Evening star., 1942-04-09
Many Enemy Aircraft
Destroyed in Allied
Air Raid on RabauI
Five Jop Planes Drop
30 to 40 Bombs on
Isle in SoIomons
By the Associated Press.


MELBOURNE, April 9-Five
japanese bombers flying at 5000
feet raided Tulagi, in the Solo,
mon Islands, this morning and
dropped between 80 and 40
bombs, Prime Minister John Cur
tin announced.
Tulagi lies almost 500 miles south
east Of Japanese occupied Buka, at
the tip of the Solomon chain, across
the Coral Sea from Australia.
The communique said some dam
age was done to buildings, but that
there were no casualties.
"a Reuters dispatch from Port
Moresby, New Guinea, said many
aircraft were destroyed on the
ground and others damaged in
an Allied raid this afternoon on
Japanese-held r b aul, New
BritainD
Lorengau Seizure Confirmed.
Japanese occupation OF Lorengau,
on Manus Island. the largest Of the
Admiralty group north of New
Guinea, has been confirmed by
aerial reconnaissance, an Austral-
ian communique reported.
The communique said Allied
planes saw yesterday that the Japa-
nese had occupied the island, but
the date of the landing was not
known. 1t was added that the
Japanese probably landed some
time ago.
Lorengau is about $50 miles north
Of Lac, capital of New Guinea,
where the japanese have a base.
Meanwhile, japanese planes at
tempting tc raid Port Moresby, New
Guinea. were reported driven off by
Allied fighters yesterday and several
invading craft were said to have
been damaged.
157 Jap Planes Damaged.
An Australian war correspondent
reported from Port Moresby that
Excluding Allied air operations
north of Australia yesterday and
today we have destroyed or seriously
damaged at least 157 Japanese air
craft in the past month in bril-
liantly executed air offensive over
front extending from Timor to
Rabaul"
I'VE are rapidly approaching the
time" he said, when the Japanese
will have to decide whether they will
be hurled out of the islands which
they have occupied, or are willing to
bleed other vital fronts of air power
in a desperate effort to safeguard
their meager gains north of Au-
stralia."
The Australian war correspondent
who told Of recent Allied air sue
cesses against the japanese described
these successes as a result of lone
Of the most powerful and most sus-
tanned air blitzes since the Pacific
war began"
It began with the Japanese land
ing at Lac and Salamaua, New
Guinea, exactly a month ago yes
terday.
Bad Weather Is Obstacle.
bad weather conditions have been
the only factor that has stopped the
Allies from hammering them every
day." the correspondent continued,
but even despite climatic handicaps
and attempts by the Japanese to dis
perse their aircraft over a wide area,
we have consistently and relentlessly
hammered the enemy in a series of
brilliantly executed raids by an in
creasing number of planes which in
clude many of the worlds most mod
ern fighting aircraft.
"An examination of the air activ-
ity over Darwin, Timor, the Torres
Strait, New Guinea and New Britain
since the Lac landing March 8 shows
that we have shot down or destroyed
on the ground 80 Japanese planes
and damaged at least So.
TT Is only few weeks since single
Japanese reconnaissance planes could
come over Port Moresby and COM
plete their jobs almost unchallenged
To-day on such a job the pilot
stands a good chance of suicide, and
we see the extraordinary picture Of
five or seven high-speed Zero fighters
being used as escort for one lone
reconnaissance plane"