TOTAL FAILURE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 January 1943, Page 3

TOTAL FAILURE

JAPANESE AIR ATTACK ON GUADALCANAL STRONG ENEMY FORCE DRIVEN OFF. WITH LOSS OF FOUR FIGHTERS. LONDON, January 26. The Japanese attempted a large-scale attack on the American positions on Guadalcanal with dive-bombers, twin-engined bombers and fighters, making up a force which Washington described as considerable. American airmen were ready and the raiders were driven off before they had even dropped a single bomb on the American positions. Four of the Japanese fighters were shot down. The American losses were nil. American troops on Guadalcanal have consolidated their positions to the west of the airfield. They killed nearly 300 more Japanese. Booty captured included several supply dumps, guns and transport vehicles. DIRECT HITS ON JAPANESE SHIPS AT RABAUL. MUNITIONS VESSEL BLOWN UP. SYDNEY, January 26. Diving through an intense antiaircraft barrage and searchlight screen to as low as 200 feet, Flying Fortresses of General MacArthur’s command scored direct hits on two Japanese ships in Rabaul Harbour early on Monday morning. A 2000-ton munition ship exploded and a large hole was torn in the side of another medium sized merchantman. This was the seventh raid on Rabaul in nine days. Present air activity in both the South-west and South Pacific command areas is the greatest to date. The most regular target for our recent attacks has been the enemy’s base at Lae. Many 10001 b. bombs were dropped with devastating effect in the building and supply dump areas in a raid on Monday. Some observers suggest these persistent attacks on Lae are forcing the Japanese to divert their main New Guinea strength to Wewak, nearly 400 miles west of Lae.-. Considerably enemy fighter opposition has been encountered recently in this area. In contrast, little Japanese fighter opposition has been met over the nearer bases of Madang and Finschhafen, which are also under frequent attack. The harbour installations at Finschhafen were i-aided on Monday. Japanese aircraft made further light night raids on Port Moresby and Milne Bay, causing negligible damage. ISLAND HOPPING NOT BEST WAY OF GETTING AT JAPANESE. ADVANTAGES OF ATTACK THROUGH CHINA. SYDNEY, January 26. “The Papuan campaign has demonstrated clearly that an islandhopping offensive is the costliest, slowest and least effective way of getting at the Japanese,” declares the Sydney “Telegraph” editorially today. “We have# not yet begun to win the Pacific war and will not do so till we combine against the Japanese poweiful forces based on China and the Aleutian Islands and considerably better equipped and larger land, air and sea forces based on Australia.” Three factors combined to prolong the Allied Papuan offensive into a four months’ campaign, says the ‘Telegraph.” The first was the blind, fanatical tenacity of the, Japanese who held on to strongpoints long after resistance was demonstrated to be futile. The second was the wastage of soldiers through tropical disease, which caused more damage than the enemy, and the third factor delaying the Allied success was lack of naval forces warships and transports. JUNGLE DISEASES. The menace of disease is the most serious factor to contend with in an island-hopping offensive against Japan, adds the paper. For every man put out of action by a Japanese bullet two would fail out with jungle ailments, and these losses would be continuing right up to Formosa. The limited value of the islandhopping offensive against the Japanese has also been stressed by the British Labour peer and naval expert, Lord Strabolgi, writing in “Reynold’s News.” Lord Strabolgi sees a direct attack on Japan through China as the only practical way of finishing off the Japanese. “This is the strategy the Allies are bound to adopt sooner or later,” he says. “Protracted fighting both in the Solomons and New Guinea should warn us against the oft-proclaimed intention of reconquering the many groups of Japanese-held islands between Australia and the China Sea. It would be too bloody a business altogether.” NEW GEORGIA NEXT? Meanwhile, from Washington come suggestions that American forces are likely soon to invade Munda, in Now Georgia. Possession of this area would give the Americans complete' aerial superiority, ensuring domination di the Solomons and contributing largely toward the complete security of New Zealand and north-eastern Australia. The New York “Herald-Tribune” correspondent says that intensified bombing attacks on Munda raise justi-, liable hopes that this enemy base is being “softened up” for early invasion by American forces who are rapidly completing the destruction of the Japanese on Guadalcanal. Though American Navy Department officials have declined to comment, they admit that Munda, 180 miles north-west of Henderson airfield, is the logical objective for an extension of the Allied ' offensive,

AMERICAN LEADERS

DECORATED FOR GALLANTRY. SYDNEY, January 26. Two senior American officers have been awarded the Silver Stars for gallantry in New Guinea. They are Major-General Edwin Harding and Bri-gadier-General Spencer Aitken. Harding. commanding the American force in Papua, was travelling in a small ship off the North New Guinea coast when it was sunk by Japanese bombing attacks. He gave up his place in a lifeboat to a wounded man and swam half a mile to the shore, whore he helped the survivors to safety. Aitken, chief signals officer on General MacArthur’s staff, personally rallied and led an infantry attack which ended in the capture of the Buna air-strip.