Evening star., 1945-07-16
MAP on Page Az
By the Associated Press

MAP on Page Az
By the Associated Press.
GUAM, July 16.-Gunf1re Of
the United States Pacific Fleet
virtually demolished two Japa-
nese industrial centers while
carrier planes burned a third
city to the ground and with
land-based bombers heavily at
tackled 13 others Saturday and
yesterday in one of the most
destructive week ends ever suf-
fered by the enemy.
The carrier aircraft sank or dam
aged 103 japanese ships and 25
barges totaling 100000 tons.
Feeble antiaircraft fire was the
only opposition offered to the en-
tire series of explosive assaults.
Battleship forces spearheaded by
the 45,000-ton super-battleships
Missouri, Iowa and Wisconsin, all
but destroyed the iron and steel
center of Muroran on Hokkaido Is
land yesterday. Carrier planes had
burned out practically all of indus
trial Kushiro on the same island the
day before.
B-29s Attack Oil Plant.
B-29s made a return visit to at
tack the Nippon Oil Co. plant at
Kudumatsu on HonShu, about
miles southeast of Tokyuama, with
high explosives.
CThe Japanese Domei news
agency said today that Admiral
William F. Halsey's Sd Fleet
had withdrawn from immediate
coastal waters off Northern
Japan but warned of the posi-
bility of its return.
(The NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
by United States sources-was
presumably due to bad weather
conditions which made further
attacks difficult," Domei said.
directed in English to this
country and monitored in San
Francisco, the Domei broadcast
from Tokyo said total of $500
American carrier planes partici-
pated in the two-day strike at
Northern Honshu and Hokkaido,
with 1,500 planes in the attack
yesterday, and 1000 Saturday.
available reports, Domei con-
tinued, indicated damage to
ground installations was "shght.D
Good Bombing Results.
Returning B-29 crews said the
bombing results were good to ex-
cellent" and that fires and explo-
sions were visible for 100 miles. 1T
turned the clouds and horizon blue
and they stayed that way for 80
seconds" one pilot said. No Super
Forts were lost.
More than 100 Mustangs from their
Two base struck at six Nagoya air.
fields and destroyed or damaged 81
Japanese planes and then pounced
on shipping in Nagoya Bay and
railroad yards.
Three Mustangs were lost. Only
eight interceptors came up to fight.
Four of them were shot down, an
other was probably destroyed and
two were damaged.
Elsewhere in the Far Western
Pacific, American Navy search Priva-
teers heavily attacked Korea; Army
LiberatorS hit the Singapore area
and shipping off Southern Honshu;
Thunderbolts ranged to the China
Coast; attack and fighter bombers
hit two Kyushu Island cities; carrier
planes struck three airflelds on
Honshu, and 100 Army Mustangs at
tackled airfields around Nagoya.
CCmmuniques from three Ameri-
can commands reported aerial as
saults on IL Japanese cities: Muro-
ran, Hakodate, Esashi, Kushiro
Sendai and Shibetsu, all on Hok-
kaido Island; Nagoya, Aomori and
Kudumatsu, all on Honshu; and
Miyazaki and Kagoshima on Kyu-
Shu.
Other Cities Listed.
The Tokyo radio additionally re-
ported that carrier planes also
raided Otaru, Abashiri, Ashigawa
and Obihiro, all on Hokkaido.
The battleship shelling of Muro-
ran blasted two steel plants, one
synthetic oil factory, other war
plants and left the city rocked with
fierce explosions and fires. Satur-
days bombardment of Kamaishi on
Honshu set fires in the steel mills
which spread to the waterfront.
Between so and rs Super Fort
resses struck Kudumatsu, once the
fourth largest oil refinery center in
the home islands. The B-29 COM
mand reported that previous at
tacks on nine of Japan's 10 fuel
centers inflicted damage ranging
from As per cent at Otake, to 95
per cent of the Maruzen oil re-
f1nery at Shimotsu, on the Inland
Sea.
The reports on carrier strikes
cover Saturday and only prelim-
mary figures for yesterday morn
ing. Strikes on both days were
made in adverse weather.
Kushiro Almost Wiped Out.
The Eastern Hokkaido city of Ku-
shire, with $1,000 population, was
almost totally burned out by fires
started in the Saturday air strikes,
Admiral Chester w. Nimitz an
nounced.
Sixteen inch shells from the Mis-