LOSSES OF JAPANESE

Southland Times, Issue 24878, 19 October 1942, Page 5

LOSSES OF JAPANESE

ENEMY READY TO PAY PRICE (Special Australian Correspondent, N.Z.P.A.) (Rec. 11 p.m.) SYDNEY, Oct. 18. “Issues fateful for all the belligerents, and particularly for Australia and New Zealand, are being decided on and around the shores of Guadalcanar,” declares The Sydney Morning Herald in an editorial. “Factual news of the fighting remains scanty. There is no doubt, however, that the enemy is prepared to accept tremendous losses to repossess the island's vital aerodrome. This airfield is generally accepted as the key to the whole situation in the Solomons and the Allied positions in the other south-eastern islands of the group would soon become untenable if the Japanese should succeed in their primary objective.” “The outcome of the swaying battle may depend on whether the Americans can retain the airfield as an effective fighter and bomber base,” says The Daily Express naval correspondent. Bombardment of the airfield by Japanese planes and warships in an attempt to smash American air re-

sistance is suggested by some commentators to carry the implication that the enemy now controls the waters along the beach held by the United States land forces. This implication is further strengthened by the latest news that the Japanese have been able to land tanks and artillery. The enemy has obviously throwrr a great concentration of sea, air and ground strength into the struggle. CAPITAL SHIPS RISKED “The enemy is trying to eliminate the Allied flank threat to his Southwest Pacific positions at whatever cost,” declares The Sydney Morning Herald’s military correspondent. “They have even been prepared to hazard capital ships within range of Allied land-based bombers. The Japanese must believe that they have a fair chance of securing results with the heavy forces they are risking in the attack. Clearly they have subordinated their plans in other theatres, including New Guinea, to the concentration in the Solomons. It is not yet clear, however, whether the Japanese in their latest attempt to retake the southern Solomons are pursuing primarily an offensive or a defensive strategy. They may be attempting to conserve their outermost gains or they may want Guadalcanar back in order to strike further south through New Caledonia. “If the Americans succeed in holding the South-eastern Solomons their success will have valuable repercussions in every other battle-ground and in every other ocean,” says The Evening News, London, in an editorial. “There are no separate fronts in this war and the swaying of one affects the balance of all. The Pacific has had—and is having—the most vital and direct bearing on our fortunes. At the very outset it weakened our naval strength in the Mediterranean and enabled Field-Marshal Rommel to gather strength and drive us from Libya. It is the simple truth that the Japanese in the Pacifc are striking blows for Hitler as well as for themselves and that the Australians and the Americans are fighting battles not only for themselves but also for us.” “The Japanese know if they resigned the Southern Solomons to us the rest of their shaky new empire would go, but if they can eject us they would get a new hold on their dream of world conquest,” declares The New York Herald Tribune, summarizing the issues at stake in the present battle.” They have not flincehd from risking a decisive battle on the issue. From the brief United States Navy Department communique only one fact seems clear—that in this, their big push, the Japanese have suffered heavily in ships, aircraft and men during the past week or so. Nevertheless, they have driven home their attack with tenacity and courage, proving how important their objective is to them.” TOUGH FIGHT FOR JAPANESE Observers say that in Washington there is no attempt to minimize the seriousness of the situation. The only prediction made is that the “Japanese are in for the toughest fight in their lives in their attempt to take Guadalcanar from the Marines.” Observers point out that United States military leaders anticipated an all-out Japanese attempt to recapture Guadalcanar and no doubt prepared for it. “This may be America’s long hoped-for chance to crush the Japanese fleet,” says Glen Perry, The New York Sun’s Washington correspondent. “It is not impossible that the Japanese may be walking into a deadly trap.”

The Sydney Morning Herald suggests that Japan may have been forced to throw in her main battle fleet to force a decision as she could not afford the continued attrition of trading ship for ship and plane for plane against the vastly superior building capacity of the United States. The paper’s military correspondent says that the extension of the Japanese attack to shelling one point of the New Hebrides shows the importance the enemy attributes to recent developments south of the Solomons. The Allied occupation of the New Hebrides and Fiji, as well as New Caledonia, means that the Allies have completed links in a great strategical chain designed to protect the sea communications between America, Australia and New Zealand and to form a strong position on the flank of the Japanese. “This chain, with its outer link in the Southern Solomons, is the strategical answer to a similar Japanese chain stretching from the mandated islands through Rabaul to Bougainville and New Georgia,” declares The Sydney Morning Herald correspondent. “Its various links fit compactly into the general defence system. It is about 500 miles from Guadalcanar to New Hebrides, from which New Caledonia is 300

miles distant and Fiji about 600 miles. Each link is a stepping-stone to the next and troops and supplies may be moved quickly from the bases to various pressure points. By striking the New Hebrides the Japanese probably hoped to break a link in the chain and prevent the free movement of reinforcements from one group to another.”