“COMPLEXION OF WAR CHANGED”

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23811, 3 December 1942, Page 5

“COMPLEXION OF WAR CHANGED”

BRITISH PRODUCTION MINISTER’S VIEW

COMING BLOWS AGAINST AXIS (Rec. 7 p.m.) WASHINGTON, Dec. 1. “The events of the last few weeks have changed the entire complexion of the war, and it is now possible lor the United Nations to win victory before June. But this is very far from saying that they will.” This statement was made to the press by Mr Oliver Lyttelton, British Minister of Production, after he had conferred with Mr Roosevelt and United States production officials. , . .. „„ Production schedules made it P° s * sible for the Allies now to deliver maximum blows against the Axis, he said. The supply problems of Russia and the United Nations had been taken into consideration, enabling them to determine the outline of future production. This would enable Britain to allocate her manpower between the services and industry on a better basis. England was concentrating on the production of fighter aeroplanes and America on bombers, said Mr Lyttelton. He paid a tribute to American shipbuilders who, he said, were not making ships, but miracles.

PEARL HARBOUR ATTACK

U.S. NAVY TO RELEASE

ACCOUNT

(Rec. 8 p.m.) WASHINGTON. Dec. 1. “The full story of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour will be released on December 7," said the United States Secretary of the Navy (Colonel Frank Knox). “It will not be a complete disclosure, because there are certain facts that the Japanese would like to know and the Navy is not going to tell them yet.” Writing in the “Navy Yard Beacon,” Rear-Admiral M. F. Draemel, Commandant of the 4th Naval District and the Philadelphia Navy Yard, declares that the United States suffered more personnel losses at Pearl Harbour than in all the wars and engagements since the Navy was founded. Rear-Rdmiral Draemel added: “The harbour was a mass of flames and smoke and shrapnel from our own guns, besides bursting bombs and machine-gun bullets from the Japanese.’’

TT.S. SUBMARINE SUCCESSES

DESTROYER AND CARGO

SHIPS SUNK

(Rec. 8 p.m.) WASHINGTON, Dec. 1. Further successful operations by United States submarines in the Pacific and Far Eastern waters are reported in a United States Navy communique. which says: “One destroyer, one 9000-ton tanker, one 8000-ton cargo vessel, one 6300-ton cargo velsel, and one 2000-ton cargo vessel have been sunk, one 12.000-ton merchantman damaged and believed sunk, and one 6000-ton merchantman damaged. These operations have not been announced in any previous communique."

JAPAN’S PRESENT

STRATEGY

“QUIESCENCE OF ARMY"

DISCUSSED

NEW YORK. Dec. 1. The New York “Herald Tribune” in a leading article says: “Statements by competent naval authorities at Pearl Harbour that the greater part of Japan’s.naval strength is now concentrated, in. the south Pacific, presumably within striking distance of the Solomons and New Guinea, indicate that the Tokyo High Command is not contemplating aggressive action in Siberian or Indian waters. Instead, they are giving all their thought to the problem of cutting Australian-Hawaiian lines of communication.

“However, the distribution of the Japanese Army remains somewhat of a mystery. Its quiescence is hard to explain. It would be interesting to know why the Japanese forces in China and Manchukuo are not vigorously attempting to knock out China before the United Nations are able to divert overwhelming air power to East Asia. The inaction of the great Japanese Army everywhere, except on two little south Pacific fronts, seems to suggest shortages which Japan’s limited war industry is unable to remedy immediately. “It is also possible that Japan is ac- 1 cumulating vast equipment between Formosa and the south Pacific, and is training another expeditionary force in Formosa for further conquest when and if the navy knocks out the American air and sea forces. In this case, the Japanese Navy will be under heavy pressure to get back swiftly into the scrimmage and do its stuff.”

LIBERATOR BOMBERS ! IN PACIFIC ] (Special Australian Corresp., N.Z.P.A.) | SYDNEY, Dec. 2. i Liberator heavy bombers have been ‘ revealed to be within ’ the range of | aeroplanes available to the Allied air j command in the south-west Pacific. j Officially known as the 824, the Lib- | era tor has a speed of about 300 miles | an hour and a range of 3000 miles. Its gross weight is 26 tons, and it carries J a crew of seven. j 1 The fine work done in the area by Flying Fortresses will be supplemented . powerfully by the use of Liberators. ;

JAPANESE ATTACK ON YUNNAN

PREPARATION INDICATED

CHUNGKING, Dec. 1. ; A Chinese military spokesman in ; Chungking said that the reported [ arrival of General Terauchi, su- ' preme Japanese commander, on the Salween river, was a definite indication that the Japanese are preparing a campaign against Yunnan Province.

The spokesman said that General ; Terauchi had made a survey of the country and the mountains across the Salween gorge. Similar surveys had j preceded other Japanese campaigns ' in China. .

AIR ATTACKS FROM i INDIA I

ANDAMAN ISLANDS AND il RANGOON (Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON, Dec. 2. $ Allied bombers from India are keep. ,f! ing up daily attacks on Japanese bases ■,(! in Burma. The latest targets were in , ]J Rangoon and the Andaman Islands. j‘}‘l An agency message from New Delhi : :J says that civil officers of the Burma ;jg Government are still carrying on ad- ijj ministrative work at many places in iJ? Burma. They are co-operating with the British in India, and preparing the ,; j; ground for an eventual Allied oflen- ; sive in Burma. j3j| A communique issued in India yes- 1 terday said: “Yesterday Royal Air % Force fighters and bombers continued 191 their attacks on targets in Burma. Fighters made sweeps over the Maya jiffl and Kaladan rivers, and a Japanese river steamer was severely damaged. M 3 Bombers attacked buildings along (ho |jg Myittha river. None of our aircraft i* missing.’’ IM