The Dominion WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1944. RISING TEMPO IN THE PACIFIC WAR

Dominion, Volume 38, Issue 20, 18 October 1944, Page 6

The Dominion WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1944. RISING TEMPO IN THE PACIFIC WAR

While great events have been happening in Europe, steadily worsening the enemy’s position, there has been a notable rise, in the tempo of the Allied offensive against the Japanese in the Pacific. It would seem that the long and laboured process of building up strength and establishing strategic bases won from the enemy from which more effective blows could be struck at his inner defences has now ended, that yet another phase has begun. This phase, as suggested by recent reports, is developing very rapidly; so much so, in fact, that events, according to an official statement from American Naval Headquarters, are “ahead of schedule.” With the enemy’s complete loss of the initiative in the Pacific, the Allies are able to select at will the time and place for each successive blow. Places that were prominently in the news in the earlier stages of the Allied offensive are now far eastward behind the front line of the advance toward Japan. 'J'his isolating and immobilizing of enemy island garrisons in the Japanese system of outer defences has been one of the triumphs of Allied strategy in the. Pacific, and one of the factors which have contributed to the rapid advance upon the inner defence ring now being breached at a number' of vital points. Enemy fortress positions which were formerly assets to Japan have now become liabilities, and for all that the Japanese can do to relieve their situation, or seem disposed to attempt, have evidently been written off.

Undoubtedly the most important development of the war in the Pacific is the appearance and systematic employment of what is described as the “carrier task force.” This has become a highlyspecialized instrument of naval warfare, and to judge from recent results, a most effective one. Already these carrier task forces have accounted for an immense number of Japanese ships of all sizes and types, including warships; they have destroyed hundreds of enemy aircraft on the ground; and made great havoc of enemy shore installations, supply dumps, and harbour facilities. Another new offensive weapon of portentous possibilities is the aerial task force of SuperFortresses described as the “829’5.” These were tried and i proved in a long-distance raid on the Japanese mainland some time ago. They have now completely justified the hopes placed in their effectiveness by the latest attacks launched against the big enemy base at Formosa. As Major General Lemay has expressed it in summing up the results of these attacks, “The period of trial and experimentation for the B29’s is ended. We are really ready to go to work from here.”. With the increasing proximity of Allied air and naval activity to Japan itself an encounter with the enemy’s main battle fleet would not be an unexpected development. Reports from Tokio assert that this has actually taken place, and make various claims as to losses inflicted on the American task force off Formosa. There has been nothing in American reports at the time of writing to indicate any action on the scale suggested, though it is reasonably possible that a clash may have occurred. The conflict in this part of the world, is based mainly on naval power. For it to be decisively won the Allies must obtain complete command of the sea by destroying Japanese naval power, and by so doing deprive the enemy of his ability to maintain his sea communications with China, Indo-China, Burma, the Phillipines, and the Dutch East Indies.