U.S. SUPREMACY OVER JAPANESE

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 117, 12 February 1944, Page 7

U.S. SUPREMACY OVER JAPANESE

Margin In Air And On Sea (LONDON, February 10. The Under-i Secretary of the United States Navy, Mr. James Forrestal, who has been visiting Australia, was present at the opening stages of the Marshall Islands attack. In a statement, he said that the gathering of American warships, the greatest in history, must have stunned the Japanese, who had been told that most of the American fleet had been sunk. He said that in the last twelve months United States naval strength had increased 100 per Ce The United States Under-Secretary for War, Mr. R. P. Patterson, has also given additional details about the Marshalls. He stated today that in the asault on Kwajalein almost 60 per cent, of the Japanese dead had been killed , by the naval and air bombardment which preceded the landing. In the South-west Pacific, he said, the Allies usually operate on the basis of ten Japanese aircraft destrey-ed to one Allied, but in the past week 140 Japanese planes had been destroyed and the Allies had lost ten. The terrific Allied air attacks had caused the Japanese to pull out their warships from Rabaul. Mr. Forrestal said the Marshalls of*

mensive was the beginning, but only part, of the integrated pressure which would be necessary for the final defeat of Japan. Its success, however, pointed to the solution of a difficult military problem, and was reflected by two things—the meticulous process of planning that went into it and the power of complete co-ordination between the naval, air and ground forces