YEAR’S ACHIEVEMENT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 December 1943, Page 3

YEAR’S ACHIEVEMENT

REVIEW OF PACIFIC WAR MUCH GAINED AGAINST GREAT ODDS. ADMIRAL HALSEY SURVEYS SITUATION. (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) WASHINGTON, December 6. The commander of the South Pacific area, Admiral Halsey, reviewing the second year of the war in the South Pacific to August 6, 1943. said it had been a difficult year for the Allied forces. "Looking back from the initial steps to the'moment, 3 p.m. on August 5, when our combined army and marine units, supplemented by New Zealand, Autralian and Fijian associates, completed the capture of our second Solomons objective, MUnda airfield, we can take a deep pride in having achieved much against great odds,” he said. “We were aware of the odds to be faced when the newborn South Pacific force moved against the lower Solomons on August 7, 1942. History shows that this force which was then under Vice-Admiral Ghormley accomplished its mission in a perfectly timed well-co-ordinated early morning assault. Perhaps we should have wished to postpone our entry into the Solomons till a later date when our strength in aircraft, ships and men was greater. It is no secret today that we had little choice in the matter. At the very moment when General Vandergrift’s marine shock troops swarmed on the beachhead at Guadalcanal, Henderson Field was receiving the final, touches from enemy graders and rollers. Delay would have jeopardised the security of the islands to the south as well as Australia and possibly New Zealand.

“In the prosecution of the Pacific war which encompasses 70,000,000 square miles from the Aleutians to New Zealand and from the China Sea to the west coast of America, wc have now made an earnest offeiiswe beginning. Our first year of the South Pacific sea war fare alone accounted for what can be regarded as an impressive enemy fleet sunk and ciamaged in air and surface engagements. SUBMARINE ACTIVITY.

“I regret that security does not permit me to say much of submarine action, but this much I can say. Our under-sea forces have grown daily. They strike hard and often where it hurts most. The enemy's attenuated supply lines which he must frantically guard to poui' men and materials into his cracking perimeter defences, provide us with a 3000-mile target. “In the air, our navy, marine and army pilots are generally outnumbered but never outfought. They have shot down more than 1800 planes of all categories. We can say with pardonable pride that on August 6 this year one American is worth at least four Japanese- in aerial combat As our forces have grown we have been able to send heavier aerial concentrations against the enemy.

“The final days of the Munda onslaught saw 200 aircraft bringing our wrath down on the enemy’s head. The Japanese found his own attempts at mass aerial attack devastating to himself as witness his rout on April 7 June 16 and June 30. On those three days the enemy lost 234 planes. “Early this year, the South Pacific force, which has always been and remains an integral part of the United States Pacific Fleet, came under the strategical command of General MacArthur. Each of us, he in his theatre and we in ours, has long been aiming at the same ultimate objective of the co-ordination of our efforts was nothing new. This unity of command was a natural outcome of our northward progress. Throughout our entire South Pacific operations, General MacArthur’s army bombers have played an essential role in the success attained. Here the teamwork has always been of the highest order.

NEW PHASE. “We have begun a new phase of the campaign' in the waters and islands of the South-Western Pacific. Many months of unrelenting labour have brought us to this desirable stage. The hard months of preparation were made harder by the fact that we started from scratch. We went into harbours where there were little if any docking facilities and we built them. We cut the turn-round time of cargo ships carrying vital supplies from weeks to days. Our magnificent engineers, navy seabees and army units hewed airfields out of jungles and we got the planes into them in time to stem all counterattacks against our new hardwon advanced positions.

“Sometimes it was touch and go. Often sheer courage, as exemplified by the marine flyers who ferried gasoline drums into Guadalcanal in unarmed transport planes during the dark days of October tipped the scales from defeat to ultimate victory. “This I can promise. We shall have offensives. It is not the nature of Americans, New Zealanders and Australians to stand idly by while the enemy overruns their lands, nor does anyone feel he has begun to win till he reaches enemy soil. Taking back what was ours originally is just the start. Each of us has an appointment in Tokio.”