ISLAND RAIDS WORTH WHILE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 August 1942, Page 3

ISLAND RAIDS WORTH WHILE

Allied commando operations against Japanese outposts in the Pacific are very much worth while, and military commentators in Australia believe that such hit-and-run sorties as the American raid on Makin in the Gilbert Islands must be an integral part of the Allies’ Pacific strategy. These would have the effect of dispersing the Japanese strength, specially air-power, giving greater freedom of action to our forces engaged in the major occupying operations. Such raids would also tie down for defence purposes Japanese forces which might otherwise be concentrated for spearpoint attacks. The Japanese policy has been to dispose her strength round the perimeter of her conquests, believing that enemy naval forces cannot penetrate deeply into the Japaneseheld zone. This means that they must control a defence line of 8000 miles along the arc from Malaya to the Mariana Islands.

“There must be many islands where raids can be undertaken with a reasonable hope of success, and where the Allied naval craft would have a fair chance against the enemy land-based aeroplanes and local garrisons,” says the “Sydney Morning Herald’s” military correspondent. “The Makin raid also shows that the element of surprise is. possible even in areas where aerial reconnaissance of the sea routes might be expected,” he continues. “The attack on Makin was singularly audacious in view of the possibility of heavy aerial interception from Jaluit Island; which is only 300 miles away in the Marshalls.” Military experts point out that apart from the' damage inflicted in specific raids the ever-present possibility of sudden attacks by Allied guerilla forces must affect morale in the 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 the Japanese attempts to repulse the major Allied offensive which began with the attacks in the Solomons. ALLIED RAID ON NORTHERN SOLOMONS. SYDNEY, August 24. It is officially announced that an offensive reconnaissance, an Allied air unit bombed enemy buildings and the wharf area in the Baku Passage, norther - Solomons. The results were not observed.