AIR POWER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 January 1943, Page 3

AIR POWER

KEY TO ALLIED VICTORY IN PACIFIC Declaration by General MacArthur PAPUA AN EXPERIMENTAL CAMPAIGN POINTING WAY TO JAPAN’S FINAL DEFEAT SYDNEY, January 25. Air power, with its “swift, massive strokes,” is the key to victory in the Pacific, declared General McArthur, Allied Com-mander-in-Chief, South-West Pacific, in his statement today. He said that Papua had been an experimental campaign, pointing' the way to Japan’s final defeat. ‘‘Lieutenant-General Horii’s army has been annihilated, said General MacArthur. ‘‘The outstanding military lesson from this campaign was the importance of air superiority and cooperation with the land forces. For months air transport with constant fighter coverage moved complete battalions of infantry and regiments of artillery across the almost impenetrable mountains and jungles of Papua. It transported field hospitals and other installations to the front. It supplied the troops an evacuated the casualties. For hundreds of miles bombers provided all-round reconnaissance, protected the coast from the Japanese ships, and blasted the way for our infantry.

BLOWS AT VITAL CENTRES General MacArthur declared that air power linked with ground strategy would eliminate any costly isiand-to-island advance in the Pacific. By its fullest use many enemy strongpoints could be bypassed and decisive blows dealt to vital centres. “In a theatre where the enemy’s strongholds are dispersed throughout a vast expanse of archipelagos, air power will permit of swift and massive offensive strokes,” he said. “With proper naval support, air, land and sea co-operation points the way to victory.” NEED OF CARRIERS The Associated Press of America says that qualified military authorities in Washington interpret General MacArthur’s comment as finally discarding the island-to-island strategy of advance in the Pacific, and the authorities add that General MacArthur is apparently advocating a policy of direct attack against Japan’s key bases by outflanking, or literally over-flying, the intermediate and less important bases. The American naval High Command is understood to hold a similar concept of the path to victory in the Pacific, the agency states. General MacArthur’s reference to “airfields and ground forces welded together with proper naval support” is held to be an argument against a separate air force and to express recognition of The need for the closest cooperation between the military and naval forces. It was recalled that General MacArthur has long advocated complete air and ground co-ordination and, furthermore, as Chief of Staff of the War Department, he promoted the creation of a. general headquarters of the army air force which was the forerunner of the present autonomous army air forces organisation, the Associated Press adds. NEED OF CARIERS General MacArthur (who will be 63 tomorrow) was supported in his assessment of the value of air power in the Pacific by Captain Ralph Ofstie, an aviation officer on the staff of Admiral Nimitz, Commander-in-Chief of the United States Pacific Fleet. Addressing the Honolulu Chamber of Commerce, Captain Ofstie said that bombing attacks on Japan were planned, but there were reasons why they could not be in the regular routine for the present. The progress of the war in the Pacific depended upon carrier-based aircraft, he added. The high speed and well balanced equipment of the carriers made them the best means of moving powerful forces of fighters, dive-bombers and torpedo-bombers against the enemy. Guadalcanal was turning the tide of the war in the South Pacific, but carriers were needed to augment the limited Allied air bases. Thus our planes could reach the back areas, deliver heavy suprise air attacks, which would be an ever-increasing and tremendously effective factor in the smashing of Japan. It is understood that, if they are needed, many airfields can be built on the high, flat, grass meadows of Guadalcanal, supplementing the Henderson airfield, which is now enlarged*to accommodate all types of planes." MUCH REDUCED JAPANESE INVASION FORCE ON GUADALCANAL. DEVELOPING AMERICAN ATTACK. WASHINGTON, January 24. Guadalcanal is being cleared of all effective enemy opposition. Only 4000 Japanese remain alive out of 15,000 who were originally landed on the island. The United States forces have killed 8000, and a further 3000 have died from wounds, disease and starvation. These facts have been disclosed by a marine officer, Lieut.-Colonel Lewis Puller, in an officially sponsored interview. Colonel Puller, who left Guadalcanal on New Year’s Day, said: “The Japanese on the island are through as far as a real fighting force is concerned. I expect we "won’t have much trouble in cleaning up the rest.” He did not regard Munda, the new enemy air base on New Georgia Island, as a serious threat, added Colonel Puller. The Japanese did not have any effective bases south of Buin, in the northern Solomons. MAJOR OFFENSIVE IN PROSPECT? The “New York Times” comments that Colonel Puller’s report indicates that Guadalcanal is now safe as an effective Allied base, with a secure harbour and indefinite possibilities for air expansion. Colonel Puller’s report changes considerably the earlier picture of the Guadalcanal situation. A major offensive is now believed to be under way to destroy the remaining Japanese resistance on the island. The Washington correspondent of the “New York Times” says it is not known whether the latest operation* foreshadow early plans for an attack on the Japanese positions to the north in the Solomons, but adds that this is an

obvious probability in view of the recent heavy bombings of the advance enemy bases at Munda, Shortland Island, and Buin. The recent reinforcement of the American troops on Guadalcanal gives ' them great numerical superiority over the Japanese. Nevertheless, experienced officers believe that the difficulties of terrain and the tenacious epemy resistance may make the remaining fighting costly.