BRIEF LULL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 April 1943, Page 3

BRIEF LULL

IN SOUTH-WEST PACIFIC AIRWAR JAPANESE IN NEW GUINEA BUILDING AIR STRIPS. LINKED BY MOTOR ROAD. (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, April 2. An almost complete lull occurred in the South-West Pacific air war yesterday. General MacArthur’s latest communique reports only minor Allied activity in all sectors, while the Japanese Air Force was completely inactive. There were no reports of any Japanese shipping activity. It is confirmed that Japanese labour units are working at top speed along the northern New Guinea coast building a chain of air strips and bases linked by a motor road. The bases begin at Aitape, but the major development is taking place at Wewak, which is rapidly becoming a second Rabaul. Allied airmen, who have repeatedly attacked Wewak, report encountering an increasingly heavy anti-aircraft and searchlight barrage on each successive trip. South-east of Wewak, the Japanese are developing a new airfield at Bogia, which is followed by the olderestablished bases at Madang, Saidor, Finschhafen, Malahang, Lae, and Salamaua. FUGITIVES ROUNDED UP. Hundreds of Japanese survivors from the obliterated Bismarck Sea convoy have been captured by Australian patrols on Goodenough and Trobriand Islands. Many enemy parties have drifted ashore along the 200 miles of island coastline, and in clashes with our watchful patrols, more than 100 of the enemy have been killed. Allied air reconnaissance has kept a close check on these islands. When such a reconnaissance showed that some Japanese had come ashore on an unguarded island, a special patrol was flown there to deal with them.

The first group of Japanese survivors reached the shore a few days after the destruction of the Bismarck Sea convoyfand the last stragglers drifted to the beaches 11 days later. Some had escaped in power barges, which finally ran out of fuel, and were carried ashore by the prevailing current. During all the skirmishes, the Japanese showed their usual distaste for capture. But the treatment they received when taken prisoner apparently altered their attitude. It is recorded that one young Japanese repeatedly declared to his captors, “I don’t know why you Australians are so kind.” ALLIED PLANS RABAUL AS OBJECTIVE. OPINIONS OF AMERICAN COMMENTATORS. WASHINGTON, April 1. The newly-planned Allied, strategy in the southern Pacific will be aimed primarily against the key Japanese base of Rabaul. This is the opinion of well-informed circles here, where it is believed that the capture of this base, even at heavy cost, might break completely the enemy hold on the occupied territories in that sector. No indication has been given, however, of the plans which have been formulated at the meeting of the Pacific war staffs. “From what is known of the conversations, it can be assumed that the principal considerations were, first, the fullest co-ordination of the three Pacific commands in the operations decided on, and, secondly, full exchange of information about the enemy’s condition with cross-checking of estimates of his likely course of action,” writes Joseph Harsch, in the “Christian Science Monitor.” “It is difficult, however, to envisage a future major move in the Pacific without heavy reliance on air power necessitating substantial increases in the planes allotted to the Pacific. But the Navy gets most of its planes from factories manufacturing exclusively for the Navy. Division from this source would not, therefore, affect the European theatre. Further, enough new ships have joined the fleet to transform the American striking power at sea. Japan has had some additions, but nothing comparable in numbers and quality with the new American ships. “Thus, the possibility increases daily of a new move in the Pacific involving big ships whose funct'on will be to weaken the Japanese naval power. Some such move may have been planned in the past two or three weeks. “It is certain, at least, that all the Pacific commanders are now thoroughly informed about Casablanca, and the broad objective of the global strategy for 1943. For the first time since Pearl Harbour, each knows exactly what his expected role is, and how it dovetails into the whole plan.”