NEW U.S. ISLAND BASES

Marlborough Express, Volume LXXVI, Issue 244, 16 October 1942, Page 5

NEW U.S. ISLAND BASES

FACTOK IN FUTURE TACTICS.

P.A. Special.

SYDNEY, Oct. 15.

"The continuing air and naval battle in the Solomons has already in the aggregate begun to assume the dimensions of an action which may prove decisive in the Pacific war at sea," says the Sydney Morning Herald, commenting on to day's cheering news from" the South-west Pacific fronts. Australian war news analysts see the battle for the Solomons as one of attrition, with Japanese losses in ships and aircraft now amounting to a total which must prove gravely embarrassing to the enemy. It is pointed out that recent reports of the South-west Pacific actions have revealed the existi

ence of American bases in the New Hebrides and Fiji, considerably strengthening the Allied position in this theatre. While no information of the size or type of these bases has been given, both American and Australian observers regard their now officially-acknowledged existence as proof of Allied determination to pursue a vigorous offensive policy against the Japanese. A Washington report states that Espiritu Santo Island in the New Hebrides is an air base which some of the air force units assisting the Marines to capture Guadalcanar used as a jumping-off place. Emphasising again the great importance of land-based air power in which the supremacy has lain so decisively with the Alies, the Sydney Morning Herald says: "The initiative which the Japanese have striven to, assert on sea and land has been constantly baffled and crippled by the Allies' initiative in the air, a revelation which should assure the Solomons battle of a leading place in the future study of amphibious tacties in the war." SHREWD SKIN GAME, Enemy unwillingness to risk a major fleet action in which carriers and battleships would participate is generaly commented upon. It is pointed out that the attrition fighting into which the Japanese have been led by the Americans has already cost the Japanese losses equivalent to those of a major fleet action fought in vain. But observers agree that the Japanese still have substantial sea power available and must either risk- a battle or admit defeat in a contest in which the stakes are much more than the Solo mons. "If our Allies have not yet fully succeeded in getting the enemy, navally speaking, where they want him," says the Herald, "at least they have so far outwitted, outmanoeuvred and outfought him in the shrewdest skin game this war has yet produced." "The stake for Allied victory in the Solomons is more than relative security for Australia and New Zealand and their supply lirfes from America," says . the Sydney Telegraph. "If the Japanese lose • the bitter fight for these strategic islands the Allied defence line in the Southwest Pacific will be advanced to a new line running from Port Moresby to Guadalcanar. This would outfiank the Japanese base at Rabaul and probably force the enemy's main concentrations hack to Truk, 1000 miles to the north."