JAPS. FEAR U.S. AIR POWER IN SOLOMONS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 230, 29 September 1942, Page 3

JAPS. FEAR U.S. AIR POWER IN SOLOMONS

GUADALCANAR KEY

Wearing Down Enemy's Naval Strength

Special Australian Correspondent

United Press Association—Copyright Rec. 1.30 p.m. SYDNEY, this day.

_ Guadalcanar has proved an unsinkable aircraft-carrier, many times more powerful than any sea-goinpr carrier. The effectiveness of Allied air power in the southern Solomons is believed here to lie behind Japan's hesitancy to send her main fleet into action to recapture the islands. While Japan still has substantial naval shipping, she no longer has a margin of strength enabling her to take risks.

"United States air power is such that the Japanese have not dared, after their initial attempt, to brine? in convoys of big ships," states the New York Times correspondent, Tillman Durdin, in a dispatch from Guadalcanar. "Japanese warships wait 150 miles away until dusk, then come in at high speed and escape before dawn."

Discussing the effectiveness of American air power over Guadalcanar, Durdin says the HendersonKukum airfield has already produced aces who surpass the top-ranking American airmen on any other Allied front.

Japanese Shipping Danger

If Japan loses many more naval ships she will risk everything she has gained, says Rear-Admiral Woodward, in the New York journal American. He adds: "But Allied offensive operations may compel' the Japanese fleet to come out and fight rather than lose important bases, with the resultant threat to Japan's communications."

Rear-Admiral Woodward says Japan may consider her chances better now while our forces are widely spread, protecting Hawaii, ;Panama and the Aleutians. On the other hand the Japanese do not know whether the Allied plan is to move north from the Solomons east from Hawaii. Therefore, she. must prepare for both contingencies' and is forced to concentrate her naval strength.

American fighter and bomber attack and reconnaissance planes have been a factor rated as high as 50 per cent in the defence of the southern Solomons, says the New York Times. In addition, they have been an important striking force in hitting Japanese bases and ships, which do not constitute an immediate threat to this part of the Solomons.

Flying Fortresses Striking

Without Kukum airfield the American marines alone might never have held Guadalcanar. The United States navy alone would have suffered great losses in attempting to prevent large scale Japanese reinforcements from landing.

Australian based Flying Fortresses have played a substantial part in curbing the menace of Japanese shipping concentrations at Rabaul, in New Britain, believed to be intended to reinforce the enemy's strength in the Solomons. In a week five vessels have been put out of commission by bombing raids on this base, and a sixth has been probably damaged. Not a single aircraft has been lost in these raids. The newest proofs of the devastating effects of the marked supremacy of Allied air power in the southwest Pacific make it clear that Japan will be compelled severely to challenge that supremacy as a prelude to any naval action designed to restore her position in this theatre.