BATTLE OF MANOEUVRE IN SOLOMONS

Southland Times, Issue 24887, 29 October 1942, Page 5

BATTLE OF MANOEUVRE IN SOLOMONS

JAPANESE CLAIMS DESCRIBED AS FANTASTIC (Special Australian Correspondent, N.Z.P.A.) (Rec. 10.30 p.m.) SYDNEY, October 28. Japanese claims of heavy sinkings of United States warships are described by the Minister of the Army, Mr F. M. Forde, as fantastic. These claims should be disregarded completely, he declared. For - obvious reasons the Japanese would use every subterfuge to mislead people in an attempt to provoke replies which would assist them to estimate the true strength of the naval forces opposed to them, he said. Both fleets were still in a battle of manoeuvre rather than one in which the opposing fleets were lined up opposite each other. The American forces were putting up a game fight, he told reporters. Dismissing the Japenese claim to have sunk four United States aircraft-carriers and one battleship as “just another fishing expedition,” the United States Secretary of the Navy, Colonel Frank Knox, as well as President Roosevelt, declined to foreshadow the result of the battle.

“The outlook in the Solomons is decidedly uncertain,” says Rear-Admiral Yates Stirling, jun., a former Chief of Staff of the United States Fleet. _ “The important thing is for us to regain the offensive. It is not pleasant to continue on the defensive in an action of the magnitude assumed by the Solomons battle. These appear to be the (1) Our fleet, on which depends the fate of our land forces on Guadalcanar, is menaced by a superior Japanese naval force, including three or more battleships. The Japanese Commander-in-Chief, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, is able to throw the bulk of his naval strength into the struggle and appears determined to take back the Solomons regardless of cost. (2) There is so far no indication whether the British battleships Warspite, Royal Sovereign and Resolution will enter the Solomons action. London announced that these ships were in the Indian Ocean and the best guess is that they are intended to force the withdrawal of Japanese ships from the Solomons to defend Rangoon and Singapore. Bad weather can be expected soon in the Solomons, which will offer additional cover for enemy transports.”

From Washington further changes in the South-west Pacific commands are forecast. The fact that the recent revelations of The New York Times military correspondent, Hanson Baldwin, were passed by the United States Navy Office is held to confirm the impression that these mistakes were calamitous. Washington has been jolted, by Mr Baldwin’s disclosures, particularly his statement that the sinking of the four cruisers, including the Canberra, was the result of their being surprised “like sitting ducks and unable to get off more than a few ineffective salvos.”

Declaring that either Vice-Admiral William Halsey, the new South Pacific Commander, or General MacArthur should be put in charge of the whole South Pacific area, The New York Daily News says: “General MacArthur’s original offensive plan against the Japanese (a drive northwards via New Guinea) was preferable to the Navy’s plan of an attack from New Zealand through the Solomons, as it would have flanked the Solomons, making them useless, if not actually dangerous to the Japanese.”