CALLED UNRELIABLE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 May 1942, Page 3

CALLED UNRELIABLE

AND GRAVE DISSERVICE TO ALLIED CAUSE CABLE TO LONDON REPORTING ENEMY AIRCRAFT SHORTAGE. IN SOUTH-WESTERN PACIFIC. (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, May 26. “Unreliable and rendering a grave disservice to the Allied cause in the South-West Pacific” is the general comment on a cable sent by the London “Daily Mail’s” Australian correspondent, Mr Noel Monks, stating that “Japan is beginning to feel the pinch of aircraft shortage, particularly in bombers.” Mr Monks states that the information was from a “reliable source. ’ ’ With the five-day cessation of Japanese air attacks on Port Moresby, and the return to routine Allied bombing operations after the high excitement of the Coral Sea Battle, responsible Australian observers are concerned that no encouragement shall be given to false optimism. “The lull on the battlefronts should occasion no optimistic jag, such as has just run its course in the United States,” says one commentator. “We' remember the phoney war of 1939, when, while the enemy prepared its blitz, the French yawned behind the Maginot Line. We remember, too, what happened in May, 1940, JAPAN STILL STRONG. “Japan’s full strength has not been measured against us. What she is preparing behind the screen of her conquered islands is likely to be a thrust much more powerful than that recently made in the Coral Sea.” During the-weeks that have followed her occupation of Indian Ocean and south-west Pacific islands, Japan is known to have fortified several bases and to have extended her aerodrome and harbour facilities. Rabaul, Koepang, Amboina, Queen Carola Harbour and Buka Passage are strongholds protecting the enemy’s main line of approach to Australia. Aerodromes have also been built on smaller islands closer to northern Australian territory. For almost three months at least three Japanese aircraft tenders are known to have been ferrying air strength from home ports to these southward bases. Round Rabaul alone there have been stationed at least 80 heavy bombers with adequate fighter support. The collapse of resistance in the Philippines enabled the release of some 50 enemy air squadrons, principally heavy bombers. A strong proportion of this force undoubtedly has come to the south Pacific. “Japan’s position is very strong,” says the “Daily Telegraph” editorially. “She holds her hand for the moment only because her preparations are incomplete. Japan’s military strength is almost as great as it was last December, Her battle fleet is intact, her air power is still formidable. She has acquired raw materials to fight a long war.” PRODUCTION OF PLANES. Mr Monks assesses the Japanese aircraft production at below 600 planes a month. Other observers place the figure as high as 1200 a month. Though Brigadier Doolittle’s raiders undoubtly have impaired production, it is generally believed here that the enemy’s air replacement power is at least 75 per cent of the losses . Estimating the Japanese first-line air strength at the beginning of the war conservatively at 5000 plants, she still has substantial reserves on which to draw. While agreeing with Mr Monks’s assessment that Australian-based aircraft have inflicted three-to-one losses on the enemy, • all the commentators here continue to urge the necessity of rapidly building up the Allied air strength. When Japan entered the war, Australia had one fighter without guns. Today, the story is very different, but not only must operational losses be replaced, but the defensive force must be maintained, and a considerable. offensive force must be built up if the Japanese are ever to be forced from their southern bases. THREE THINGS NEEDED. “We need three things,” says a military commentator. “First, heavy reinforcements of bombers, fighters, and tanks; second, naval reinforcements; third, a replanned Pacific command giving’ General MacArthur effective coordinated control of the land and sea and air forces. We must have more planes, ships, and guns now. A few munitions soon are better than a lot years too late.” Concern‘is also expressed here over the whereabouts of the Japanese fleet. Prominence is given to the American opinion that the Japanese navy has now been divided into two fleets —one guarding home waters, and the other in the south Pacific, between the Marshall Islands and New Guinea, and forming for an attack, on Australia, or, alternatively, the United States-Australia supply line. The new spirit of awareness in Britain toward the vital importance of the Pacific war has L’ p n a source of gratification throughout Australia. It is felt that Mr Monks’s “haphazard appreciation is merely agreeable pap to those in England and America who would like to persuade themselves that everything in the south Pacific is adequately taken care of, notwithstanding that the Japanese, in less than five months, have gathered by conquest one of the most remarkable empires ever won in history.” There is still a deplorable tendency to under-estimate the extent of the Japanese effort or the strength which gave it impetus, in the opinion of Australians.