NAVAL ACTION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 August 1942, Page 3

NAVAL ACTION

EXPECTED AT ANY TIME IN REGION OF SOLOMONS. JAPAN BOUND TO TAKE UP CHALLENGE. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) WASHINGTON, August 19. The Allied naval forces in the Solomons arc reported to be looking for fight. ViceAdmiral Ghormley’s ships are making wide sweeps in an effort ■ to establish contact with the enemy, and further naval fighting is expected to occur at any time. American naval men view the prospect of the coming battles not only with equanimity but also with a lively hope that nothing will prevent the Japanese from joining action soon. The Chinese Government spokesman at Chungking declared that the United States action in the Solomons had greatly strengthened China’s confidence ■ in the might and unlimited possibilities of an American offensive. The epoch-making battle, which had drawn a substantial portion of the Japanese naval, air, and land forces from the mid-Pacific, inevitably would force Japan to revise her continental plans. “A long, grim fight in the southwest Pacific is expected as a result of the successful attack on the Solomons by the American marines backed by air and sea forces, says the Washington correspondent of the New York “Sun.” “The challenge to Japan is too full of unpleasant implications for the Japanese to accept American domination of Tulagi and the surrounding islands without a major effort to reverse the situation.” “At the same time this American victory is but a first step in an Allied counter-drive against Japan, and its value lies in the position it gives the United Nations’ forces for further atMajor Fielding Eliot, writing in the “New York Herald-Tribune,” says: “Whatever the outcome of the Solomons attack, and whatever may be the future policy adopted on the Western Front and in Europe, the actual attack in the one case, and the preparation for it in the other, have at least served notice on Japan and Germany. “This notice is that the good old days in which those Powers could concentrate as they chose against a selected opponent while enjoying security elsewhere are at an end.” % LULL AT MOMENT — I ON MOST PARTS OF ISLAND FRONT. SYDNEY, August 19. After nearly four weeks the bitter fighting over the 3000-miles island front stretching from the East Indies to the Solomon Islands, a lull has again developed in the south-west Pacific theatre of war. The only action reported during the past 24 hours was at Kavieng, New Ireland, where Allied armed reconnaissance aircraft dropped bombs in an airfield dispersal area. The results were not observed. There is no news of the land fighting in the Kokoda sector in Papua, where the Japanese were last stated to have penetrated beyond the village and airfield. BRAVE EFFORTS OF ALLIED TROOPS IN TIMOR. ENEMY FORCES HARASSED FOR MONTHS. (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, August 19. For six months, Dutch, Australian and Indonesian soldiers on the island of Timor have been harassing the much stronger Japanese occupying forces. “Theirs is a story of bravery and endurance which even breaks the record of Batan,” says a statement issued by the Netherlands East Indies Government Information Service. This gives greater significance to the recent announcements of Allied air raids on objectives in Timor.

allied victory MANIFEST IN FIRST PHASE. BUT REAL TEST MAY BE YET TO COME. (Received This Day, 10.0 a.m.) NEW YORK, August 19. The “New York Times,” in an editorial, says the latest Navy communique resolves all doubt regarding the first action in the Solomons having ended in a victory for our forces on both land and sea. The newspaper gives a warning, however, that the Japanese military mind will not accept the present situation in the South Seas. ‘‘The Allied offensive,” it says, “is ' only in‘the opening phase, but already • it threatens Japan’s hold on the rim of her whole defence zone. We have . now moved 700 miles closer to Japan. If we are allowed to consolidate our conquest, with the finest harbour under the equator in our hands, further American advances seem to be inevi- ' table. Thus we must be prepared for a counter-attack in greater force.” The “Herald-Tribune,” developing the same theme, points out that if the Japanese allow the United States to develop the Tulagi base, “with strong air power and surface units, especially carriers, in which we are heavily superior, we will be able to take Rabaul and Gasmata, and to threaten the major Japanese base at Truk and begin to shake the whole flimsy structure of their Indies conquests.” The “Herald-Tribune” suggests that it is for this reason that Australian and New Zealand observers think the real test is yet to come and envisage a rapid reinforcement of naval strength on both sides, growing into a major aerial and naval campaign in the whole area, possibly leading to decisive results. The shoe is suddenly on the other foot and the old game of easy stepping-stone advances against feebly-equipped opposition has ended for the Japanese, who face the possibility of its being used against themselves. “How far we can exploit the possible lity,” the “Herald-Tribune” observes, “depends on how far the Japanese have used up their resources in ships, planes and troops, and also on how much of cur growing strength can be spared for the South-West Pacific.”