63 PLANES TO FOUR

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 139, 9 March 1943, Page 5

63 PLANES TO FOUR

Bismarck-Sea Victory Tally Emphasized ONLY QUALITATIVE

AIR MASTERY

(By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Special Australian Correspondent.) (Received March 8, 7 p.m.) SYDNEY, March 8.

“Estimated in terms of the relative losses, the Battle of the Bismarck Sea was less a battle than a massacre, says the “Sydney Morning Herald,’ reviewing the action in an editorial. Commenting on the details of the fighting as revealed in General MacArthur’s final communique on the battle, observers here have been particularly surprised at the number of the Japanese fighters—ls0—which provided the cover for the convoy. This imposing aerial screen was shot to pieces by. the Allied aircraft. Out of the 102 enemy planes which were shot out of aetiou at least 63 were destroyed for certain. For an air battle of such magnitude the Allied air loss of four planes was amazingly small. “Qualitatively, the command of the air has passed to the Allies in the southern Pacific,” the .“Sydney Morning Herald” says. “The Japanese have n.) answer to our massive, hard-hitting and skilfully handled land-based aircraft. Inferiority in this weapon, which is preeminently the great new weapon ot this war, will doom them to inferiority at sea as well wherever our long-range bombers and fighters can reach.” The paper goes on to emphasize that quantity in aircraft is no less important than quality, and it declares that the southern Pacific will need many more planes if early and full advantage is to be taken of the staggering reverse which has just been inflicted on Japan. Declaring that the soul hern Pacific has established a clear-cut claim to all aircraft reinforcements that the Ables can possiblv spare, the “Herald” adds: ‘ Nowhere else has so small an aerial capital yielded so high,a dividend, and in no other theatre has the pattern of victory over Japan been so clearly outlined.