Over the Wire

WASHINGTON--A light detachment of American warships, in the first all surface engagement of the North Pacific, apparently has driven off a Japanese force of four cruisers and four destroyers escorting two cargo vessels toward the Aleutians, the Navy announced today.

The opposing warcraft dueled at long range west of Attu Island, westernmost of the Aleutians and itself some 210 miles west of the Jap base at Kiska--which has been under steady American aerial pounding during the past month.