JAPANESE ATTACK ON LARGE SCALE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 24, 29 January 1943, Page 3

JAPANESE ATTACK ON LARGE SCALE

FEARED IN AUSTRALIA

Troops Being Assembled At Northern Bases

N.Z. Press Association.—Copyright Rec. 10 a.m. SYDNEY, this day

• Enemy troops are being assembled at strategic points north of Australia. Political correspondents state that the Commonwealth Government believes that a large-scale Japanese attack on Australia is brewing. "Japan is again preparing to move southwards in the Pacific, this time on a scale far beyond the earlier attempts," states the Sydney Sun political correspondent. Reports indicate that the Japanese are building up formidable transport forces. Because of Japanese dominance of northern waters it would take the enemy but little time to rush the necessary naval protection southwards when preparations are completed for jumping off.

"Enemy aerodromes are being completed at strategic positions to enable longer range aerial raids to be made on Allied outposts. "The Federal Ministry is being kept closely in touch with developments in the explosive situation and there is a feeling that this time Japan will attempt to overcome earlier mistakes by moving in what she hopes will be overwhelming force."

Chain of Japanese Airfields A special Press Association message from Sydney states that further evidence of the forging of a great chain of Japanese airfields and naval anchorages north and north-east of Australia is contained in General Mac Arthur's latest operational report. The Allied air forces in the last 24 hours have attacked enemy bases not previously mentioned in communiques. Japanese air activity has been light, but a small Allied merchant vessel is reported to have been sunk bj' enemy bombers off Wessel Island, near the north-eastern tip of Arnheimland. The casualties among the crew were light. The Prime Minister, Mr. Curtin, reiterated Australia's fears when he said to the Federal Parliament, which has recently reassembled: "There is no portent suggesting that the enemy has had a rebuff sufficient to deter him from the task he has set himself." At a Press conference, Mr. Curtin elaborated this statement when he said: "In past offensive moves the Japanese have failed to gauge the strength of the Allied resistance, but with a stroke of luck they might make a major concentration stronger than the resistance we could offer."

New Global Strategy "Co-ordinated aggressiveness is henceforth the Allied order of battle," says the military correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald. "In the scheme of global strategy formulated at the Casablanca Conference, priority must be given to the European theatre. The war with Japan, however, can no longer be relegated to a holding operation. "The promise of maximum aid to China presupposes the reopening of the Burma link with China as a prelude to blows at the heart of the Japanese enemy. In the Pacific the emphasis must be upon naval and aerial activities aimed at the severance of Japan's long lines of communication and at closing in upon the Japanese mainland. Keenly alive to dangers of allowing Japan to consolidate and develop her Pacific and Asiatic co-prosperity spheres," the correspondent adds, "Australia will watch eagerly for concrete evidence that this theatre was not overlooked in the new strategy of global war."

Papuan Campaign Losses Two Japanese soldiers were lost for every Allied soldier who fell in the Papuan campaign. The Allied figures of losses take into account not merely the men killed and wounded, but also those withdrawn from the battle because of sickness. In the air our losses, compared with those of the Japanese, were even lower than on land. At sea our casualties were negligible. This satisfactory balance-sheet of the Papuan campaign is part of to-day's communique from General Mac Arthur's headquarters.' No actual figures of losses are given. "There was rib necessity to hurry our attack, because the time element in this case was of little importance, and for this reason no attempt was made to.rush positions by mass and unprepared assault," says the official statement. "The utmost care was taken with the conservation of our forces, with the result that probably no campaign in history against such a thoroughly prepared and trained army produced such complete and decisive results with a lower expenditure of life and resources."