SPITFIRE LOSSES

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 106, 6 May 1943, Page 5

SPITFIRE LOSSES

JAP. RAID ON DARWIN U.S. Press Comment On Supply Position In Pacific N.Z. Press Association.—Copyright Rec. 1.30 p.m. NEW YORK, May 5. The "heavy Spitfire losses" in the Japanese attack on Darwin on Sunday have again focused sharp attention on the needs of the South-west Pacific. The New York Daily Mirror says: "The fact that Spitfires engaged the raiders is evidence that none of the ever-increasing flow of American supplies which Mr. H. L. Stimson announced was on its way to the Pacific has yet arrived. "The reference in General .MacArthur's communique to "heavy losses' has an even more ominous ring when it is remembered that only a fortnight ago he warned that if the Allies lost control of the Australian air front no naval force could save Australia. It is perilously plain that, contrary to official Washington's view, the Japanese are embarking on new offensives." Harold Guard. United Press war correspondent in South-west Pacific says: "The raid bears testimony to the peril confronting northern Australia. It demonstrates that the Japanese are capable of advancing against Australia from distant bases under long-range fighter cover which is equivalent to longer reach in a punching match." Course of War Predicted Predicting the course of the war in the Pacific, the semi-official Amerir can magazine United States News;' says this has gone into slow motion because of the general preoccupation of the United Nations with the European theatre. It adds: "The war in the Pacific is a strange sort of conflict which drags on month after month, where hostile fleets stay away from a showdown and where armed might grows and waits." j, The magazine said that a few, months ago some leaders predicted the defeat of Japan in 1943, but that. position now is: For 1943 no major sea or land offensive against the Japanese is in sight. For early probably limited offensives, but no general offensive. For late in 1944 and 1945 all-out attack on Japan by the Allied forces provided the Allied plans for the defeat of Germany are completed in time. But sea and air engagements are expected to continue in the Pacific with the Americans taking new islands where they can.