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JAPANESE FLEET BOMBED

AUSTRALIAN-BASED PLANES (Special Australian Correspondent, N.Z.P.A.) (Rec. 11.25 pan.) SYDNEY, Oct. 23. Australian-based medium bombers have made further attacks on the Japanese fleet in the northern Solomons. Early on Thursday morning they dropped 10 tons of bombs on a number of ships dispersed in the wide roadstead between Buin and Faisi. Bad weather prevented observation of the results. Strong anti-aircraft fire and searchlight opposition were encountered from enemy ships, but all our planes returned safely. The attack was made through heavy clouds. Aerial reconnaissance has revealed considerable enemy shipping around Rabaul as well'as in northern Solomons’ waters. The New York Times Washington correspondent emphasizes that these aggregations of Japanese warships, auxiliaries and transports are _ large. The transports are unquestionably carrying troops scheduled to follow up the victory which the Japanese hope to gain in a sea action, he says. The outcome of such an action is apparently being awaited by the enemy troops on Guadalcanar before launching a major offensive against the United States positions. At the same time the enemy appears to hesitate to enter into a contest against the American Navy as long as the weather permits the free operation of air forces, as American pilots and planes, especially dive-bombers and torpedo planes, have demonstrated their decided superiority. However, such planes require fairly high ceilings, and the rainy season, now opening, may ground these planes, after which the Japanese may be able to achieve momentary superiority, in which event they will obviously try for a decisive engagement. The Australian Government had not been asked to send troops to the Solomons, stated the Minister of the Army, Mr F. M. Forde. If Australian troops i were required there were more A.1.F.) men available now than at any previous time since the beginning of the war.

FIERCE COURAGE OF AMERICANS SUPPLY DIFFICULTIES IN SOLOMONS (Rec. 7 p.m.) WASHINGTON, Oct. 22. “If the battle in the Solomons is measured by the fierce resolution and courage of our men there can be but one outcome —complete and final victory,” declared the Under-Secretary of the Navy, Mr James V. Forrestal, to the Navy’s Labour Relations Conference. He added that the balance of power in the Pacific was a touch-and-go affair. It could shift almost daily. The American forces in the Solomons were fighting without rest in black, thick jungle in the blackest kind of night, he said. They had been bombed by day and shelled by night. They had been attacked from the jungle both by day and night. Mr Forrestal, who recently inspected the South-west Pacific bases, said the job of supplying the United States troops in the Solomons was one of the most difficult tasks undertaken by any navy in the history of the world. The Americans were working there from improvised bases won from the jungles and supplies were on a catch-as-catch-can basis. Mr Forrestal said he believed the j operatons in the Pacific had kept Japan from attacking Russia this summer. j PACIFIC COMMANDS j J Responsibilities Fixed

WASHINGTON, October 22. “Vice-Admiral Robert L. Ghormley and General Douglas MacArthur are working in the closest possible co-opera-tion along the territorial border line where their two commands join,” Mr H. L. Stimson, Secretary of War, told a conference replying to a suggestion that confusion existed between the divided commands. “The responsibilities of the two commands in the Pacific are well fixed and | are thoroughly understood,” he said. “The bulk of the Pacific area is under Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Command-er-in-Chief of the Pacific Fleet, including army installations and troops in the Aleutians, Hawaii, Fiji, the New Hebrides, New Caledonia and New Zealand. The southern part of this command is under the direct orders of Vice-Admiral Ghormley. “Excluded from Admiral Nimitz’s command are the west coast of the United States and the Alaskan mainland, both of which are under Lieuten-ant-General J. C. de Witt, with MajorGeneral Buckner in immediate control of Alaska.

“Also separate is General MacArthur’s command, comprising all the United Nations’ forces in Australia, New Guinea and the islands north of Australia. In the Solomons battle Gen-

eral MacArthur is giving extremely valuable support to the naval, air and ground forces under Vice-Admiral Ghormley.”

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ST19421024.2.54.1

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Southland Times, Issue 24883, 24 October 1942, Page 5

Word count
Tapeke kupu
697

JAPANESE FLEET BOMBED Southland Times, Issue 24883, 24 October 1942, Page 5

JAPANESE FLEET BOMBED Southland Times, Issue 24883, 24 October 1942, Page 5

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