WIDER AIR RANGE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 40, 17 February 1943, Page 3

WIDER AIR RANGE

Control Of Guadalcanal* Gives Allies New Advantage

ANOTHER ISLAND NEEDED

Rec. 12.30 p.m. NEW YORK, Feb. 16. Complete control of the island of Guadalcanal*, in the Solomons, gives the United Nations a new advantage in the air, writes Norman Lodge, of the Associated Press of America, from United States headquarters in the South Pacific, Mr. Lodge points out that Liberators, Flying Fortresses and other heavy bombers, which were previously based farther south, are now able, from Guadalcanal-, to reach Truk and other Japanese strongholds in the Central Pacific. It is, he acids, imperative that the. United States seize another island further north as a base for the protecting fighters as well as light bombers. "Admiral Halsey," he says, "prefers to let the enemy build a base and then move in a landing force to take control as he did at Guadalcanal The Japanese, therefore, are forced to split their defence force among all their bases in this, area, such as Munda, Russell Island, Bougainville Island and Rekata Bay."