ACCORDING TO PLAN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 November 1943, Page 4

ACCORDING TO PLAN

THE AMERICAN LANDING ON BOUGAINVILLE SOLOMONS ALL BUT LOST TO ENEMY DEVELOPING ALLIED THREAT TO RABAUL i , (Special Australian Correspondent.) (Received This Day, 12.5 p.m.). SYDNEY, This Day. ■ The American ’ landing at Empress Augusta Bay, on the west coast of central Bougainville, in the Northern Solomons, was planned on the Australian mainland. A secret conference between General MacArthur, Admiral Halsey, General Harmon, commander of the South Pacific land forces and General Vandegrift, commander • of the United Staley Marine forces, was held some weeks ago. Australian miiltary commentators are gratified by the success of the move, which is expected to result in the development of an air pincer grip on Rabaul totally destroying the value of that base as a marshalling centre for both the Solomons and New Guinea war fronts. The isolation of the Japanese garrison, numbering several thousand, guarding the Buin-Faisi, naval base (in southern Bougainville) means the virtual end of enemy control in. the Northern Solomons. The enemy cannot survive in this area without air support, which can only be drawn, through Rabaul, from Truk, 800 miles north of Rabaul. Rabaul’s airfields have been neutralised by a succession of attacks by General MacArthur’s, bombers. Now the additional threat from Admiral Halsey’s air forces strips this key base of its last remaining menace.