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The Southland Times TUESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1942. A Major Battle in the Solomons

ALTHOUGH a warning note crept into earlier reports from the Solomons area, the battle is too closely hidden to be the subject of reliable statements. American and Australian correspondents have explained in clear terms the importance of the strategic issues. But most people realize that the Japanese have to be stopped and driven back from the Solomons if Australia and New Zealand are to escape the danger of invasion. The security of the Pacific Dominions is bound up with the fate of New Caledonia, Fiji and the New Hebrides. While those outposts remain intact the Japanese cannot safely penetrate the area crossed by the supply line to the United States. The position of Fiji and New Caledonia would be seriously weakened by an American reverse in the Solomons. It is partly for this reason that Guadalcanar, an island which slumbered unknown through many centuries of history, has suddenly become the focal point of the Pacific war. Possession of its airfield is the immediate prize for- which the Japanese are contending. The side which retains or recovers the use of land-based aircraft must win an advantage that may prove decisive. But there is a larger issue in the background. Ever since the first American landings in the Solomons the hope has been expressed that Japan would meet the challenge by throwing in a great part of her naval power. It was recognized in Washington that the best chance of securing an early decision lay in a major clash between the sea and air fleets of the combatant nations. A step-by-step advance through the islands and archipelagoes of the South-west Pacific threatened to be slow, costly and terribly difficult. Although, from one point of view, the Japanese might have preferred a war of attrition (hoping for a stalemate that could leave their new empire comparatively untouched), their shipping resources are not large enough to meet the scattered but cumulatively heavy losses that are nibbling at their reserves in tonnage. Both sides, therefore, may have reached a point where a naval showdown is inescapable. And it is hard to believe that the Americans, who from the first day’s fighting in the Solomons have shown that they have a firm hold upon Pacific strategy, would not be fully prepared for a Japanese counter-stroke. Their spokesmen have repeatedly hinted that a major blow was to be expected. The importance of the impending battle was never underestimated. Yet in its early phase reports from the Solomons, or from American observers who sifted the materials of the meagre communique, showed a tendency to veer sharply from confidence to pessimism. For instance, the Washington correspondent of The New York Times (who writes close to the sources of official information) was quoted yesterday as saying that there were indications that “lack of air and sea support has placed the American forces in a serious, if not critical, position. Japanese bombings and artillery fire have apparently rendered Henderson airfield unusable.” But within 24 hours the same correspondent was able to quote a report that “after two days’ silence United States planes were operating over Guadalcanar.” And he added that the United States Navy is not likely to have been caught unprepared for a situation “which it must have anticipated and, indeed, have desired to bring about.” The defenders are still able to employ aircraft over the battle area, and the navy is actively engaged. These two facts are sufficient to convince New Zealand people that their powerful allies are in control of a difficult situation. They know that the battle must be hard, that it may be indecisive, and that the issue must remain in doubt until the smoke is at last blown away from the beaches of Guadalcanar, and from the adjacent seas. For the rest, as on so many other occasions in the past three years, they can only wait for news of events that are shaping their destinies. But there are sound reasons for waiting hopefully.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ST19421020.2.19

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Southland Times, Issue 24879, 20 October 1942, Page 4

Word count
Tapeke kupu
672

The Southland Times TUESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1942. A Major Battle in the Solomons Southland Times, Issue 24879, 20 October 1942, Page 4

The Southland Times TUESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1942. A Major Battle in the Solomons Southland Times, Issue 24879, 20 October 1942, Page 4

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