The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-07-14
Dreadnaughts Attack
 Unchalenged By Foe
Continued from Page D

extreme north portion of Honshu previously had been considered be- yond their effective range.
 No Opposition
 Fragmentary reports flashed back from Admiral William F. Halsey's mighty Third Fleet of the Japan csc coast said there was no initial opposition from sea or air.
 Japs Startled
 The startled Japanese, who had been trumpeting for four days that Halsey's warships fled southward after blasting Tokyo last Tuesday, were caught completely by surprise when the American fleet rose out of the sea PTS to 4So miN north of their capital.
 While a massive carrier task force raced up through the northern fogs to loose its planes against the hiding place of the Japanese air force on northern Hanshu and southern Hok- kaido, the surface fleet, numbering at least nine battleships, cruisers and destroyers, wheeled in to bom- bard Kamaishi from ranges of only five to IS miles.
 While the attacking force were some of the most powerful fighting ships afloat, including the 35,000- ton battleships Massachusetts, 1n- diana and South Dakota.
 Added to the plunging fire of their 16-inch guns were the eisht-inch shells of the 13,000-ton heavy cruis- CTS Chicago and Quincy and the lighter fire of the restroyers Black, Erben, Herman and Sutherland.
 Kamaishi is an important seaport and steel mill city on the north eastern coast of Honshu PTS miles north of Tokyo, with pre-war population of more than 42,000.
 Almost 200 miles to the north, Halsey loosed his carrier planes against the -shrouded chain of airfields studding the northern tip of Honshu and the Hokodate sector of southern Hokkaido.
 It was the first strike of the war on Hokkaido, which the Japanese only last week considered safe re- fuge for the bombed-out residents of Tokyo and other central cities.
 Roaring out to the attack at the first light of dawn, the Navy flyers turned the Tsugaru straits between Honshu and Hokkaido into blaz- ing death trap for swarms of Jap anese ships and small craft.
 25 Airfields Hit
 They shot up railway ferries be- tween the two islands stoked great fires in the Hokkaido port of Hoko- date, a city of more than 200, ,000 persons, and slammed thousands of rockets, bombs and machine gun bullets into perhaps 25 airf1elds in the area.
 Hokkaido's S,000,O0o men, women and children had seen only a few scouting B-29's over their island be- fore. Today they saw wave upon wave of Corsairs, Hellcats, Helldiv- CTS and Avengers screaming down on their factories and military works, unchallenged by the strange ly-dormant Japanese air force.
 United Press War Correspondent Richard W. Johnston, aboard one of the striking carriers, said the first returning flyers reported meeting heavy but inaccurate anti-aircraft fire and no enemy planes aloft.
 But apparently they caught plenty of enemy aircraft aground, perhaps as many as in last Tuesdays Tokyo strike when, according to special fleet communique, 342 Japanese planes were destroyed or damaged in 8 12-hour attack on IA airf1elds surrounding the Japanese capital.
 Some American observers believed the bulk of the Japanese air force. now estimated at about, 4,000 first line combat planes, had been shifted to hideouts on northern Honshu and Hokkaido to await the coming invasion.
 Tokyo broadcasts admitted the air and naval bombardment, but significantly they made no mention of early Japanese opposition. They tacitly confirmed hints from the fleet that American fighters con- centrated on the Honshu- Hokkaido airflelds to keep the Japanese fight CTS down, while the Navy bombers worked over shipping and other mil- itary targets.
 Enemy accounts said the brunt