PACIFIC WAR

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 65, Issue 195, 31 May 1945, Page 3

PACIFIC WAR

;j GEOGRAPHY AIDS JAPAN. I ! —— * j ENEMY’S EXPANDED AREA. . j Somewhere over 25,000,000 square miles of Asia and the Pacific Ocean ’jJapanese naval, air and ground forces , ;are scattered. Of course, not every | square inch of this vast area is firmly ! held by our enemy. But United Nations fighters must track them down and' : give battle wherever we meet them, | writes John Goette, in the “Free ’ j World.” ■ | The war-expanded Japanese Empire ’ j actually comprises 4,000,000 square ; miles of physical occupation. Bombers wing their way 1500 miles 1 over open sea from the Aleutian Islands to smash at Japan’s most north- [ ern island, the Kuriles. On the same !' day other bombers fly 2400 miles to [ strike at Japanese oil installations in ' the Netherlands East Indies. . i Notwithstanding these extended | | flights, both entirely over water, the ' ; distance between the bombed points is ' | 4000 miles. And that is but a i'rac";(ion of the entire Pacific front. A thousand miles away the Chinese ' hold the Japanese on a 1500-mile lino. ■ Still another thousand miles from this fighting, the British, Americans and [ Chinese struggle against the enemy in ’ I the jungles of Burma. | j Two thousand miles eastward of ! j that Burmese war zone some 300,000 ' j Japanese and Americans are locked in 1 : a combat for the Philippine Islands. Adding further magnitude to the war , are the daily flights-of Superfortresses 1 from the Mariana Islands to Tokio and 1 back. These B29’s easily make a rou- ■ tine bombing journey which would ' carry them non-stop from Paris to 1 New York. 1 When we eventually accomplish a - j large-scale landing on Japan or on the ; Chinese coast, for every 250,000 troops | there must go forward from American ; ports .2,000,000 tons of material i'or ! every 30 days, j Fuel for heavy bombers at island j liases like Saipan and Guam is carried 5500 miles from San Francisco. The ! consumption of gasoline during a 3400[rnile round-trip raid on Tokio is fantastic. For example, an American civilian is allotted four gallons of gaso- , line per week on his ration card. Such an allowance for 50 years would keep ; one 829 in the air only a single hour, j American war leaders threaten to i raid Japan with as many as 1000 1329’5, j possibly within 1945. The quantity of | gasoline for such raids which we must | ship 5500 miles across the Pacific is j beyond ordinary human comprehenj sion.