SIGHTED NEAR BUNA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 November 1942, Page 3

SIGHTED NEAR BUNA

JAPANESE DESTROYERS i PURPOSE UNCERTAIN MAY BE REINFORCEMENT OR WITHDRAWAL. ALLIED PROGRESS ON LAND CONTINUES. SYDNEY, November 19. Eight Japanese destroyers, operating in. two separate groups, are manoeuvring off the northern New Guinea coast near Buna. Flying Fortresses have been endeavouring to engage the enemy warships, but. no reports of action have yet been received. The destroyer force is taking advantage of thick weather and poor visibility hindering our air operations. Speculation is rife as to whether the destroyers are intended to evacuate the hardpressed Japanese land forces at Buna or whether they are bringing reinforcements for Lieut-General Horrii’s troops. It will be recalled that a similar force of eight enemy destroyers, operating under cover of darkness, evacuated the bulk of the Japanese landing force from Milne Bay in August. The arrival on the Buna scene of these Japanese ships was not unexpected despite the temporary obscurity of their purpose. War correspondents, discussing Tuesday’s destruction of 15 enemy aircraft at Lae, point out that the concentration of Japanese planes at Lae has invariably preceded Japanese shipping movements off the north-east Papuan coast. Meantime, there has been no further attempted resuscitation of the enemy’s ill-starred New Guinea air effort.

On Wednesday Allied planes attacked aerodromes and installations at Lae and Salamaua. No enemy air opposition is reported, and there has been no renewal of Monday’s Japanese strafing attacks on Australian and American troops advancing against Buna. Allied air supremacy in New Guinea makes it certain that, visibility permitting, the enemy warships will have to run the gauntlet of heavy bombing to accomplish their unrevealed mission at Buna. It is possible that the Japanese reverses in the Solomons may have had the effect of causing the enemy to throw belatedly into the New Guinea fight troops and material which would have gone to the Solomons had the battle there progressed according to plan. The Allied pincer movement is steadily closing in on Buna, and an American column is reported to have progressed to within a few miles of its objective without opposition. Australians have advanced to Isivita, 12 miles beyond Awala, and about 22 air miles from Buna. Allied aircraft, besides continuing the support of our land operations in the Buna area, have made two raids on New Britain objectives. Airfields at Rabaul and Gasmata were the targets. To the north of Australia, Hudson medium bombers and Beaufighters maintained air attacks ’which have been made on various Japaneseoccupied towns and villages in Timor for some days past. Baucau, on the north-east coast, and Moabisse were the newest targets. PACIFIC BATTLES VIEWS OF UNITED STATES COMMENTATORS. RABAUL AS MAJOR ALLIED GOAL. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright; NEW YORK, November 19. The “Christian Science Monitor” correspondent, Joseph Harsch, says that the naval victory in the Solomons can be measured only in terms of whether it opened the way to Rabaul because our defensive position will not be substantially improved before the Allies hold Rabaul and the whole of the Bismarck archipelago. Rabaul had obviously been the objective in our original move in the Solomons, and although the campaign so far has contributed to an ultimate Allied victory the fact remains that the navy after three months’ fighting is still not advanced beyond the original positions, he says. It still counts victories in terms of repulsing enemy counter-attacks.

One does not move under the guns of an enemy fortress except for the purpose of attempting to capture it, and therefore it is reasonable to assume that Guadalcanal and Tulagi are jumping off points for Rabaui, which is the major goal in the Pacific. ( Strategical implications of the recent naval victory are uncertain as long as it is unknown whether enough reserve strength is left out of the Pacific Fleet to capitalise the enemy’s withdrawal and follow him toward Rabaui.

“The peak of Japanese naval and air strength in the Pacific has now passed, and the future should be ours to make,’’ declares Hanson Baldwin in the “New York Times.’’ “The Solomons battle showed the most encouraging evidences of new aggressive and daring leadership, patterned on the Nelsonian tradition. For the second time in this war we clearly licked the enemy with the gun, the bomb, and the torpedo. Our surface ships have come into their heritage of victory. We have won the first phase of the Solomons campaign, and should soon be ready to push northward.” In this connection, Major Fielding Eliot, of the New York “HeraldTribune,” predicts an Allied advance to Santa Ysabel and Bougainville Islands after the situation on Guadalcanal is cleared up. Furthermore, if General MacArthur drives out the Japanese from Buna, we are then set for a grand attack on Rabaui. Meanwhile Pearl Harbour observers are more cautiously assessing the results of the battle. The “New York Times” correspondent writes that the Japanese naval superiority has been whittled down, but it is not felt that the United States has attained the balance of power in the Pacific. The Upited Press correspondent at Pearl Harbour points out that although the Japanese suffered heavy losses, the remainder of their fleet is extremely strong. For example, the battleships involved in the battle were the old Kongo class, and carriers were not used.