The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-07-19
Jap Fleet Believed
 Trapped At Tokyo
(Continued from Page 1)

heads. They continued to offer the fantastic explanation that Japan's war lords were holding back their sea and air forces for the coming invasion and could not be "provok- ed" into battle.
 Teh daring surface strike, fourth naval blow at Japan in five days, came in the wake of a 1,500- plane Allied carrier blow on Tokyo and the surrounding area yesterday that may have uncovered the main hide out of the el1emy's few surviving warships.
 Fleet Admiral Chester w. Ninitz revealed that an American wing of the carrier raiding force struck the Yokusuka Naval Base in Tokyo Bay, 30 miles south of Tokyo and 20 miles across the bay from Nojima Cape.
 Diving down through a ferocious barrage of anti-aircraft fire that suggested the presence of important Japanese fleet units there, the Navy flyers bombed and strafed the arl-  chorage heavily.
 There was no confirmation of a Japanese report that 135 Allied planes were shot down or damaged seriously in yesterdays strike, in cluding 82 destroyed and 52 crip- pied. The enemy account said 40 planes were shot down and 38 dam- aged over Yokosuga alone.
 Nimitz said the targets were ''conbatant shipping"-a term ap- plicable to anything from destroyer escorts up to battleships and car- riers-but he gave no further de- tails. And fleet dispatches early today said the storm was still pre- venting accurate reconnaissance re- ports.
 Nimitz' disclosure stirred lively speculation that the handful o1 fighting ships left to the broken imperial navy might be undergoing repairs in the Yokosuka base, one of the three biggest naval stations in the Japanese Islands. Seek Sea-Battle Some observers believed the pow erful Anglo American battle fleet lurking off Tokyo Bay under Adm. William F. Halsey's command might be waiting for their carrier flyers to flush out the enemy warships and bring them to battle. Perhaps 150 warships of all types were known to be lowering off the enemy coast and Nirnitz already had identified 46 of them in contempt uous challenge to the Japanese naval and air commanders. Latest official navy estimates in- dicated the Japanese fleet, once the third largest in the world, now com- prised two batt1eships, one old bat tleship-carrier, two decommissioned battleships, small number of reg ular aircraft carriers, about 30 de- stroyers and "a few" cruisers. The American Navy had been hunting the enemy fleet since the second battle of the Philippines last October, when 25 Japanese warshipS were sent to the bottom and 8 oth- CTS were crippled.
 Fifteen to IT of the survivors were damaged by carrier planes in the inland sea last March, and the fol- lowing month American Navy flyers found and sank the giant battle wagon Yamoto in the Ryukyus. Jap Fleet
 The Japanese fleet had not been spotted since, not even during the destructive Allied surface blows of the past five days when American warships bombarded Muroran on Hokkaido, Kamaishi on northeast ern Honshu, Mito and the surround ing coastal area just north of Tokyo and Cape Nojima.
 Halsey dangled tempting bait be- fore the Japanese fleet commanders in the night strike on Nojima, less than an hours sailing time from the Yokosuka anchorage. Among the attacking warships were the 10.O00- ton cruisers Topeka, Oklahoma City, Atlanta and Dayton, and the de- stroyers Ault and Weeks. There were no immediate details or the results of yesterdays ter- rife air assault on the Tokyo. area. but it was revealed that the Amer ican and British flyers who hit the same area Tuesday destroyed or damaged at least 22 planes and 1S ships.
 That raised the. enemy,s losses since the American Third Fleet first appeared in Japanese waters on July 70 to 446 planes and 39l ships destroyed or damaged. The American wing of the Allied Air Force raked ground targets in the immediate vicinity of Tokyo, in addition to Yokosuga, while the British flyers concentrated on Jap anese installations north of the cap- ital.
 Far to the south, the Army Air Forces under Gen. Douglas Mac wara kiIleA in nyaA nf the hlaeks