Evening star., 1945-07-08

Un japanese Snlpplng
And Home Air Bases
Ey the Associated Press.
GUAM, July 8 Sunday -
More attacks on japanese ship
ping and air bases extending
from the Ryukyus up to the
coast of HonShu, where 60C
Super Fortresses heavily raideo
five homeland cities without loss
Saturday, were disclosed today
in latest communiques.
Kyushu, southernmost japanese
island, has been raided for the third
straight day by 5th Air Force planes
newly based on Okinawa, Gen
Macarthur reported from Manila
headquarters, which covers the 5th
Air Forces operations They shot
down four of six planes encoun-
tered Thursday and probably de-
stroyed the other two without loss
to themselves.
Of the south coast of Honshu
Admiral Chester w. Nimitz re-
ported today, Mitchell bombers of
the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing sent
rockets into four japanese ships
Friday.
Grounded Planes Set Afire.
Enemy air bases north and south
of Okinawa were pounced on Fri
day and Saturday by Marine air.
craft, which set seven grounded
planes ablaze.
In all, Admiral Nimitz listed a
bag of nine enemy ships, including
five cargo vessels damaged while
at anchor off the China coast in the
Yellow Sea yesterday.
The B-29s, making their fourth
attack in six days, burned and
/ blasted five aluminium, oil, rail and
industrial centers with 1000 tons of
bombs in the predawn hours of
Saturday.
| No japanese fighters challenged
the raiding mission, probably the
largest yet, the goth Air Force an
nounced. Antiaircrsft fire was
meager and inaccurate.
The attacks brought to 30 the
number of Japanese homeland cities
hit by Big fire raids. Reconnais-
Sance photographs showed that the
total area of ruins, now accurately
observed in 25 of the cities, had
reached more than 126 square miles
Fires Blaze Through Clouds.
Crews of the Super Fortresses in
Saturdays mission saw fires blazing
through clouds far around Japan's
Mount Fuji.
The 12,000-foot peak, highest in
Japan, reflected towering infernos
above the Shimizu aluminium pro-
ducing center, Japan's largest, and
the cities of Kofu and Chiba.
Long lines of refuge vehicles were
sighted fleeing from Kofu
The flames at Shimizu ragged to
the waterfront.
Other targets, outside the Mt
/ Fuji area, were the Maruzen oil re-
finery, IS miles southwest of
Osaka, and Akashi. aircraft pro-
ducing city near Kobe.
| Most spectacular of the confia-
grations was at Shimizu, 20 miles
southwest of Fuji. The flames lit
orally burned the clouds apart, 1t
Samuel Hooks of Goldsboro, N. c..
reported. He explained the phe-
nomenon was caused by thermal air
currents.
Smoke Rises 10000 Feet.
Fires were observed blazing
through the clouds above Kofu
about IS miles northwest of Full
and smoke columns rose 10000 feet
above Chiba, 40 miles northeast OF
Fuji, across Tokyo Bay.
Japanese army and navy dis
trict communiques, as broadcast,
by the Tokyo radio and recorded
by the Federal communications
Commission, claimed the B-29s
struck around midnight Friday
and during early Saturday and
that fires were under control by
dawn. The communiques eSti-
mated more than 400 B-29s parti-
cipated and failed to claim any
was shot DOWN.
Latest reconnaissance photographs
Of previous raid damage showed five
square miles of ruins in Himeji
Kure, Kumamoto and Ube on Hon.
shu Island and in Hochi on Shikoku
Island.
The Hitachi engineering works
near Sukegawa was shown almost
completely knocked out. Light
damage was observable at the Japa-
! <{1 H.