CONTROL OF THE AIR

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 117, 20 May 1942, Page 5

CONTROL OF THE AIR

CHIEF FACTOR IN THE

PACIFIC

NEW YORK, May 18. "The Coral Sea. is strategically similar to the English Channel, and the role of General Mac Arthur's aviators is similar to that of the Royal Air Force, which saved Britain by establishing superiority over the skies of the English Channel," says, 'the aviation export, Major de Seversky. "Those who succeed in acquiring and holding bases on the Australian mainland, in New Guinea, and other islands will almost automatically become masters of the whole area, regardless of the relative strength of the other forces. Because of the unnecessarily short range of aircraft, the whole war has been largely a continuous race for air bases.

"The picture in the Pacific is even more clearly that of a race for these bases. The Japanese advance into the south-west Pacific can best be shown diagrammaticaUy as a series of concentric arcs, each marking another segment brought under the control of. the Mikado's aviation.

"Only as the chain of more advanced air bases drew another area into the orbit of overhead assault have the Japanese surface craft and armies been able to undertake operations."

Major de Seversky considers that there should be less tendency to divert shipping facilities from the transport of aviation equipment to the carriage of other weapons and of man-power. Aircraft-carriers, he says, do not offer the means of air control over the approaches to Australia. It is land bases and island chains which give the Japanese the advantage.