Strategic points in three Central China provinces were subjected to intensive bombing by Japanese naval aircraft on Thursday, a communique issued by the Japanese China Seas Fleet command revealed yesterday.
Buildings and freight carriages were destroyed at Sinyang station, north of Hankow on the Peiping-Hankow railway, while one freight train was set on fire, it was claimed.
Hit by Japanese bombs, one Chinese freighter carrying military supplies ran aground off Weiyuankow, below Tayeh on the Yangtze, More than 20 junks sighted in that portion of the river were sunk, the communique added.
In the Kiukiang area, Chinese troops, including cavalry, were bombed at Hsinchiang, while two barracks were set on fire at a point south-east of the Yangtze port, Lion Hill forts below Hukom, where the Chinese are putting up stubborn resistance, were bombed from the air and shelled by surface vessels on Thursday.
Chinese positions at Paishiki and at Maokiatien were badly damaged on Thursday, the former by aerial bombardment, the latter by shelling, the communique stated.
In South China, Japanese bombers confined their attention on Thursday to the Canton-Hankow railway, raining missiles on freight car concentrations and railway tracks near Ping-shih, according to the communique.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.