WANTY-FOUR hours of sanguinary fighting ended early yesterday morning when a Japanese naval landing party captured Wusueh, strongly fortified Chinese defence position on the north bank of the Yangtze, 45 kilometres upstream from Kiukiang.
In planting the sun-spangled naval ensign in Wusueh, on the 44th anniversary of the battle of the Yellow Sea, the Japahese bluejackets brought to an end one of the most spectacular engage-[ments in the present Hankow campaign, Domei correspondents said in radioed dispatches.
To the concentrated fire of the Japanese river fleet, was added that of heavy field pieces landed at Ma-touched, across the river to the south, while Bow the air, medium and heavy bombers rained death and destruction upon the Chinese below, The fall of Wusueh, which together with Matouchen commanded the approach to the Yangtze narrows, will facilitate a Japanese advance up the river, still the "shortest route to-Hankow." Mine folds and partial booms, consisting principally of logs tied together and occasionally of rock-loaded junks, however, still hamper the Japanese progress.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.