GUADALCANAR IMPORTANT
JAPANESE MAY ATTACK SOON (Special Australian Correspondent, N.Z.P.A.) (Rec. 7 p.m.) SYDNEY, October 8. “An all-out Japanese attempt ■ to recapture Guadalcanar is imminent, according to many observers, including BrigadierGeneral H. S. Sewell, military adviser at the British Information Department in Washington, but if the enemy remains unwilling to risk a major naval engagement the troops which he has landed by stealth on Guadalcanar may be sacrificed. Military observers in the United States say the Japanese are withdrawing from New Guinea to concentrate on reoccupying the bases in the Solomons. “Japan may be unable to carry on exacting campaigns simultaneously in New Guinea and the Solomons,” stated The New York Times in an editorial. “In this event it would be logical to sacrifice the operations against Port Moresby if that would help to regain Guadalcanar. While Guadalcanar and Tulagi are in Allied hands the Japanese left flank is exposed to danger.” “Insufficient air power to provide cover for both his Papuan and Solomons drives appears to have been the greatest single factor prompting the abandonment of the enemy’s land drive against Port Moresby,” says The Sydney Morning Herald today. “The Japanese have now to show whether they are strong enough in the air to carry the Southern Solomons alone.” U.S. POSITIONS STRENGTHENED
The Sydney Morning Herald adds that the longer the enemy delays, the promised attack in force on Tulagi and Guadalcanar the greater the task before him in dislodging the Americans, who are steadily strengthening their positions. “The Japanese nightly landing of reinforcements on Guadalcanar is merelj’ an adaptation of the enemy’s set tactics of infiltration,” says The Sydney Morning Herald, “but Guadalcanar, despite its size on the map, offers nothing useful to an attacker or defender except one flat space on the northwest comer of the island, where the all-important aerodrome is situated. “So long as the enemy fails to assert sufficient naval and air strength to seize and hold this foot of the strategic Port Moresby-Tulagi-Rabaul triangle the mere maintenance of his forward troops there, as on the Papuan length of the second leg of the triangle, must be an expensive gesture. Just as the Japanese at loribaiwa, lacking the strength- for a further forward movement, were obliged to retire, so the planting of small parties of troops on Guadalcanar must become futile if they are not to be aided in their purpose by strong naval and air action.” “The shadow of coming events in the Solomons seems clear,” says The New York Times. “Japan’s willingness to risk a heavy cruiser and a squadron of destroyers to land a few more troops on Guadalcanar leaves no doubt that she intends to attempt to recapture the airfield. Japan is in a desperate hurry and the crucial struggle seems to be approaching.
FLEET STRENGTH TO LAUNCH OFFENSIVE (Rec. 7 p.m.) NEW YORK, October 7. Naval observers point out that the Japanese Fleet, in spite of heavy losses, is still strong enough to launch a new offensive in the south-west and central Pacific,” says the Pearl Harbour correspondent of the United Press. The American victories in the Coral Sea and Midway battles were based primarily on the element of surprise and should not be taken to mean that the
Japanese cannot or have not dealt heavy blows. The Japanese may strike any one of three principal objectives:— (1) Against American bases in the Solomons to nip the head of the United Nations counter-offensive. (2) Against the principal steppingstones in the Southern Pacific supply route to Australia. (3) Against the Midway-Hawaii area to smash or capture the United States Pacific Fleet’s main base. The Under-Secretary of the Navy, Mr J. V. Forrestal, who has just returned from a tour of the Southern Pacific areas predicts the revival of bitter fighting in the Solomons. “For the first time the little squat men have been sent back,” he said. “They do not like it. There will be nothing static about our very active second front down under.”
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Southland Times, Issue 24870, 9 October 1942, Page 5
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665GUADALCANAR IMPORTANT Southland Times, Issue 24870, 9 October 1942, Page 5
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