Hit-and-Run Pacific Raids Worth While

Taranaki Daily News, 25 August 1942, Page 3

Hit-and-Run Pacific Raids Worth While

Special Australian Correspondent.

Surprise still possible despite air reconnaissance.

Rec. 9.35 p.m. Sydney, Aug. li Allied Commando operations against Japanese Pacific outposts are very much worth while. Military commentators in Australia believe that such hit-and-run sorties as the American raid on Makin Island, in the Gilbert Group, must be an integral part of the Allies' Pacific strategy. These would have the effect of dispersing Japatiese strength, especially air power, giving greater freedom of action to our forcss engaged in major occupy ing operations. Such raids would also tie down for defence purposes Japanese forces which might otherwise be concentrated for the spearpoint of attacks. The Japanese policy has been to dispose her strength around the perimeter of her conquests, believing that enemy naval forces cannot penetrate deeply into the Japanese-held zone. This means that they must control a defence line of 8000 miles along an arc from Malaya to the Mariana Islands. "There must be many islands where raids can be undertaken with reasonable hope of success, where Allied naval craft have a fair chance against enemy landbased aeroplanes and local garrisons," says the Sydney Morning Herald's military correspondent. "The Makin raid also shows that ^he element of surprise is possible even iiTareas where aerial reconnaissance of sea routes might be expected. "The attack on Makin was singularly audacious in view of the possibility of heavy aerial interception from Jaluit, only 300 miles away in the Marshalls." Military experts, point out that, apart from the damage . inflicted in specific raids, the ever-.preseht possibility of sudden attacks by Allied guerrilla forces must affect the morale of small, isolated Japanese garrisons. The latest raid is seen as a pointer to the United Nations' future course of action in the Pacific. A series of such raids would prove a serious distraction to Japanese attempts to i repulse the major Allied offensive which began with the attacks on the Solomons.