ALLIES LOOK FOR FIGHT

Southland Times, Issue 24827, 20 August 1942, Page 5

ALLIES LOOK FOR FIGHT

NAVAL FORCES IN SOLOMONS (Rec. 11 p.m.) WASHINGTON, August 19. The Allied naval forces in the Solomons are reported to be looking for fight. Vice-Admiral Robert L. Ghormley’s ships are malting wide sweeps in an effort to make contact with the enemy. Further naval fighting is expected to occur at any time. American naval men view the prospect of the coming battles not only with equanimity, but with the lively hope that nothing will prevent the Japanese from joining action soon. A long grim fight in the South-west Pacific is expected as a result of the successful Solomons attack. The New York Sun gives a warning that the Japanese will make a major effort to reverse the situation.

The challenge to Japan is too full of unpleasant implications for the. Japanese to accept American dominion of Tulagi and the surrounding islands without a major effort to reverse the situation. At the same time this. American victory is but the first step in the Allied counter-drive against. Japan and its value lies in the position it gives the United Nations’ forces for further att&cks* Behind the official phraseology of yesterday’s Navy Department communique lie hundreds of stories of individual daring and close-range fighting, involving cruisers and destroyers m the pitch darkness of the landing operations carried through with the thoroughness characteristic of the Marines. ATTACKS ON PORT MORESBY War correspondents point out that the Allied forces must press home their attacks against the Japanese bases on Bougainville island and Rabaul in order to confirm initial successes. The renewal of large-scale enemy, air attacks on Port Moresby, coinciding with a steady tightening of the Allied grip on the Solomons is interpreted as a reassuring sign that the enemy’s hold on the major bases in the Solomons is weakening. It is believed that with the loss or the airfields at Tulagi and Guadalcanar the Japanese will have airferried their major bombing strength back from Nqw Britain to New Guinea and the danger to Port Moresby, far from being relieved by the Solomons attack, is considered to be intensified. “Japan cannot afford to allow the consolidation of Papua and the Solomons to become an immediate threat to Rabaul,” declares The Sydney Morning Herald’s military correspondent. She must increase her activities in New Guinea as much to provide diversion from the Solomons now as to prevent the loss of Rabaul at some later stage. Her effort cannot be limited to patrol skirmishes over the northern ranges and a fight for the small landing field at Kokoda. So much is at stake that she must hit at Port Moresby by every possible means by land and air and maybe by sea.” NAVAL BATTLE EXPECTED

The correspondent of the Association says that it is probable that the American fleet in general has now been able to withdraw its immediate support from the land operations and has stood out in preparation for meeting a Japanese naval challenge in force. Enehiy units localized at the islands when the operations began have been sunk or have fled to the Caroline Islands. Ultimate success, therefore, turns on developing a crucial naval battle. ' The Japanese .may. attempt a frontal assault with their main fleet, in which case disaster for them would change the whole complexion of the Pacific war. If they cannot break open and maintain the supply route to the south-eastern Solomons they, must count the islands as lost. The Chinese Government spokesman at Chungking declares that the United States’ action in the Solomons has greatly strengthened China’s confidence in the might and unlimited possibilities of an American offensive. The epochmaking battle, which has drawn a substantial portion of the Japanese naval, air and land forces from the midPacific, will inevitably force Japan to revise her continental plans.

ALLIES FIGHT ON IN TIMOR SYDNEY, August 19. For six months Dutch, Australian and Indonesian soldiers on the island of Timor have been harassing the much stronger Japanese occupying forces.' “Theirs is a story of bravery and endurance which even breaks the record of Batan,” says a statement issued by the Netherlands East Indies Government Information Service. This gives greater significance to the recent announcements of Allied air raids on Timor objectives. “In the hilly part of Timor, which is 300 miles long, these soldiers are opposing the Japanese,” says the statement. “In the beginning our troops had to carry on, often without sufficient food and supplies and without proper shoes to wear. Little has been heard of the heroic men of Timor and for military reasons little could be told about what was going on in the island north of Australia. That these men are holding their own is of the greatest importance, as Timor is still the hope of the Dutch and the millions of Indonesians who are bent under the yoke of the oppressor.” U.S. BOMBER PILOT’S ESCAPE (Special Australian Correspondent, N.Z.P.A.) (Rec. 6.30 p.m.) SYDNEY, August 19. An American bomber pilot, Captain Frank Bender, is alive because his machine exploded in mid-air during fighting over New Guinea. When his plane was attacked by Zeros the controls were shot away and he himself was hit in the ankle. He signalled his crew to bail out, but they found the emergency hatch was jammed and they were trapped in a machine out of control. The enemy got in another burst and Captain Bender’s machine exploded. He was thrown into the air and was knocked momentarily unconscious, but he managed to get his parachute open. He was injured in the knee in landing.

However, he found the wreckage of his plane and buried the three members of the crew. Then his position might have been hopeless, but luck brought him to Dr H. F. Butmead, a medical officer who had been taken prisoner when the Japanese landed in Burma, but who had later escaped. Dr Butmead organized a native carrying party and after a 16-day trek brought the injured airman to an Australian camp, where he was operated on. “Dr Butmead stuck to me, although the Japanese were only a few miles behind,” said Captain Bender. “Without him I would not have this leg any more. I would not be here.”