Taking advantage of fair weather, Japanese naval air squadrons winged over Honan and Kiangsi provinces on Monday to continue relentless bombardments of Chinese positions in cooperation with operations of land troops and war vessels on the' Yangize, Japanese naval authorities her announced in a communique yesterda A large number of planes under the command of First Lieut. Keijiro Soyeda attacked Chengchow, an important junction of the Peiping-Hankow and Lunghai Railways in Honan: province, demolishing about 50 freight cars in the station compounds and a big warehouse near by, the communiqté said.
Piles of munitions were set on fire and tracks near the station were cut, Another squadron led by First. Lieut. Goro Katsumi and Sub. Lieut, Takeshi Ogawa bombed Chinese positions south of Juichang and vanguard troops on the southern bank of the Yangtze close by, while another small unit attacked troop concentrations south-west of Shangcheng, 40 kilometres south of Kushih. Fires were started in several villages, the statement continued. 1 Another unit commanded by First. Lieut. Joji Higai flew south through thick clouds to Nancheng, 125 kilos metres south-east of Nanchang, and bombed the aerodrome there with "a great deal of success," while several other units operated over the Yangtze River to assist naval forces steaming upstream, They silenced Chinese field artillery and trench mortar positions, the communique concluded.
The landing was effected from a transport which was escorted By. two warships.
It is asserted that the war vessels first bombarded the villages on the island, damaging numerous buildings, including the Roman Catholic Church, ard killing many villagers.—Reuter.
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