JAPAN’S PROBLEMS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 September 1942, Page 5

JAPAN’S PROBLEMS

AS SEEN BY RUSSIAN j OFFICER h ENFORCED SLOWING DOWN. | WHILE ALLIES ACCUMULATE § FORCES. (By Colonel Tolchenov, Red Army, in i ' “Soviet War News.”) I Japan has taken no decisive steps in i the past six weeks against either India or Australia, although during this I period she has been concentrating her forces in both key directions. Recent Japanese operations in the New Guinea * area can be summarised merely as a struggle for the approaches to AusI tralia. The fighting in Burma, on the ! Philippine- Islands and in the Dutch I East Indies serves to consolidate earlier Japanese successes. _ : The Japanese command is faced with ; new difficulties proportionate to . the j extension of the theatre of operations. Japan has to wage an incessant fight ! for sea and air domination in order ’ to develop, or even consolidate, the ; successes gained. ! Bearing in mind the losses already j sustained by the Japanese, this perpeti ual struggle places a considerable ; strain on Japan’s shipbuilding and aircraft industries, all the more intense in that he.” opponents possess j enormous material resources. i Another difficulty confronting the Japanese command is the increasing distance that separates its armed forI ces operating Jn the Pacific from Japanese' territory. Apart from the difficulties of covering such vast disl lances, it should be borne in mind that it is impossible for a fleet to operate away from its permanent bases for any length of time. The establishment of such bases on captured territory is an extremely complicated and lengthy matter. While the problem of supplying land, air and naval forces can be solved ! partly by transport, and partly at the j expense of local resources, ships need- ! ing repair have no choice but to rei turn to their main ports. i These factors must to some extent I account for the smaller scale of Jai pan’s recent offensive operations. The I Allies are availing themselves of these I circumstances to accumulate forces for counter-attacks and retaliatory blows. The Anglo-American success in the battle at the approaches to Australia and the raids by American planes on Japan speak of the growing might of the Allied armed forces.