SHIPPING CRISIS FACED BY JAPANESE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 57, 8 March 1944, Page 5

SHIPPING CRISIS FACED BY JAPANESE

HEAVY TOLL TAKEN

Admiral Nimitz Wants To Meet Enemy Fleet N.Z.P.A. and British Wireless Rec. 1 p.m. RUGBY, Mar. 7. Admiral Nimitz, Chief of the Allied Naval Forces in the Pacific, according to a Washington message, stated that United States submarines had sunk so many Japanese tankers and supply ships that he believed they probably could not maintain major units at Truk.

Rec. 1 p.m

"We were not surprised but disappointed not to find major units at Truk when we hit it," he added. "I believe the Japanese are beginning to find maintaining a fleet at Truk is very difficult. Perhaps they decided to withdraw their major units long before we attacked." All that was needed now, he stated, was time to carry out operations. The principal obstacle was not the Japanese, but geography—the size of the Pacific. He thought the most urgent need at present for the American forces was transports.

Value of New Bases The destruction of .Japanese shipping by American submarines was increasing to such an extent that it might determine the results of the Pacific war, said Admiral Nimitz, who has arrived in Washington for conferences.

Addressing a Press conference, he declared: "Our submarines are taking such a heavy toll that lack of. shipping may soon be the controlling factor in what Japan is' able to do. Our submarines are increasing in number and are not decreasing in efficiency, even though the number' of targets is slowly decreasing. Although enemy submarines are not frequently seen now, they will become more of a menace as our lines lengthen. The capture of additional bases permits American submarines to deal even heavier blows against enemy shipping by reducing the time spent going to and from the bases.

"Position Very Favourable"

"An early encounter with the Japanese Fleet would be to our advantage because we are prepared to meet them. It would be disastrous for their overseas communications if we could fight an early engagement and they lost a good part of their fleet. My idea is that they are preserving their fleet as long as possible."

Admiral Nimitz described the Japanese Navy as highly efficient and well trained, and added: "They have not lost the will to fight. They're pretty good, but our people are better and equally willing to fight. Our position in the Pacific is very favourable and improves with time."

Japan is depending upon wooden ships to carry food and supplies to front line troops, said Tokyo radio. "The huge enemy task forces, plying between our bases and the front lines, have made the passage of large transports infinitely difficult," it states. "The heavy responsibility for the safe transport of food and supplies has fallen upon the crews of wooden ships. Dengue fever and Boeing planes are the worst enemies of this wooden fleet."