Evening star., 1945-07-29
Carrier Planes Fire
Two Bott|eships and
; Cruisers at Kure
Another BottIeship
Sighted Resting on
Bottom, Deck Awosh
By the Associated Press

BY the Associated Press.
GUAM, July 20 Sunday
American Sd Fleet planes set
fire to the japanese battleships
Haruna and Ise and three cruis-
erS in their strikes yesterday at
the Kure naval base and sighted
a third enemy battleShip rest
ing on the bottom with her decks
aWash from Tuesdays attack.
The Saturday strikes. which put
finishing touches on the Wreckage
of the Japanese Navy also heavily
damaged an escort aircraft carrier,
sank three submarines and dam
aged II other ships besides Destroy
ing 94 enemy planes and damag-
ing Sc.
Emphasizing that this was merely
a preliminary report, with more de-
tails likely in the next few days,
Admiral Nimitz in a communicate
said that reports were not yet avail
able on the results achieved by
British feet flyers who participated
with the Americans in the 1900
plane onslaught against the inland
Sea area in the very heart of the
enemy empire.
Returned to Knock Out Ships.
All the heavy ships listed as
severely damaged had been damaged
lightly in the great air blows of
Tuesday and Wednesday, and the
carrier airmen went back yesterday
to accomplish the specific mission of
knocking them out thoroughly.
Besides the burning Earuna and
Ise. old but powerful ships of
29,300 and 29,990 tons, the Ameri-
cans set fire to the already damag-
ed heavy cruiser Ayoba, the light
cruisers Tone and Oyodo, and in
f1icted new damage to the escort
carrier Kaiyo.
In the fiery ruins of the Kure
naval base, now blasted of its elab-
crate camouf1age nettings with
which the japanese had tried to
hide their fleet, the Americans spot
ted the battleship Hyuga, sister
ship of the Ise.
Hit on Tuesday with undeter-
mined results. she was sitting on
the shallow bottom but her mid
ships deck section was awash-
presenting the possibility that her
back may have been broken. In
cho nf eatinT,
for a long time to come, perhaps
forever.
19 Jap Planes Downed.
Other ships damaged yesterday
included four destroyers, two de-
stroyer escort, two medium freight
er-transports. three small freighters
and one unidentified ship.
Only one japanese plane was shot
down near the Allied fleet, and 18
which tried to brave the American
air scourge were shot down over
the target area. Seventy-flve were
destroyed on the ground, plus Sc
damaged.
Admiral Nimitz made no mention
of operations today. leaving the
enemy in the dark as to when and
where the roaring seaborne airpower
might strike next.
He added to the bag of enemy
shipping, however, with announce
ment of extensive land-based naval
air attacks which sank or damaged
18 assorted ships and small craft
Friday and yesterday in widespread
sweeps over the Tsushima Straits,
around Kyushu and on Honshu's
east coast.
Paramushiro Bombed.
The same search planes of Fleet
Air Wings and IS also shot up
the Shantung Peninsula of China
and set fire to radio installations on
Miyake Island.
For good measure. also on Friday,
11th Army Air Force Liberators
from the Aleutians bombed Kataoka
naval base at Paramushiro, in the
Northern Kuriles.
The Sd Fleet carrier planes had
to bore through intense anti-air-
craft fire over the Inland Sea- Ad-
miral Nimitz gave no report on
American aircraft losses, which the
japanese radio claimed were nine
shot down and four damaged-a
modest claim for the number of
planes involved, which the enemy
said was 670.
Admiral Nimitzs communiuue
yesterday, issued while the latest
strike was getting under way, said
that 26 japanese warships we're
sunk or damaged in the previous
Inland Sea raids of the week.
Associated Press Correspondent
Morrie Landsberg, reporting from
the admiral'S headquarters, wrote:
Japan, it can be said for the first
time, is capable of sending out only
such light units as United States
destroyers can look after without
further help. Every one of the 10
battleships Japan had at the start
of the war is either lying on the
bottom - or at least battered into