STRATEGY IN THE PACIFIC

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23743, 15 September 1942, Page 4

STRATEGY IN THE PACIFIC

Possible Moves By Japan GENERAL PUTTICK’S , VIEWS (P.A.) WELLINGTON, September 14. The belief that Japan would not go outside her, air umbrella with Invasion forces on a large scale, except in the hope of achieving a quick success, just as the Americans had done in the Solomons, was expressed by LieutenantGeneral E. Puttick, General (Dfflcer Commanding the New Zealand Military Forces, in an address to Wellington Home Guard officers on strategy in the Pacific. He said that a feature of Japan’s progress so far was that with one or two exceptions she had not stepped outside her air umbrella. The exceptions were Pearl Harbour, the Aleutians, and the projected operations at Midway, but in each of these cases extensive use was made of aircraft-carriers. General Puttick said he believed that Japan in the near future would launch a strong counter-attack in the Solomons, and might conceivably attempt anotner strong offensive further south if her initial operations succeeded. If Japan crept .down to New Caledonia, it would put her in a position of threatening either New • Zealand or Australia, as well as sea routes to and from those and other countries. Action by Japan until now had been mainly offensive. However, she still feared American naval power interfering with her operations, and was very sensitive about certain spots in China, while there was fear also of air bombardment from that quarter. , For the Allies’ part, the main strategy so far had been purely defensive. The operations in the Solomons could reasonably be termed defensive. When they would develop into an offensive was difficult to say, although the intention clearly was to assume the offensive at the earliest possible moment. There had been a certain amount of talk about striking at the heart of things instead, fit going for the fringes, but those fringes were important, since they threatened the lifeline between Australia and America. “No Use Waiting for Invaders” In New Zealand the strategy had been defensive, but the higher tactics within the country were offensive. It was no use sitting down waiting for invaders. “You have to go for them, and go for them full blast,” he said. “That is why the forces to-day are distributed throughout the country as they are.’’ A great point in having a defence force in a country was that it required greater strength on the part of an attacker to crack it. The use of that strength subtracted offerisivo power from equal or more vital theatres of war, and the effort required on the part of the enemy might be so great as to prevent him attempting it. For the wider, straight-out offensive, it was essential, said General Puttick, to push our forces out of the country to where they could do the most good in helping to win the war. For that reason he fully supported a New Zealand force being in the Middle East, where it was filling a role of the greatest importance. “I would be the last to suggest that they should come back: a few of them, yes, to give a leavening of experience here. That has been done.” General Puttick added that as head of the Army he could say that the Army by no means had no time for the Home Guard, whose part in the defence of the country, already important, would become more so. The more they regarded the Home Guard as taking the place of the Territorial Force as it was before it was mobilised the better. He intimated that he was turning to the Home Guard for service in a further direction, of which he gave some details. The duties would be carried out with the least possible dislocation of industry, and the change would affect only certain Home Guard units.