Word: palembang
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...Even if they could keep the South China Sea open for supply ships and tankers for a few more weeks, they had already lost heavily on the fuel front: aircraft from four British carriers, commanded by dashing, slashing (but nonflying) Rear Admiral Sir Philip Louis Vian, had bombed the Palembang refineries on Sumatra, cutting by an estimated 75% their high-octane-gasoline output...
...Japs had been among the first belligerents to use airborne troops in combat. At Palembang they had used them successfully. But that was in February 1942, against a foe ill-equipped to resist them. Last week, when they tried airborne attacks again, the Japs landed in a different league...
More spectacular was the second India-based B-29 raid: nearly 2,000 miles for a daylight strike at Singapore, the first since Britain's naval bastion fell to the Japs in February 1942. Except for a B-29 night raid last August on Palembang, Sumatra, this was the longest mission ever made by bombers. Tokyo said 30 B-29s were involved...
They got the final proof last week when B-29 Superfortresses of the Twentieth U.S. Air Force bombed the great Palembang oil refineries in remote southeastern Sumatra in the longest-range air assault of the war. If the B-29s could reach Palembang they could reach anywhere in Japan's homeland islands or in Greater East Asia...
...crews took pains to make it a precision job. The big craft were over the city for an hour and a half. As at Palembang, bombermen reported antiaircraft fire and fighter opposition "weak to moderate." Losses for both attacks: three B-29s missing...