Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1942. A VEIL ONLY PARTLY LIFTED.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 October 1942, Page 2

Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1942. A VEIL ONLY PARTLY LIFTED.

JT cannot be said that a veil of secrecy is being drawn over the battle, or campaign, at present being fought in the Solomon Islands and their vicinity, but the picture of these operations presented in th e news from day to day evidently is far from complete. This, of course, does not of necessity give any ground for complaint. It goes without saying that everything should be done to withhold from the enemy information on such matters as the strength of available forces and-reserves. The news as it is coming through is, however, extraordinarily patchy and at times confusing and it is supplemented by commentaries from various quarters which, are in some instances so contradictory as to indicate that they are based on mere guesswork.

Some of the gloomiest of these unofficial speculations have been upset satisfactorily by official news of actual battle developments. For example, the Washington correspondent of the “New York Times”'was quoted in a message dated last Saturday as observing that Japanese bombing and artillery fire had apparently made unusable the Henderson airfield, established by the American Marine Corps in northern Guadalcanal’, in which event the air base nearest to the Solomons and available to the Allies would be at Espiritu Santo, in the New Hebrides, 500 miles away —a distance too great to be covered by fighters and dive-bombers operating in the Solomons.

It has since been reported by the American Navy Department, however, that on Saturday morning United States fighters and bombers wiped out a force of 14 Japanese bombers attacking the American airfield and shore positions in Guadalcanal’ and in addition destroyed two enemy fighters. It has also been reported by the Navy Department that on Sunday eight out of 20 enemy bombers and eleven out of 20 Zero fighters attacking in Guadalcanal’ were shot down against the loss of two American fighters. From these and other details it is clear that in the latest operations of which there is any news at time of writing American air forces were making particularly effective use of the Henderson airfield.

These and other developments officially reported, notably the destructive shelling by American surface ships of Japanese positions on north-western Guadalcanal’, seem to dispose pretty effectively of the more doleful accounts lately given of the position on that strategically important island—amongst them the statement of the New York paper “P.M.” that the Japanese forces on Guadalcanal’ “probably outnumber the reinforced Americans ten to one” and that “the latest reports indicate that the Japanese have command of the sea as well as air supremacy.” Had the position been as bad as this .it might have been expected that the American and Allied forces in the Solomons would before now have been overwhelmingly defeated or annihilated.

It is to be noted, however, that apart from speculative comments there are some apparently authoritative warnings that the position in the Solomons is not in all respects as good as could be desired and that it would be unwise to draw unduly optimistic conclusions from the reports of American air victories. The suggestion is still current that the Japanese may be able to recover for a time what they have lost in the Solomons if they are prepared to pay the price-

The underlying factor of uncertainty concerns the relative importance attached by the Allies and by the Japanese to mastery over the Solomons bases meantime in American hands. TF is indicated that the Japanese are ready to go to great lengths and to take corresponding risks in attempting to recover these bases. It is not yet clear that the Allies have concentrated or are prepared meantime to concentrate in the Solomons forces great enough to< enable them to defeat even the most powerful onslaught made there by the enemy.