ENEMY WEAKNESS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 June 1943, Page 3

ENEMY WEAKNESS

IN DEFENCE OF ALEUTIANS TROOPS SUPPLIED ONLY BY SUBMARINE. AIR ATTACKS FEW & FEEBLE. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) NEW YORK, June 17. “The Japanese are apparently letting i the Aleutian Islands go by default,” says a “New York Times” correspondent with the North Pacific Fleet. He states that since March 27, when a small American task force outfought a Japanese naval group twice its size and turned back a convoy which was bound for Attu, the Japanese have not attempted to supply their isolated troops in the Aleutians except by submarine and have launched only two feeble air attacks from Paramushiru against the Americans mopping up on Attu. The Japanese failure to react to the American advance confirms the opinion that their original attacks* in the Aleutians last June were intended as a diversion for Midway, the correspondent says. Their subsequent investment of Kiska, Attu and Aggatu was evidently an after-thought inspired by the weakness of the American military establishments. Now the Japanese-seek only to make the recapture of the islands as difficult as possible with the troops which are already there.