The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun MONDAY, JUNE 8, 1942. ANOTHER JAPANESE REVERSE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 133, 8 June 1942, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun MONDAY, JUNE 8, 1942. ANOTHER JAPANESE REVERSE

REPORTS nf naval battles in t he Pacific have in the past been too optimistic. Someone called the allair in the Macassar Strait "the greatest victory since .Jutland," and there were circumstantial accounts of the sinking or damaging of about forty ships, including transports. Weeks later the commander of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet said: "I think that we undoubtedly accountcd for half a dozen of their ships without any loss to ourselves." Similarly, after the first reports of the Coral Sea battle, the Australian authorities were at pains to "play down" the success achieved there. These experiences should be a sufficient warning to us to treat the eat ly reports of the Midway Island battle with a certain amount of reserve. In air-naval actions, it is clear, the accurate determination of damage done to the enemy is most difficult, and reports made in good faith may be exaggerated, or, sometimes, completely mistaken. But. even when allowance has been made for these facts it appears certain that the United States Navy has won a success greater than could have been reasonably hoped for at this early stage of the Pacific war, and that the Japanese have had a severe reverse. Whatever the ultimate object, of their attack on Midway Island may have been, they did not achieve it, for the attack itself failed, and the Japanese, in Withdrawing, suffered losses which they can ill afford.

Like the foral Sea battle, this seems to have been a conflict mainly between aircraft, both ship-based and shore-based, and surface ships. There is no mention of a fleet action of the old type; but United States submarines were engaged, and one torpedoed an aircraft-carrier which had already been damaged by bombs. As in the Coral Sea battle the Americans seem to have correctly anticipated the nature of the 'next Japanese move and to have had adequate forces on the spot to meet it All this is very encouraging, indicating net only the vigilance and efficiency of the I nited States Navy, which has never been in doubt since Pearl arbour, but the forces which they have at their disposal They, and all the Allied forces in the Pacific, are still in the position it £nn th W r a f ;V h ° nt 7 l Ja P anpso move > a " f l if Possible anticipate , Coral Sea, and now off Midway Island, they not only corf^piTrh n hL C tH n h th e move, but were able to reverse it. The Japanese t t ' e . ave given a sizeable example of what they may p ct when their enemies are better prepared. They are becoming better e \ c K ry ., d , ay ' a ' thanks to the advanced state of the United buildm g Programme, the day will come when they are overwhelmingly superior.