The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-01-04

and Tuesday
 Liberators and escorting fighters again struck at Manila's Clark Field shooting down II to l3 of 20 inter- cepting enemy planes for 8 loss of one of their own, while Mitchells and Marine Corsairs hit railway 1n- stallations, reservoirs, barracks and barges from Legaspi to Batangas in southern Luzon.
 Manila broadcast said 60 Amer ican bombers and battle planes raided the Clark Field area again yesterday, but claimed the raid had been utterly ineffective" because of furious Japanese anti-arcraft fireD
 Carrier planes, presumably from Admiral William F. Halseys famed third fleet, opened an assault on Formosa, Japan's strongest island bastion south of her homeland, and on Okinawa Jima, in the Ryukyu Archipelago midway between For mosa and Japan proper, yesterday (Tuesday, Pearl Harbor time) Powerful Fleet The attack put a powerful Amer ican fleet, presumably including bat tlepships and cruisers in addition to aircraft carriers, within 325 miles of Japan proper and 875 miles south west of Tokyo at OkinaWa.
 Radio silence cloaked progress of the twin assaults, which were an- nounced in a brief communique from the headquarters of Admiral Chester w. Nimitz at Pearl Harbor. Targets were not disclosed, but For mosa, TOO miles southwest of Japan and 200 miles north of the Philip pines, is a vast storehouse of mili- tary supplies and 1t was from there that the Japanese launched their invasion of Luzon in December, l94l.
 Okinawa, 36O miles northeast of Formosa, has four important air fields, two seaplane bases, a major fleet anchorage and many smaller and sheltered harbors. Together with Formosa, it is a major cross roads of the Philippine, east China and south China Seas.
 "A Japanese communique said American carrier planes first at tackled Formosa from 7:30 a. m. to 2:30 Il. m. Tokyo time yesterday then turned toward OkinaWa. Jap anese planes were credited in the communique with shooting down IT and damaging eight of the DlaneS)
 The attacks were Believed de- signed to knock out two key links in the chain Of island bnses through which the Japanese have been re- inforcing the Philippines with both aircraft and troops.
 Both islands were neutralized temporarily by planes from the Third Fleet last October In series of raids just before the American invasion of Leyte in the central Philippines. Third Fleet aircraft destroyed or damaged 227 ships and small craft and 486 planes in the October raids.
 Few details were available of thS new American landings on MindorO Troops went ashore on both the east and west costs unopposed, ap- parently not even preceded by naval bombardment though rocket ships may have laid down a preliminary barrage.
 R Planes DOWned
 The Japanese were known to have had several airstrips in the northern and northeastern sections of thu island. icludig oe thatetaoishrdluil island. including one that American fighters used during the origina battle of Luzon in l94l. and these probably were the main objectives.
 The Americans already were op eratIng from several airflelds 1T southwest Mindoro, where invasion troops landed Dec. l6. American fighters and anti-alrcraft gunner shot down eight and probably nin' enemy planes which attempted t' attack American installations ans