RAID ON JAP. FLEET

Marlborough Express, Volume LXXVI, Issue 249, 22 October 1942, Page 5

RAID ON JAP. FLEET

MacARTHUR'S BOMBERS

OPERATIONS IN SOLOMONS NO NEWS OF LAND ACTIVITY.

P.A. Special.

SYDNEY, Oct. 21.

Bamage to a Japanese fleet in northern Solomons waters and an enemy airfield: at Buin is believed to haVe been caused in a raid by medium bombers of General MacArthur's Command early on Wednesday morning. The raid was on a smaller scale than earlier attacks by Flying Fortresses. Reconnaissance has shown enemy ships beached and still smoking from the big attacks on Sunday morning. The factor of supply is engaging the increasing attention of news analysts reviewing the situation in the Solomons. Ability to maintain a flow of naval and air reinforcements will decide the outcome of the battle and mastery of the South Pacific, declares the American commentator, Mr Raymond Gram Swing, who sees the opposing land forces on Guadalcanar as east in a minor role in the struggle. "It remains to be seen how much naval strength each side is able to bring into play," he says. "We can derive satisfaction from the statement that in dayiight on Saturday our naval forces bombarded Japanese shore positions while enemv shins shelled our nosi-

tions at night. This shows we have not lost mastery of the seas around the islands as some had feared— otherwise we would ,be doing night shelling and the enemy day shelling." Mr Swing points out that equality of naval losses up to date should prove an eventual advantage. "But this is proving difficult," he says, "presumably due to lack of aircraft cover of a suitable type, a deficiency which must be somewhat paralysing Admiral Ghormley's naval forces." Most commentators concede that the number of troops on Guadalcanar is of secondary importance to the United States, who ean replace losses more rapidly than the enemy. In a despatch from Pearl Harbour, the London News Chronicle correspondent, Mr Patrick Maitland, also emphasises that the battle for Guadalcanar will depend on the ability of the United States Navy to get supplies through to the Marines and to the air and naval strengths, The commander of the United Marme Corps in the Pacific says: "My boys will keep their toehold in the Solomons till hell freezes, if they get proper air and sea sunnort."

ADVANTAGEOUS JAP. BASES. U.S. strategy in the Solomons must be determined more by geography than by choice, declares the Manchester Guardian, stressing the great advantages held by the Japanese in the possession of several bases within easy striking distance of Guadalcanar. With the air bases already established at Buin and Buka in the northern Solomons, as well as at Rabaul, the Japanese have; been working frantically to build new airfields. It is suggested that they may even have some kind of aerodrome On Shortland Island (where a large concentration of enemy transports has been reported), just 260 miles

north-east of Guadalcanar, or on New Georgia. The Commander-in-Chief of the United States NaVy, Admiral King, was cautious on the subject of the Solomons in a New York speech. He said: "Although we are still fighting a two-ocean war with a one-ocean Navy, we took the offensive at Tulagi in August and the Japanese fear and resent it. The second-ocean Navy is well on its way this year, but there will not be any miracles in this war and no inventors to produce machines to knock out the Japanese and their planes. There is no cheap way of winning this war." Admiral King added that officers returning from the Solomons assured him that all the Services there were "in the ditch, digging together."