ENEMY EXPECTED TO TRY AGAIN

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 141, 11 March 1943, Page 5

ENEMY EXPECTED TO TRY AGAIN

Unabated Threat In South Pacific

SLIM SAFETY MARGIN (By Telegraph.—Press Assn. —Copyright.) (Special Australian Correspondent.)’ (Received March 10, 7 p.m.) SYDNEY, March 10.

No theatre of war has given rise to more conflict of opinion that the southern Pacific. However, since the man on the spot must see most of the game, reports from General MacArthur’s headquarters and from Australia’s Prime Minister, Mr. Curtin, that the Japanese air, shipping and troop concentrations to the north of this continent have not been greatly weakened by the annihilation of the Bismarck Sea convoy, will be heard throughout the world with grave disquiet. “Everything is being doue here on the assumption that the Japanese will come again,” writes the "Sydney Morning Herald’s” New Guinea war correspondent today. He reports that a high officer disparages the view that the Japanese are in any sense on the run. One of ihe most authoritative of observers’ statements on the implications of the Bismarck Sea victory is that of the American United Press correspondent, Yates McDaniel, who has just completed a 10,000-mile air tour of the South-west Pacific. He was in the air during much of the Bismarck Sea battle. The Allied victory, he says, did not wipe out the threats of a further -_nemy drive southward. The impression that it could force the Japanese to abandon bases in the island chain north of Australia was entirely wrong. “The Japanese held Papua till they were annliilated and Guadalcanal till they were overwhelmed,” writes Mr. McDaniel. “Nothing suggests that they will give up Lae or their half-dozen other bases in northern New Guinea just because a convoy failed to get through.”

It has been revealed that the air tactics which destroyed the . Japanese convoy were rehearsed by Allied planes on a derelict ship two days before the battle. During the battle, many Allied air formations made as many as four sorties a day, and Mr. McDaniel quotes thoughtful officers as saying that the Allies in this theatre "are still operating on a dangerously narrow margin of safety.” Allied air forces from the Darwin area did not take any part in the battle, siuee they bad to stand iu readiness against a possible offensive move by the Japanese iu the Arafura Sea. During his tour of all the Allied bases throughout this area, Mr. McDaniel says it was evident that the commanders were carefully husbanding their effective combat strength. No statement from an official military source has been made to support the extreme view that Australia stands under imminent threat of Japanese invasion. But it is felt that the security of Australia and New Zealand, as well as that of the Allied outpost bases, has not yet been definitely established. Military and political authorities here consider that the destruction of the Japanese convoy in the Bismarck Sea has been seriously misinterpreted by many war commentators in both Britain and America. It was, to quote a high officer who had a big part in organizing the Allied air attacks, a "show which comes only once in a lifetime.” Rabaul the Danger Point. Australian papers this afternoon publish a recent striking aerial reconnaissance photograph of the harbour of Rabaul, New Britain, showing plainly discernible to the unaided eye a concentration of some 00 warships and transports iu one comparatively small section of the harbour; The photograph was released by General MacArthur’s headquarters yesterday. "These ships ' should be constantly sunk, planes blasted on the ground, and men harried in non-stop air attacks,” comments the Sydney “Sun” editorially. "Our Bismarck Sea victory was gained by a comparatively inadequate force, splendidly organized and manoeuvred. In that respect, it approximates to the David and Goliath battle of the Spitfires against the Luftwaffe in 1940. But while Rabaul remains as a great distributing base for the enemy’s air and maritime adventures in New Guinea aud the Solomons, it is too early to congratulate ourselves that the danger has passed. “Our air forces, American and Australian, have, done magnificent work, but there are not enough of them in action to carry our principles of the best defence —which is a constant and hardhitting offensive. With adequate equipment, we can do more than halt the Japanese. We can actually increase our ability to destroy them, (heir planes and their shipping, and thus s'ave time when the final great aud full-powered drive to victory is prepared.” Louis Sebring, New York “HeraldTribune” war correspondent iu this area, says that Eastern New Guinea, anywhere from Milne Bay to Dutch New Guinea, still remains the Japanese objective. It will be recalled that Mr. Sebring last month predicted a new Japanese southward drive to be launched probably on March 1, the date on which the enemy's ill-fated Bisinarck Sea convoy actually left.

SMALL FORCES USED

Victory In Correct Perspective . CANBERRA, March 10. The Australian Government’s aim was to put to the Allied leaders a case for increased air strength in the South-west Pacific area, which would permit swift and massive blows at the enemy, said the Prime. Minister, Mr. Curtin, tonight. Stressing that such air strength did not yet exist, Mr. Curtin said the Bismarck Sea victory was achieved by a brilliant concentration rather than by overwhelming numerical superiority. The total weight of bombs used was 22(1 tons, as against 1500 tons dropped on Essen in less than 40 minutes. Cable messages from America and Britain indicated nu inclination on the part of Press commentators to think that the destruction of the Japanese convoy established tbe fact that overwhelming air superiority hud been established north of Australia. Disclosure of the small forces used, however, put the Bismarck Sea victory in its correct perspective. When the South-west Pacific Command had at its disposal forces for concentrated bombing like the Essen raid the task of blasting the Japanese out of their ring of northern bases would become immeasurably easier.

“SUSPENDED ANIMATION”

LONDON, March 9. Referring to the sea war in the south-west Pacific, the United Slates Secretary of the Navy, Coionei Frank Knox, said that the Japanese were up against extreme difficulty iu moving supplies.

He spoke of the situation in the Pacific as a whole as being in a state of suspended animation, but warned that though the United States was stronger than ever in the Solomons area, every Japanese base was a potential danger.