The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-03-17

considerable area" of Kobe for at least eight hours. The super fortresses struck at 2:30 a. m. Tokyo time and bombed for two hours. the communique said.
 Twenty out of the force estimated by Tokyo at 60 superfortresses were shot down, the communique said. Other planes were said to have been damaged.
 The Fist bomber command dld not reveal losses immediately, but it was obvious that the enemy claims were greatly exaggerated Only two B-29s were lost to enemy action over Tokyo last Saturday and one each in the subsequent at- tacks on Nagoya and Osaka.
 Ground crews here, however, said later that for the third successive raid no Guam-based planes had been lost.
 Bomber crews reported fairly heavy Japanese anti-aircraft fire and numerous night fighters over Kobe. The Superfortresses were blacked out, however, and few con- tacted enemy aircraft.
 Le Mays report of fires covering 12 square miles of Kobe was based on the observations of Col. w. H. Blanchard, assistant chief of staff of the 21st bomber command. Blanchard flew over the target area at 4 a. m. and remained seV- eral hours, charting the progress of the fires on map in his lap.
 Le May said Blanchard's report nevertheless was technically in- conclusive" He was awaiting re- connaissance photographs before making definite claims of destruc- tion.
 He said a heavy wind was whip ping flames in a huge patch to- ward dock areas and harbor install lations.
 Blanchard said a glow of fire and smoke clouds still could be seen over Osaka, indicating that fires from Wednesdays superfort incen- diaries were strung across Robes docks and factories.
 The first B-29 over Kobe kindled fires in the dock area which H. luminated the whole city, it's pilot, Capt. John Miller of Baton Rouge. La, said.
 Forty-five to 50 enemy fighters were sighted by Capt. J. w. O'Neill of Brookline, Mass, pilot of the City of Boston,
 Jap fighters seemed to have de- veloped more savvy this time he said. "They waited until we got over the city and many flew high to get above US. However, we were blacked out and there were heavy clouds around. We literally ran through enemy fighters without their seeing us"
 Though the B-29s blanketed a huge section of Kobe with fire bombs, Fist Command officers said the planes still were engaged in precision rather than area bomb- ing. They contended that the planes were bombing specified targets within limited target area from a comparatively low altitude rather than releasing their bombs blindly over the city.
 "The most effective attack on ur- ban industrial areas calls for bomb- ing of high order of precision and timing" one officer said. "1ts pri- mary purpose is to capitalize on the fact that many of Japan's industrial and transportation facilities lie within or immediately adjacent to known highly-infiammable sections of her principal cities"
 Kobe. 265 miles west of Tokyo, handled more imports and exports than any other Japanese port. It runs for about 10 miles along the northern shore of Osaka bay and extends only one to three miles in- land to ridge of wooded hills.
 Mostly Wood Buildings
 Only about 10 per cent of Robes buildings were believed constructed of brick, sheet metal, stone or con- crete. The remainder were or wood. Among its principal industries were the Mitsubishi shipyards, Jocks and engine works, the Mitsu.. bishi motor, airbrake and electrical appliance plant, the Kobe steel works. and the Kawasaki Dockyard company. There also were four gas and electric plants, Il metal plants and 156 tool and machine tool plants.
 Kobe has no large rivers and canals and depends for water on three large reservoirs north Of the .ity. The water supply never has been plentiful and was reported dangerously low for large-scale fire fighting.
 Weaving of rayon cloth has just