The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-08-02
Osoka-kobe Area Roked
(Continued from Page D

mained for third day under a se- curity blackout somewhere off the enemy coast, possibly rearming and refueling for a new round of attacks on the Japanese home islands
 Radio Tokyo said one cruiser and three destroyers, presumably task force from the. Third Fleet, bom- barded O Island, northernmoSt of the IZu islands 70 miles south of Tokyo, yesterday morning.
 Carrier planes also joined in the bombardment. the broadcast said, hut it claimed damage was neg iigible.
 Subs Shell Coast
 Another Tokyo broadcast said three Allied submarines shelled the west coast of the Cape of Erimo on Southern Hokkaido, northern most of the Japanese home islands, yesterday afternoon. Only "A hours earlier, single Allied submarine had shelled the city of Tomakomai on Southern Hokkaido, Tokyo said.
 Far east of Japan, an American battleship and carrier planes joined in bombardment of long-by-passed Wake Island yesterday, Admiral Chester w. Nimitz announced.
 Japanese shore batteries and anti aircraft guns on Wake offered only slight opposition. No American crewmen were injured, but shell fragments caused extremely minor damage to some warships.
 The attack was designed to harass the hunger weakened garrison which was cut of from Japan by the Amer ican advance to the threshold of the enemy'S home islands. It was on Wake that handful of U. s. Mar ines held of the Japanese for IA days at the start of the Pacific war.
 Only one superfortress was lost in todays record five-way attack despite the fact that the four main target cities had been warned they would be bombed to destruction Moderate anti-aircraft fire and only slight fighter opposition were en- corntered.
 A total of 778 bombers struck the four cities and the petroleum in- StallationS at KawaSaki, and 4 other superfortreSSeS mined Shim- onoseki Strait between the mair Japanese home isands of Kyushu alsS Honshu and waters of Seishir and RaShin on the coast of north ern Korea.
 Rashin lies only 21 miles south o1 the RuSSian-Korean border and is 105 miles southwest of Vladivostok Seishin is 35 miles farther south The flight was the longest mining mission yet undertaken by the Superfortresses.
 Jellied fire bombs were cascaded on Hachioji, Toyama, Nagaoka and Mito, while storage tanks and refin- cries at Kawasaki were wrecked with two-ton block-buster demolition bombs.
 The raid was another major blow in the American campaign to smash Japanese shadow factories, disrupt communications and cripple enemy planes and transport in advance of an American invasion by destroy ing their sources of fuel.
 It exceeded in weight the heaviest missions ever undertaken by the RAF and the American Air Forces in Britain during the European war.
 Twining Takes Over
 The attack was the first under taken by the 20th Air Force under the new command of Gen. Carl A. Spaatz's U. s. Army Strategic Air Forces. With 1t, Major. Gen. Curtis Le May relinquished command of the goth Air Force to It. Gen. Nathan F. Twining and became chief of staff to Spaatz
 Radio Tokyo acknowledged the laid on the five principal targets and said the B-29s also attacked Tsurmi, Ujiyamada and Tachikawa, also all on Honshu. It claimed II superfortresses had been shot down and 27 others damaged,
 Tokyo also revealed that Japanese transportation minister Naoto Kohi- yama had conceded in a press inc terview that American planes based on Okinawa were carrying out thorough and systematic" raids on railways and other transport tar- gets on Kyushu.
 A communique from Gen. Doug las MacArthur's headquarters said Okinawa-based planes on Tuesday touched off large fires and violent explosions in factories. warehouses and fuel dumps on Kyushu. A B. c00-ton tanker, thre medium freight CTS. two destroyer escorts and a coastal craft were sunk. the com nunique said.
 Tokyo newspapers, meantime, were waxing enthusiasm over Japanese communlque issued yes tefdeV elniuflne thnk i.0Qf Allied