OPERATIONS ON GUADALCANAR

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23805, 26 November 1942, Page 5

OPERATIONS ON GUADALCANAR

LIMITED ADVANCES BY AMERICANS “JAPANESE LANDINGS IMPROBABLE” ' (N.Z. Press Association— Copyright.) WASHINGTON, Nov. 24. A United States Navy' communique states that during Sunday night United States aircraft attacked enemy positions on Guadalcanar. During Monday, United States forces continued their limited advances west of the Matanikau river. Japanese troops were active In the Mambulo and upper Matanikau river regions. .. , A The Secretary of the United .States Navy (Colonel Frank Knox) said that it was unlikely that the Japanese would now be able to get reinforcements ashore on Guadalcanar. This was because the United States forces were maintaining rigid patrols round the island day and night.* Asked if the Japanese would not be able to effect landings from small craft during the night, Colonel Knox said: “That is possible, but improbable.” He added that the Solomons operations were progressing satisfactorily. The United States forces held a firm grip on Guadalcanar and they were widening their area of control to about seven to nine miles west of the Henderson airfield. From east to west the distance between the United States lines was more than 16 miles. They controlled only 3 per cent, of the total area of the island. The United States western lines were less than 20 miles from the entrance at the tip of the island where the Japanese had earlier landed their largest concentrations. Colonel Knox was asked: “Do you think we can wipe out the Japs on Guadalcanar?” He replied: “That is our objective.” United States Naval Strategy Reviewing the Pacific situation, Mr Joseph C. Harsch, writing in the “Christian Science Monitor,” says: “If the Navy had not gone to the Solomo'ns it would have had to employ the same or a greater force round New Guinea in order to convoy General MacArthur’s troops round the north-eastern coast under the immediate threat of Japanese air and sea forces based on Rabaul. Perhaps concentrating everything on the New Guinea campaign might have been better, but it-would have raised the problem of a unified command sooner. “The Navy’s desire to avoid a unified command in General MacArthur’s area may have been a contributory reason for the decision to attack Rabaul simultaneously from two directions, instead of from New Guinea only. “General MacArthur’s task in New Guinea has certainly been eased by the Solomons advance, but the fact remains that Rabaul is the obvious objective of a co-ordinated campaign, and the Navy is not yet as near Rabaul as was presumably hoped. The campaign remains controversial, as also does the fact that it is still an operation under two separated commands, instead of a unified operation under a unified command.”

TOKYO REPORT OF NAVAL BATTLE

NO CONFIRMATION BY ALLIED SOURCES NEW YORK. Nov. 24. The Pearl Harbour correspondent of the "New York Times” says; ‘.‘Although Admiral Nimitz is certain that there are no large naval clashes at present, observers here will not be surprised if one develops, because it is deduced from recent dispatches that Japanese naval power is concentrated between the Japanese empire and Solomon Island waters.” The Tokyo radio report of a fresh naval battle in the~Solomons is Still unconfirmed from Allied sources. If the . Tokyo report is correct, a new trial of riaVai strength has come much earlier than observers believed possible. After their heavy losses earlier this month, the Japanese were not expected to fee in a position to seek another sea engagement for several weeks. "The United States Navy still faces a grim struggle for supremacy in the Pacific,” declares the New York “Sun” writer, Mr David Lawrence. "In spite of optimistic inferences, the United States is not yet assured of victory. The Japanese feave a substantial navy left. It can impede our advance in the Solomons and it is still capable of a serious attack on Midway and Hawaii. Few will know until the war is over what risks were involved in dispersing our ships in the Atlantic and Pacific, and how badly needed is that two-ocean navy, which will not be ready before 1944-45.”

ATTACK ON INDIA OR SIBERIA

JAPANESE RELUCTANCE ' LONDON. Nov. 24. “Hitler is prodding the unwilling Japanese to attack Siberia or India in the hope of improving his position," says the New York correspondent of the “Daily Express.” “Japan, however, shows no inclination to move. Her reasons are: “(1) The Japanese are not true members of the Axis. They are in the war for themselves and are not interested in taking inordinate risks at an inopportune time. “(2) The vast losses which the Japanese High Command has shown itself willing to take in its efforts to recapture Guadalcanar prove that the Americans chose it wisely for their first Pacific offensive. “Reports received in Washington when the United States seized control of Guadalcanar and the Solomons indicated that the Japanese were preparing for an early invasion of Siberia. These preparations were not dropped until it became plain to Japan that the United States intended to fight for the Solomons. The United States Pacific commanders have forced the Japanese on the defensive as Lieutenant-General Eisenhower, General Montgomery, and Marshal Timoshenko have forced the Germans. The Japanese had to defend other island holdings and expend to win back Guadalcanar men, ships, and aeroplanes which might have been used against Russia or India. “The United States has done more than win a local victory in the Solomons. It has struck a blow against Hitler."

“ FOUR YEARS NEEDED TO BEAT JAPAN”

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 24. "Hitler may be crushed within a year, but at least four years will be needed to beat Japan,” said RearAdmiral Yates Stirling, a former United States commander at Pearl Harbour. "The Japanese certainly will not give in if Hitler is beaten, but will come back again and again. That is their history. “They will go to suicidal lengths to regain Guadalcanar, because without it they could be expelled from New Guinea and New Britain.”

JAPANESE AERODROME BOMBED

R.A.F. RAID ON BURMA (Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON, Nov. 25. Royal Air Force aeroplanes have again attacked the Japanese occupied aerodrome at Meiktila, in Burma, 75 miles south of Mandalay, Bombs fell on the main runway and dispersal areas. Pilots report that large fires were caused. All the aircraft returned.