THICKENING LINE

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 106, 29 January 1943, Page 5

THICKENING LINE

Japanese Bases In South Pacific ALLIED LEADERS MAY SEND MORE PLANES (By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Special Australian Correspondent.) (Received January 28, 9.50 p.m.) SYDNEY, January 28. “Co-ordinated aggressiveness is henceforth the Allied order of battle. In the scheme of global strategy which was formulated at the Casablanca conference priority must be given to the European theatre. But the war with Japan can no longer be relegated to a holding operation. The promise of maximum aid to China presupposes a reopening of the Burma link as a prelude to blows at the heart of the Japanese enemy. In the ‘Pacific the emphasis must be upon naval and aerial activities aimed at.the severance of Japan’s long lines of communication and at closing in upon the Japanese mainland.”

This Australian appreciation of the great Allied plan for victory is made by the military correspondent of the “Sydney Morning Herald.” Keenly alive to the .dangers of allowing Japan to consolidate and develop her Pacific and Asiatic “co-prosperlty spheres,” Australia will watch eagerly for concrete evidence that this theatre is not overlooked in the new strategy of the global war. The “Sydney Morning Herald,” editorially applauding "this most momentous conference,” declares of the Pacific that “a partial diversion of Allied naval and air strength now, within the framework of agreed global strategy, might save great loss and bloodshed later on.” Japanese May Attack.

That the Japanese have enormously strengthened their South-west Pacific defensive arc, which runs through an unbroken chain of more than 2000 miles of island bases from Celebes to the Solomons, is the inescapable deduction to be drawn from General MacArthur s communiques of the past few weeks. The thickening line of enemy airfields and naval bases under our continual air attack tells its own plain story of the development by the Japanese of a great fortified ring round the conquered territories. Australian war observers, however, are far from being assured that these Japanese efforts have purely a defensive purpose designed primarily to permit of the unhindered exploitation of the resources of the Netherlands East Indies and Malaya. Mr. Curtin reiterated Australia s fears when he told the assembled Federal Parliament. “There is no portent suggesting that the enemy has had a rebuff sufficient to deter him from the task he has set himself.” At a subsequent Press conference the Prime Minister elaborated this statement when he said, “In their past offensive moves the Japanese failed to gauge the strength of the Allied resistance, but with a stroke of luck they might have a major concentration stronger than the resistance wo could offer.” More Aircraft.

Australia fears the present Japanese shipping and plane concentrations, which are just so offensively designed. While such' fears of a new major enemy drive may be exaggerated, it is clear that Australia’s healthy realism toward the Japanese menace has nothing in common with the earlier complacency which proved so expensive to the Allies. It is absolutely certain, too, that the efforts of the enemy round the periphery of their entire South Pacific and Indian Ocean domains are on a greater scale than ever before. The heavily-manned and wellstocked Japanese bases could quickly be converted from defensive to offensive purposes. . Australia recognizes that the Allied island-hopping offensive against Japan is merely a temporary palliative and not a final solution of the Pacific strategy, but her war observers believe that additional air strength in the Pacific would weaken the Japanese hitting power before she could execute any existing threat. Were 5(1 bombers to attack Rabaul and the other enemy bases mentioned in the daily communique where 10 attack today, Japan's attritional losses would almost certainly be such that she could no longer think in terms of expanding iter conquests. Finally mid irrevocably, she would be forced on that defensive which would be an essential preliminary to her inevitable defeat. It is widely hoped in Australia that a minor outcome of the Casablanca conference may be a provision for just such additional air strength.

NEWEST TARGETS

Attacked By Bombers

(Received January 28, 10.30 p.m.) SYDNEY. January 28.

Further evidence of the forging of a great chain of Japanese airfields and naval anchorages north and north-east of Australia is contained,, in General MacArthur’s latest operational report. The Allied air forces in the past 24 hours have attacked enemy bases which were not previously mentioned in the communiques. The Japanese air activity has been light, but a small Allied merchant, vessel is reported to have been sunk by enemy bombers off Wessel Island, near the north-eastern tip of Arnheim Land. The casualties among Hie crew were light. The enemy bases which were iittaelied included Faan and Roematt (in Kai Island) and also Aru Island in the Arafura Sen. Building and jetty areas were bombed by Hudsons at I‘iian ami Roematt, while’ another formation of Hudsons bombed and inucliineguntied enemy surface eraff at. Dobo. A direct bond)’ hit was scored on a lugger. To the north-east of Australia, a raid which is reported today by Admiral Halsey's bombers on Ballale is the lirst disclosure Hint Hie Japanese have succeeded in establishing an ait’fiohl on that island. Ballale is three- miles north-east of Shortbind Island and 295 north-west of Henderson airfield on Guadalcanal. The main Japanese bases in New Guinea at Lae and Salamaua were again heavily raided by Mitchells and Havocs witli 'a Lightning escort. Beiiuiighters strafed the north New Guinea coast round Hit- mouth of the Wnrin River between flic Mambarc River and Salamaua. The 103rd Japanese raid on Port Moresby was made by three bombers early yesterday morning. One of the attacking planes was hit by an Allied fighter and probably failed to reach its bli’se.