The Bay Of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. WEDNESDAY, AUG. 12, 1942 THUNDER OVER THE SOLOMONS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 05, Issue 90, 12 August 1942, Page 4

The Bay Of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. WEDNESDAY, AUG. 12, 1942 THUNDER OVER THE SOLOMONS

THE American attack upon the Solomon Islands,, appears about to develop into something approaching a major offensive if we are to take into consideration the naval losses already announced and increasing scale of the assistance from the air by R.A.F. 'planes. The attack togethei with the four thousand mile distant Aleutian battle constitutes the first military action which the U.S.A. has taken in the present war, and the fact that reports state that the Americans are meeting with considerable resistance indicates that the Japanese were present in force and are prepared to put up a fight for the possession of the islands. The heartening effect of the attack upon the Australian public can be also applied-to New Zealand where it was patent to all observers that the growing southern tentacle of Japans military expansion represented a dual threat to both the Australian continent and the Dominion. The steady penetration. southward speaks all too plainly of Japan's intentions in the South Pacific. Piece by piece she has enveloped the islands that form a stepping stone bridge from her own Asiatic Empire until to-day Broome, Darwin and Townsville ha.ve heard the bursting of her bombs and Sydney resorts have felt the force of fitful shelling from off' shore submarines. The steady, silent incursion into New Guinea formed a parallel movement with the investiture of the Solomon group. Both excellent jumping off places for the greater tasks forming the subjugation of the British Dominions in the South Pacific. Port Moresby on the toe of New Guinea would undoubtedly have been the first point of concentrated attack after which it would have been comparatively easy to ceaselessly harrass the northern Australian ports to screen the preparations for a major offensive and possible invasion. Little by little the infiltration scheme of which the Japanese have proved themselves masters has been applied on an army scale until General Mac Arthur's headquarters deemed it had gone far enough. For the first time American arms undertook the offensive and their invasion ,of enemy occupied Tulagi will be watched breathlessly no less by Australians and New Zealanders, than by their own countrymen in the U.S.A. Upon the battle for Tulag;i will be based the comparative fighting capacity of the American soldier, the encouragement or otherwise of maintaining the offensive upon an ever-widening scale in the South Pacific and also the.depth of co-operation which can now be expected from the combined three arms of Colonial and American armed forces.