The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-03-02

bombers with unusual markings"
it was said.
'"They were painted black with
white crosses on the wings" the
communique stated. "They may
have been German-built planes,
some of which japan is believed
to have had in reserve"
The usual Nazi planes are marked
with a black cross outlined in
white.
1t may be possible, a war depart
ment spokesman said, that the iden-
tifications were enormously describ-
ed in the reports from the Philip
pines and that the three plane sac
tually were German.
Macarthur without Weapons
Macarthur, with only a handful
of P-40 fighter planes, has virtually
no weapons to challenge Japanese
fighters, heavy bombers and dive
bombers in the air over Bataan ex-
cept his anti-aircraft guns.
For the past "a hours a lull has
prevailed on the Bataan front with
practically no ground operations"
as the American and Filipino forces
dug into advance positions seized
from the Japanese in MacArthur'S
surprise assaults last week.
A communique Sunday said that
the Japanese had not counter-at-
tackled to regain the lost ground and
that a period of "positional warfare"
was anticipated.
A scattered army of thousands of
guerrilla warriors is playing havoc
with Japanese hopes of a swift con-
quest of the Philippines, military
authorities revealed.
President Manuel Quezon, in a
fight until death, and expel him
from our land"
A small band of American and
Filipinos troops-a "lost detach-
ment" cut off from MacArthurs'
main army of Bataan 200 miles
southward-has achieved an import
ant victory in northern Luzon a war
department communIque revealed.
Fighting on without thought of
glory from mountains LARS and liv-
ing off the land, the American and
Filpinos soldiers have driven the
japanese from 45-mile stretch of
the Abra valley between Cervantes
and Bangued in guerrilla warfare.
nsn RnXn Ham YsuoS
On the Bataan jungle battlefront,
where the battle line has been push
eel northward to free the main
cross peninsula highway from Ba-
gao to Pillar, MacArthur's little army
dug into the advance lines seized
from the Japanese in last weeks
surprise assault.
"a period of positional warfare
seems indicated" the communique
said, pointing out that the jap
anese-disorganized and rocked back
on their heels by MacArthur's at
tack-had made no effort to coun-
ter-attack.'
Latest advices told Of another lull
all along the Bataan lines.
Officials told of a marked spread
of guerrilla attacks upon the Jap
anese in the last 10 days-by the
MoroS, the half-naked Igorots OF
northern Luzon and the vengeful
Tagalogs of tn central Philippines
which probably can be attributed
in part to MacArthur's magnificent
stand.
AS MacArthur's outnumbered Am
erican and F'ilipinos troops rose from
the fox-holes of Bataan and stormed
the Japanese advance positions,
pushing them back from one to five
miles, the guerrillas struck at the
invaders outposts, airdromes and
lines of communication.
These attacks, 1t was pointed out,
are as important in frustrating Jap
anese plans for final conquest Of the
islands as the battle Of Bataan it
self. The Japanese Commander-in-
Chief, Lieut.. Gen. Masaharu HON.
ma, has been forced to use thous-
ands of troops in policing the occu-
pied areas. This may account in
part for the strange lullS on the Ba-
taan front and Homma's failure to
launch an about attack despite his
vast numerical superiority over
Macarthur.