OPERATION IS GOING WELL

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 270, 13 August 1942, Page 5

OPERATION IS GOING WELL

Belief In Pacific Port LOSSES AND HIGH STAKES

The Press Association correspondent at a south Pacific port says that a quick and thoroughly decisive result should not immediately be expected in the Allied attack on the Japanese forces in the Solomon Islands. Seizure from the sea of a defended shore is one of the most difficult and hazardous of military operations. It cannot be achieved without the payment of a heavy price in ships and personnel.

After the Coral Sea battle, Rear-Ad-miral F. C. Sherman, U.S.N., captain of the lost carrier Lexington, said no defensive force can stop determined offence by air. In the Solomon Islands operation the Allied naval units are defensive against laid-based. air attack, Ships must be lost till the Japanese air force operating against them can be denied the air. For this the Allied force has to depend immediately upon its own air forces, and finally upon the seizure from the land of the enemy’s airfields.

Hazardous also is the landing operation for the forces assaulting the beaches. A sudden change in surf conditions may leave units of it stranded during precious hours. Interruption of reserves and supplies can result in part of the landing forces being cut off and slaughtered. Secrecy and surprise are difficult to obtain. A tactical surprise is more likely to succeed than an attempt to make the shore unnoticed. Sometimes a tactical surprise can be gained by feints. Sometimes it can be obtained by dispersing the attack over several landing places and pushing in reserves at whichever place turns out most promising. This requires a nice sense of timing, quick decision to take advantage of opportunities and flexibility of mind that can disregard preconceived ideas.

Cover and concealment oil a hostile coast are impossible. Movement is restricted during disembarkation from transports, while from transports to shore the troops must violate all the rules of attack on land. They cannot seek the protection of natural cover. They are bunched in groups within the lire of concealed artillery and automatic weapons and they have restricted opportunity to return fire. At the beach every boat is like a defile from which the troops must pour on to an almost perfect field of fire, delayed by obstacles and confronted with a terrain known only through aerial reconnaissance and the reports of civilians who have been there. Critical Stage. Night landings offer less advantage than might be thought. Detective and illuminating devices make surprise during the approach and during the assault on a beach almost impossible. .Smoke may help to cover a daylight landing, but its use is limited by the weather, and in turn it limits the supporting fire from the protecting ships. During the critical stage of obtaining a bridgehead, the landing force is almost deprived of artillery support unless aircraft can be employed in sufficient numbers and without serious interference. Naval guns are not an effective substitute for shore artillery. Finally, the landing force needs trained troops, men who have exercised in all types of action which they might be called upon to carry out during the assault and consolidation. For all these reasons the operation in the Solomons is child’s play for none of those taking part. Many things can go wrong, no matter how careful the planning or courageous the result. The correspondent also says that it is clear that the forces in the attack are predominantly American. British and Dominion counsel has no doubt been taken in the preparations for the operation. British experience of combined operations in commando raids on Axis positions has possibly also assisted in laying the plans, but the naval units engaged are probably the only ones which 'include forces other than American. At. least for the present, all communiques about the operation will probably come from Dear! Harbour or Washington. Vice-Admiral R. L. Gliormley makes all his reports in the first instance to his immediate superior, Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, at Pearl Harbour. However, it is possible to judge that, while ship and personnel losses may be more severe than is the public’s expectation, the openstion is proceeding well. Notwithstanding the undoubted difficulties and probable mishaps, Admiral Ghormley and his force so far

seem to have been “ringing the bell.” The stakes may be liigh, but the reward for Allied communications in the Pacific and, more remotely but nevertheless equally clearly for the eventual security of New Zealand and Australia, will be even higher.