ROUND TWO

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 November 1942, Page 4

ROUND TWO

CLEARLY WON BY UNITED STATES BUT ANOTHER ROUND MAY FOLLOW. COLONEL KNOX’S SURVEY. (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.10 p.m.) WASHINGTON, November 17. “The United States clearly has won round 2 in the Solomons and we now have naval superiority round Guadalcanal,” Colonel Knox (Secretary for the Navy) told a Press conference. He added a warning that there may be a third round. “This was a major action, he said, “but the Japanese forces may regroup and return.” Colonel Knox said that although the Japanese had suffered severe losses ot ships and personnel, he declined to say that the enemy fleet had been crippled. He paid a tribute to Admirals Nimitz, Halsey and Callaghan. “Not oniy,” he observed, “did they meet a drive from a numerically superior enemy force, but they also, employed a most daring type of action.’ Asked how many rounds there might be Colonel Knex replied: “The only safe assumption is that the Japanese will return. That is what we ate plan--1 ning for.” He added that the Solomons were of first-class importance to the United States, since they flanked the lines of communication and supply with Australia. From the Solomons the Japanese could make direct attacks, on those lines. This Solomons battle was the greatest surface action of the war and apparently the greatest since Jutland, but it was not greater than Jutland. FANTASTIC CLAIMS MADE BY THE JAPANESE. (Received This Day, 10.55 a.m.) NEW YORK, November 17. The Tokio official radio, summarising alleged Allied losses in the Solomons since August .7, gives an imperial communique claiming that 80 warships have been sunk or damaged including one battleship sunk and two damaged, four carriers sunk and four damaged, three unidentified warships damaged, 25 cruisers sunk and foui damaged, sixteen destroyers sunk and nine damaged, nine submarines sunk and one damaged, one minesweeper sunk and one damaged, sixteen transports sunk and six damaged; furthermore, 796 aircraft destroyed.