Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1943. ACTION AGAINST JAPAN.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 February 1943, Page 2

Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1943. ACTION AGAINST JAPAN.

GOOD deal of what has been advanced of late by Australian and American writers in favour of powerful offensive action against Japan has suggested a considerable strengthening of the air and naval forces available at present for attack upon the island bases the enemy has established in the South and South[Western Pacific. Desirable as this may be, there are other avenues of attack upon Japan which hold excellent possibilities and are not likely to be neglected. Burma is conspicuous in this category.

Standing at one end of the thousand mile Japanese outpost line which extends at its other extremity to the Solomons, Burma, if it were again in Allied, hands, would be a dagger pointed at the heart of Japan. Having reconquered Burma, the Allies would be in a position, not only to develop operations against the enemy to the south, in Malay a and the Dutch East Indies, but to re-establish their communications with China and open the way to far more powerful air attacks on Japan in her home territory than are meantime practicable.

In October last, Field-Marshal Wavell promised his troops on the Assam front—part of the forces totalling a million men he has been training in India —a large-scale Allied counteroffensive in Burma.’ If action on thes'e lines is contemplated during the present year it is.likely to be developed speedily for the reason, amongst others, that the rainy season in Burma, a period highly unfavourable to military operations, usually opens in May and lasts, in some parts of the country, for from five to seven months.

•The recent advance along the Arakan coast of northwestern Burma is not in itself a major undertaking, though it may take a far from unimportant place in preparation for action on a greater scale. The military correspondent, of the “Sydney Morning Herald” said recently of the Arakan advance that “unless supported by action further north across the no-man’s-land beyond the Assam frontier, it would seem, a local defensive measure to safeguard the approaches to India.”

A campaign in Burma intended to reopen the road to China and permit a direct attack on Japan no doubt must be expected to include an advance from Assam. Should the Allies' undeitake also a landing at Rangoon—another possibility that has been suggested—the advance along the Arakan coast might speedily assume much more than defensive significance. New importance would thus be given to the port of Akyab and its nearby aerodrome. From the Japanese standpoint the Akyab aerodrome is located conveniently for air attacks on India, although comparatively few of these have been undertaken. In Allied hands this aerodrome would be a useful base from which to give air cover to naval and convoy operations extending south through the Bay of Bengal.

It has been said that the opening- of a large-scale campaign in Burma, like a number of other important war developments, must depend on the course of events in North Africa. With only about three clear months to be counted on before the onset of the rainy season, the question of whether the campaign is or is not to be opened this' year is bound to be decided in the very near future. One indication that early action on a considerably extended scale is contemplated is the recent intensification of the purposeful and persistent bombing of Japanese air and other bases, railway and river transport and communm cations that has been in progress for a good many weeks past.

There can be no doubt that action in and from Burma is capable of taking an immensely important place in the wai against Japan. Developed on ’.'the scale needed to ensure o success, it would speedily transform the whole outlook in the Pacific. . , .