HEAVY FIGHTING AT TULAGI

Southland Times, Issue 24822, 14 August 1942, Page 5

HEAVY FIGHTING AT TULAGI

No Signs Of End Of Battle

(Special Australian Correspondent, N.Z.PA..)

(Rec. 6.30 pjn.) SYDNEY, August 13. News from the Solomons is believed here to be more encouraging than for the past few days and the atmosphere at General Douglas MacArthur’s SouthWest Pacific headquarters has been one of expectant waiting. However the battle is said to show no signs of ending and there is no indication of the position becoming established. American forces are moving inland in the Tulagi area and are now locked in fierce hand to hand fighting with Japanese troops. San Francisco radio reports that the Japanese are said to have launched a heavy counter-attack. The Australian Broadcasting Commission’s Washington correspondent says American paratroops are being employed to harass the Japanese positions in the Solomons. Battleships and aircraft-carriers are understood to be involved in the battle as well as cruisers, destroyers, submarines and troop transports. BRIDGEHEADS ESTABLISHED

American reports indicate that our naval units are still off the coast. This indicates that Allied superiority is being maintained as it would be impossible for ships to operate close inshore for long periods without air control. War correspondents at General MacArthur’s headquarters say judgment on the Solomons operation must be reserved until it is certain that the gains we have made have been consolidated beyond the possibility of repulse. The only facts definitely known from the official communiques are that the Allies have established bridgeheads in the Tulagi area and that each side has sustained losses.

The Allied gains have not been specified, but a hopeful note begins to appear in communiques. The military view is that a reasonable cost does not count if the objective is gained, but in long-range strategy it is inevitable that results must be assessed in relation to losses. The basis for this assessment is not ship for ship, plane for plane and man for man, but the capacity of the opposing forces to withstand and recover from those losses. The Associated Press of America correspondent at Honolulu describes the attack as the “beginning of a continuous campaign, which owing to its amphibious nature, will appear to be a sequence of piecemeal and separate operations.” He quotes a military observer as agreeing that the United Nations offensive in the South-West Pacific will be “long and bitter.” POSSIBLE COURSE OF BATTLE (Rec. 6.30 p.m.) NEW YORK, August 12. Interesting conjecture about the course of the Solomons battle is offered by the Washington correspondent of The New York Herald Tribune. Quoting an unnamed naval officer, he says that the action may have taken the following form since Friday:— (1) The bombardment of enemy aerodromes by army and navy bombers and torpedo planes. (2) A struggle for air supremacy. (3) An advance by the heaviest American surface units, adding their gunfire barrage to the aerial bombardment and helping to provide a protective curtain for landing troops. (4) A possible para-troop landing to aid the commandos from transports and barges. . , , (5) Shelling enemy air and troop bases by cruisers and destroyers plunging towards the shore under an umbrella of aerial and naval fire. (6) Aircraft carriers standing by with battleships, cruisers and destroyers between them and the enemy sending planes repeatedly against the Japanese. At a meeting of the Pacific War Council at the White House the Solomons battle was the principal subject discussed. , . Mr T. V. Soong, the Chinese representative, said China was much encouraged by the offensive. He added that the available news of the action was limited. The Australian Minister. Sir Owen DixOn, remained with President Roosevelt for an additional conference after the other members had left. The reason for this conference was not disclosed. REPORTED WOUNDING OF GENERAL TOJO (Rec. 11.30 p.m.) WASHINGTON, August 12. The Associated Press of America says that Kilsoo Haan, Washington representative of the Chinese-Korean People’s League, stated that he had received a report from the Orient, which he believed to be true that a young Korean patriot had shot and slightly wounded General Hideki To jo, Prime Minister of Japan, on June 17. Kilsoo Haar, said that in the ensuing excitement gendarmes opened fire, killing Major Yuzo Fujita, a prominent army aviator, after which the Japanese rounded up 92 young Koreans in Tokyo. Their fate was unknown.