Island-hopping may be next business.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 August 1942, Page 3

Island-hopping may be next business.

Special Australian Correspondent.

Rec. 12.30 a.m. Sydney, Aug. 20. In the absence of an official statement on the progress of the fighting in the Solomons comrnentators continue to express satisfaction with the course of the action. The Japanese attacks have been repuised with heavy losses and three enemy submarinesi have been destroyed, according to an unofficial message. Consolidation of the American positions brings Bougainville, the main Japanese base in the northern part of the group, to within 90 minutes' fiight for our bombers. Moreover, our planes will be able to attack Japanese naval units bringing up supplies and reinforcements to this base. Hanson Baldwin, New York Times military commentator, warns that operations in the Solomons can only become a serious distraction from the Asiatic mainland for the Japanese if the United States mustered really large forces of ships and planes "for the bloody business of island hopping." He adds that the Solomons could scarcely absorb more than a few Japanese divisions while the islands in which the United States marines are fighting probably did not contain more than 5000 or 10,000 of the enemy. Flying Fortresses of the South-west Pacific command struck in the northern Solomons on Wednesday. They made an attack on Japanese warships off the island of Faisi with unknown results. The announcement from General MacArthur's headquarters does not reveal whether the Japanese warships were reinforcements for the Solomons battle or were retiring from the "battle zone. The Allied planes encountered heavy anti-aircraft fire. but all returned. This was the first blow struck by bombers of the South-west Pacific command in the Solomons since the raids on the Buka aerodrome early in the battle. Allied medium bombers over Timor attacked an enemy-occupied town from a low altitude, but the results were not observed.