WAR STRENGTH

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 July 1943, Page 3

WAR STRENGTH

AGAINST JAPAN IN PACIFIC ALREADY GREAT AND BEING BUILT UP. AMERICAN DETERMINATION EMPHASISED. (Bv Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON. July 26. “More Ilian hall' of America’s wnr strength is deployed in the Pacific. That I rout also will be steadily reinforced till complete victory is won. We are going to finish tlx l war in the Pacific, and finish it right, if if takes six years—no matter bow long it takes.’’ This statement was made by Air Elmer Davis, Director of the (mited States Office of War Information, broadcasting here .

Mr Davis said that while the taking of Guadalcanal had been cosily in ships, it had been more costly to the Japanese, who had sacrificed more ships than they could afford. The Japanese had lost so many cruisers and destroyers that their navy was badly out of balance, though the Japanese battle fleet was still intact. Japan was losing so heavily she might presently be unable to defend her sea frontier at all. The Japanese Air Force had been whittled down considerably. “This island hopping in its naval aspect is a war of attrition,” said Mr Davis. "So far the advantage has been. heavily on cur side. Our submarines are gradually chopping down the Japanese merchant marine to the point where it will ultimately be inadequate to supply and reinforce her outlying garrisons. The ineffectiveness of Japanese submarines against our supply lines has been one of the surprises of the war."

“We are going to recover Kiska. and have already bombed the islands of Japan,” he said. “That is one route—the shortest one —by which we may eventually strike the enemy in his heme islands. Another is the road up from the south which General MacArthur’s forces are now following. The more opposition they meet on the outside of the circle the less will be the resistance when they finally break in.

“Still another route is from the west. In due course Burma will be retaken, and with the Burma Road open we can once more supply the armies of China. “And there is the open sea. Some day the Japanese may have to risk a fleet action, and they will do so with far less prospects of success than they might have had a year ago.”

JAPANESE FEARS OF CO-ORDINATED ALLIED OFFENSIVE. SEEN BY NEW YORK PAPER. NEW YORK. July 26. Japanese fighting methods in the South-West Pacific suggests that Japan fears co-ordinated Allied offensives based on India and Australia, says the New York “HeraldTribune.” This move would mean ? rendezvous at Singapore, or there-abouts.

"The prospect of having two such offensives to cope with is perhaps sufficient to prompt the enemy's misguided caution in the use of task froces,” says the paper “since they may need their forces in the coming winter to defend far more important conquests. They probably do not wish to risk crippling losses in the southern Pacific, so they send their driblets in to slaughter. But there is no telling whether Japan will send out her battle fleet or withdraw across the equator when vanity gives way to despair.” The Washington correspondent of the “New York Times” emphasises that the factor of attrition is very important in the Pacific war. The Americans since last year have increased the number of their planes in the Solomons area from 2000 to between 300 and 4000. says the Berlin radio, quoting a Tokio report. The radio said that Japan could wait further air fighting in the Solomons with confidence only if her air force there was substantially strengthened. During the past six weeks, pilots of the United States 13th Army Air Force in the Solomons have shot down 110 Japanese planes for the loss of 12 machines, of which the pilots of five were saved. Their best day was on June 16, when they shot down 42 enemy planes over Guadalcanal for the loss of one.