The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-07-18
1 500 Planes Hit
 Tokyo Area
(Continued from Page D

(Continued The Chinese seaport was bombed heavily by 60 Liberators and Mitchell bombers yesterday, accord ing to Tokyo. Furious Fires
 Factories, homes and docks in the wood-and-paper cities lining a 50-mile belt of Japan's eastern shores above Tokyo were blazing furiously from 8 two-hour night bombardment by the Allied surface raiders that began around Il p. m. (Tokyo time) last night.
 United Press War Correspondent Richard w. Johnston reported from the bridge of an American warship that the bombarding fleet wrecked the huge Hitachi steel plant at Mito, only 35 miles from Hirohito's palace in Tokyo.
 Pumping in shells at the rate of ton second, the great battle wagons blew the steel works into mass of flaming rubble and with drew without taking 8 single an- swering shot.
 We knocked down Tokyo's front door," Johnston said.
 And radio report from the fleet said the Anglo-American warships, perhaps 150 strong, were racing southward under forced draft in the direction of Tokyo itself. With the Japanese shore batter ies and their sea and air forces still mysteriously silent, all of Japan's Pacific coast appeared to be at the mercy of Admr. William F. Halsey's marauding American third fleet and its British units. Led by the 45,00o-ton dread naught Iowa and the Royal navy's 35, ,000-ton King George V, a pow erful segment of the fleet steamed within six miles of the enemy shores last night to shell scores of targets ranging from 75 miles northeast to about g miles east northeast of Tokyo.
 A communique from Fleet Ad- miral Chester W. Nimitz's head quarters gave no immediate details on the bombardment, but HaIsey broke radio silence while the at. tack was still on to report terrific destruction along the enemy shore Broadcast accounts of the action interrupted by the laundering crast Of the battleship guns, said great fires were spreading up and dowr the blacked-out coast, particularly in the main target city of Hitachi Hitachi is the center of the teem- ing industrial area north of Tokyo site of an important engineering works that already had been partly wrecked by B-29 Superfortresses. Also, in the area are aircraft, cleo. trical, precision instrument ant radio factories and complex rail. way system.
 Tokyo broadcasts said the war. ships also shelled Sukegawa, just south of Hitachi, and Daigo, 5l miles farther south.
 The Japanese said small forma. tions of Superfortresses and Liber. ators the latter escorted for the first time by Black Widow night fighters, bombed the Kanto sector around Tokyo few hours before the naval assault began. Enemy Dormant
 Eyewitness accounts said there was no counter-fire from the Jap. anese coastal batteries during the early stages of the bombardment and no enemy planes appeared ovel the fleet.
 The Japanese air force appeared to have been pinned to the grount by yesterdays furious air strike during which some 1,500 American and British carrier planes rakec Tokyo's 30 airf1elds from dawn tc dusk.
 Nimitz gave no details on the re. suits of the air blow in his early communique, but the enemy,s loss es in grounded planes were ex- rected to be high.
 Tokyo's only explanation for the mystifying lack of opposition tc the Allied sea and air blows was that the Japanese air force was be- ing hoarded for the Hast battle" o1 the war-to defend the homeland against invasion.
 But there still was no word on the elusive remnants of the Imperial fleet and there was possibility | that the Iananese yVni0ht ha fnrrafl