PREDICTED IN PACIFIC

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 January 1943, Page 4

PREDICTED IN PACIFIC

ANOTHER BIG SEA AND AIR BATTLE PROBABLY IN SOLOMONS. PREPARATIONS ON BOTH SIDES (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.50 a.m.) NEW YORK, January 10. A big sea and air battle in the Pacific within a week is predicted by Mr Joseph Harsch. Writing in the “Christian Science Monitor,” he says this “new climax to the operations” will be as decisive as the naval battle in the Solomons last November, when the Japanese lost sixteen warships and twelve transports.” Mr Harsch adds: “The latest information available in Washington makes it certain that both sides are preparing for the next round in the South-West Pacific, probably in the Solomons. United States sea and air power attained a new range of aggressive action last week, while the Japanese are apparently preparing for a new and powerful thrust southwards. In previous major actions, the Japanese concentrated naval units at Truk, rather than Rabaul, for which reason the present concentration at Rabaul indicates that the Japanese naval units at Truk are simultaneously concentrating for the same operation.” Mr Frank Iremaine, United Press Pearl Harbour correspondent, also predicts a big battle in the Pacific soon. He adds that naval experts describe the situation by saying that both sides have been pumping up their tires and getting ready to go again The most logical objective of the big Japanese naval concentrations, he adds, is another thrust at Guadalcanal.

AIR OPERATIONS UNITED STATES OFFICIAL REPORT. (Received This Day, Noon.) WASHINGTON, January 10. ■ A Navy Department communique states: “On the forenoon of January 8, Marauder medium bombers, with an Airacobra escort, bombed Munda (New Georgia). The results are not reported. On the night of January 8, our aircraft bombed Munda, scoring a probable hit on an anti-aircraft battery. All our planes returned from both missions.” CONVOY BATTLE STRATEGIC SIGNIFICANCE. DISCUSSED IN AUSTRALIA. (Received' This Day, Noon.) SYDNEY, This Day. “The despatch of this considerable convoy to Lae, and the lavishness of its Zero cover, emphasises Japan’s determination to hold - on to her bases on the New Guinea coast. To that enjl she is ready to sacrifice many soldiers and even ships, so long as some reinforcements can be got ashore. The loss of fighter aircraft on such a devastating scale may be a different matter. The Zeros, cnce masters of the island skies, are being shot down in droves.”—This editorial comment on the Lae convoy battle is

made by the “Sydney Morning Eferald” today. Australian war observers agree that the Japanese evidently fear that Lae will be the next objective of the Allied drive northwards, and that, with the final collapse of their Papuan campaign, possibly only a matter of days, they are trying frantically to build up their Lae concentrations. Inspiring stories are now being told of the successes scored by Allied fighters in their clashes with Zeros. At the peak of the battle more than a hundred planes were in combat over Lae at one time. A flight of 14 Kittyhawks, in dogfights with 18 Zeros, shot down thirteen, probably destroyed one and damaged two for the loss of a single plane. Lockheed Lightnings shot down an aggregate of fifty The 7 ’Japanese convoy was “fluked" by an Australian-manned Catalina fly-ing-boat, which made the first kill when it sank a 14,000-ton transport with at least 1,600 troops aboard.-The Catalina No. 1, the first flying-boat of its type on service in Australia, was returning from a raid on Gasmata, in pitch darkness on Thursday morning, when the pilot sighted the phosphorescent wake of ships. “We counted ten black moving objects, like blots on a bigger blot,” said the pilot. “We picked out the biggest moving blot and made five runs over it before we were satisfied to drop our bombs. Then we let the bombs go from 4,000 feet. We hit with three of them. The ship must have been leaded with ammunition as well as troops. It blew up with a terrific explosion. Three Japanese destroyers turned their spotlights on the blazing transport, but did not attempt a rescue effort. They stayed only a couple of minutes and then set off like hounds of hell. The transport sank almost immediately. The troops who were not burned to death must have been drowned.” ' “A strong Allied air force six months ago could have prevented the invasion of Papua, whose reconquest has entailed so much suffering and loss,” declares the “Sydney Morning Herald,’ discussing the implication of the smashing air victory. A moderate replenishment of the air pool of this country now might very well turn the scales in the South-West Pacific area and enable counter-attacks against the Japanese to be pressed home.”