Natural Defences Of The Solomons

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 194, 18 August 1942, Page 4

Natural Defences Of The Solomons

If Nature ever had planned a group of islands suitable for guerilla warfare, and man had aided Nature's design, something like the Solomon Islands might have been the result. The Solomons are not only the most primitive and the least developed of all the large groups in the Pacific— they also are notable because of their mountainous character and their vast, almost impenetrable jungles, writes R. W. Robson, editor of the Pacific Islands Monthly, in the course of a special article in the Sydney Morning Herald. In this latter respect they are somewhat like the territory of New Guinea. But New Guinea has half a dozen good ports, and a few roads near the chief settlements, and many airfields.

In the Solomons there were no airfields before the Japanese landed, no roads through the jungles, no bridges over the many large rivers. There are only a few hundred plantations along the shores of the more accessible islands, and communication almost invariably is by water. Scattered through the 700 miles oyer which this great parallel chain of broken islands extends are many hundreds of isolated bays, deep estuaries, unexpected gorges and rocky bluffs, where seaplanes and submarines and small war craft might shelter and hide. There is no cleared country where mechanised forces can deploy; but there is an immense region of islet-studded waters, and mountainous, jungle-clad islands, each containing thousands of square miles, which is ideal for guerilla fighters. May Expose Strategy It is most unfortunate that the Japanese were allowed to occupy this group in March, April and May, during our period of unpreparedness. It is we, rather than they, who should now be getting the advantage of this natural defensive position.

If, as is believed, the enemv took the chance to prepare a string of defensive positions, from Tulagi northwards, it is going to be difficult and costly to dig him out again. I believe that the Japanese defensive strategy in the South-west Pacific will be demonstrated in the Solomons and New Guinea area— that they will fight stubbornly for every defensible rock, in the hope that they can make our return northwards so expensive and discouraging that we may be induced to stop and parley with the Japanese still in possession of the immensely more valuable East Indies.

The rapidity and thoroughness with which the Japanese established themselves in the Solomons indicated a well-prepared plan. We have known for some 15 years that their spies, in the guise of shell-fishing junk crews, were roaming all over these seas, charting every reef and islet; and there is little doubt that they long ago recognised the immense strategical value of the Solomons.

They had only to descend upon Rabaul from their Caroline bases and thrust out patrols to the west and east to place themselves in a position from which it is most difficult to dislodge them. Then, if the way into Australia, via Papua or Torres Strait, was barred, the obvious alternative was to creep down through the Solomons, from Rabaul, to a position within striking distance of Brisbane, Sydney, Noumea, Auckland and Suva.

It should be explained, perhaps, that there really are two political groups of Solomon Islands—the North Solomon Islands (Baku and Bougainville), which are now

grouped with New Britain and New Ireland as part of the Mandated Territory of New Guinea, and the British Solomon Islands, administered by Britain through Suva.

Like Stepping Stones

Within about 16 weeks of their occupation of Rabaul, in January, the Japanese had established a seaplane base in Tulagi, and were constructing an airfield for land planes at one of the few suitable spots in the group, on the large island of Guadalcanar not far from Tulagi., With definite purpose they went in January to Kessa, on the west coast of Buka; in February to Soraken, between Buka and Bougainville, and to Kieta, on the south-east coast of Bougainville; in March to Faisi, in the northern part of the British Solomons, and to Gizo, in the New Georgia cluster; and so to Tulagi. which they raided in April and occupied in May, immediately before the Battle of the Coral Sea.

This long chain of Solomon Islands might have been made for their purpose. The handful of European planters and traders were gone— only missionaries remained. The present generation of coastal natives knows nothing of fighting. The waters in and around the broken chain are deep and sheltered —ideal for seaplanes and small naval craft. Their flanks are secure—there are hundreds of miles of open sea on both sides of the chain. The Japanese came along the Solomons chain from Rabaul to Tulagi as if they were using a well-designed set of stepping-stones.

Tulagi is the group's administrative and commercial centre. The big islands of the Solomons lie in two parallel chains—Choiseul, Ysabel, and Malaita to the north-east, and New Georgia, Guadalcanar and San Cristoval to the south-west. Those two chains enclose a large sheltered sea. 500 miles long and up to 100 miles wide.

In the middle of this sea. between Malaita and Guadalcanar is the large island of Gela. Close up against the southern shore of Gela is the little island of Tulagi, on which is the little town of Tulagi. Between Tulagi and the Gela shore is the islet of Makambo. Between Tulagi shore and Makambo is a narrow stretch of deep, sheltered water, which is the harbour of Tulagi, lately being used by the enemy as a naval and seaplane base. Partly Unexplored Tulagi is in three sections. There is the official and residential section, scattered over the top of Tulagi Island; the commercial section down on the waterfront, comprising the Carpenter and other European establishments; and Chinatown, stretching away on either side; and, threequarters of a mile away, across the harbour, on Makambo islet, is the Burns Philp establishment, which comprises stores, docks, etc. Two miles away to the east, also close against the Gela shore, is the lrttle island of Gavutu, headquarters of Levers Pacific Plantations. Ltd. The world-famous Lever organisation owns a string of coconut plantations in the Solomons.

A considerable number of plantations and mission stations are on Gela, and there is some settlement on the contiguous shore of Guadalcanar and Malaita; and there are a good many plantations in the New Georgia cluster, in the Shortlands, near Bougainville. Otherwise, the Solomons are undeveloped, unsettled, primitive, and partly unexplored. The rival forces now striving for mastery of the inner sea at and around Tulagi, are dependent entirely on their own resources. Apart from the few stores and a

small wharf at Tulagi, neither clocking facilities nor supplies are to be had at any poi»t nearer than Port Vila or New Caledonia in the south, or the Australian ports in the southwest.

In the past 20 years, many writers, seeing the Japanese menace, warned the Anglo-Saxon peoples that the Solomons, because of their situation, might be used for a vital strategical purpose in just such a way as the Japanese have now used them. No one took any notice—and the Japanese came down and stepped along the Solomon chain, into the heart of the British Pacific, just as had been feared.

But there is little satisfaction in seeing such a warning fulfilled. There are the Japanese, establised, aggressive, and dangerous; and we shall need all our fortitude and high spirit, as well as all our armed strength, before they are pushed back again north of the equator.