
 The enemy forces, using the tac- tics which had given them success in Malaya, pushed along until they had reached Oivi, five miles east of Kokoda, and had thus put them~ selves in mid-New Guinea only 55 miles from Port Moresby.
 FerociOus Attack
 Gen. Douglas MacArthur's United Nations air force continued a fefo- cious attack on the Buna- Coma base and in three separate raids yester- day smashed more enemy installa- tions with numerous direct bomb hits.
 In the northwestern sector of the Australian zone, Allied planes made their second attack in two days on Tie Koepang area of Tirnor Island and after putting their bombs in the target zone successfully fought of the challenge of intercepting Japanese fighter planes. For the third time in four nights, a single Japanese plane raided Townsville, 700 miles up the east coast of Australia from Brisbane, but as on the previous nights 1t succeeded in doing no damage.
 This time, as the big enemy flying boat approached the city just after midnight this morning, fighter planes went out to intercept 1t and it lied, damaged, after jettiSoning it's bombs in the sea.
 It was hit repeatedly, Gen. Mac Arthur's daily communique said, and when last seen was losing height. It was believed to have crashed in the sea.
 A single enemy plane also flew over Port Moresby under cover of night and dropped several bombs, but without doing damage.
 The persistent enemy flights over Townsville were believed to be re- connaisSance rather than attack in nature, and were taken to mean that the Japanese intended to main tain long range scouting activity over the northeast coast of the con- tinent.
 New England Battery
 Townsville, Australia, July 29. - tUP)-American and Australian de- lenses functioned with remarkable precision early today when a Jap anese flying boat attempted to raid Townsville, but was driven off and probably destroyed by United States night fighters aided by crack New England searchlight batteries.
 Lieut.. Robert L. Harriger, p, of Rosebush, Mich., and Capt. John D. Maitwaring, 27, of Wilkes-Ba Pa., intercepted the raj CT and both expressed confidence u, t the enemy was destroyed.
 Bob and I made simultaneous passes at him, coming in from above" Maitwaring told the United Press i've saw his bombs fall--theJ were widely Scattered--and then we hit him. saw my cannon shells burst his tail turret, causing Q flash. Then the plane started to lose al- t1tude. His rear gunner didn't have chance to fire, apparently because his guns were knocked out early in the fight"
 Harriger said that he made about seven passes at the Jap ship"
 Five of them were made while the Jap was in the searchlights and two more as he headed for the sea-" Harriger said.
 T could see him quite well in the moonlight. He looked big and cum bersome as a box car. I made my first pass at him at about 21, ,OOO feet. When ran out of ammunition he was down to 10000. I could sce tracer after tracer got into his belly. He appeared hard hit and I don't believe he was able to get back home."
 The enemy attack was watched by correspondents as the Allied search lights went into action, picking up tho flying boat long before he ro ached Townsville. They held him in powerful cross-beams for almost 15 minutes. It was one of the most remarkable searchlight perform | ances ever seen under similar cir cumstances, army officers said. A New England crew handled the searchlights and enabled the night fighters to pump shells into the enemy plane, forcing him to drop most of his bombs in the sea.
 Sgt. Albert Collard of Hartford, Conn, first picked up the enemy ship with his searchlight battery.
 A few minutes later other lights had the enemy caught in blinding cross beams. Through powerful bin- oculars, witnesses could clearly see the four motors and the broadly curved tail at about 10000 feet. Searchlight units under command of Lieut.. Howard Chase of Hart ford. Conn, performed smoothly.
 You can take it from me that the boys are mighty happy to be getting some action," Chase said later. CAPT. WHITAKER