ALEUTIAN ISLANDS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 May 1942, Page 4

ALEUTIAN ISLANDS

i OF NO USE AS BASES I — i FROM WHICH TO BOMB JAPAN. t ; VALUE OF KURILE GROUP. Can American aeroplanes based in the Aleutian Islands bomb the cities of Japan? Can the Aletian Islands be [ used successfully as a base for an ini vasion of America? These questions, . which are among many burning in the thoughts of Americans, anxious about , the safety of the Western Hemisphere . from a Japanese attack, were put to Mr Bradford Washburn, by a repre- ■ sentative of , the “Christian Science ; Monitor.” Mr Washburn is a recentlyreturned Alaskan explorer and a director of the New England Museum of Natural History in Boston. As an expert explorer and mapper of Alaska for the National Geographic Society, Mr Washburn has studied in detail vast mountain areas that lie in close proximity to the Aleutians-; furthermore, he has been in close contact with men who are studying the military problems in which these islands play a vital role. “Well, let’s see about this bombing business,” he said, unrolling a large map of Alaska on the floor. It showed thousands of islands extending from the Alaskan Peninsula as one great arm more than 1000 miles across the Pacific toward the Orient. But these are not islands in the ordinary sense, Mr Washburn explained. They consist for the most part of barren rock with scanty patches of grass and birds as the only visible evidences of life. They are located in a region of tremendous rainfall, constant winds and almost total desolation. A few hundred miles out along the Aleutians—really a submerged- mountain range—he indicated Dutch -Harbour, the American base. Any additional military preparations that may lie on beyond 800 miles to the tip of the archipelago are regarded as a military secret, he said. “However,” he continued, “it is only common sense to expect that there are weather stations and possibly additional bases beyond this point.”' Pointing again to the map, he called attention to the fact that from the tip end of the Aleutians it is still some 2000 miles on to Tokio. To bomb important cities across this distance without Russian bases as stepping stones between would be suicidal, he said. It is Mr Washburn’s opinion that before the United States can count on a successful use of the Aleutians as a jump-ing-off place for bombing attacks on Japan it must first obtain permission to use Russian bases. “It is only about 700 miles from Kiska near the end of the Aleutiansto Petropavlovsk, the Russian base on the peninsula of Kamchatka, which in turn is about 600 miles north of the Japanese naval base in the Kurile Islands. “If the United States could capture the Kuriles it would be possible for American bombers to ruin the cities of Japan.” . As to the Aleutians being used, for an attack on America, the explorer said that because of the uninhabitable nature of the islands he did not expect the Japanese to attempt to establish permanent bases there, but to try instead to make attacks on American bases in a manner similar to the United States Navy’s offensive against the Marshall Islands.