NOTES ON THE WAR NEWS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 24, 29 January 1942, Page 6

NOTES ON THE WAR NEWS

CONVOY BATTLE

A DEADLY TRAP

In sending a great convoy said to comprise 100 ships, into the Macassar Strait, between fsorneo and Celebes, the Japanese ran into a danger which they must have grossly under-rated. For nearly a week the ships have been under attack, and heavy loss has been inflicted on them and the 'a oops they carried; and the end is not yet.

The battle began on Friday, with attacks by Dutch aircraft, and has been continued ever since by Dutch and American bombers and warships, including American cruisers and destroyers. The amount of damage done has been variously reported, but the latest statement indicates that about one-third of the armada was sunk or damaged. The sunken victims are said to include an aircraft-carrier and a battleship; and the loss of men has been put down as at least 25,000. Macassar Strait is about 500 miles long and 200 miles wide; and Balik Papan, the Dutch oil port in Borneo, to which the convoy was going, and which part of it has reached, is midway along its western coast. Deadly Air Attack. Though the air force available for the defence of this region is still far below what is wanted, it was too much for a convoy to face with impunity, and the conflict adds to the accumulating evidence of the inability of warships to defend themselves satisfactorily against heavy air attack. There is no available information about the constitution of the Japanese escorting force, except the mention of the battleship and the aircraft-carrier described as sunk, but it is common knowledge that most Japanese warships are strongly armed with antiaircraft guns. The extreme case is the aircraft-carrier Kaga, which, besides ten 8-inch guns, carries sixteen ..7in A.A. guns and 20 A.A. machineguns. Their guns, in this battle, had no success. It is now doubtful whether the Allies lost any aircraft (the shooting down of one is now denied) and their naval damage was trifling. A Real Disaster. ! For the Japanese this convoy episode is a real disaster. In loss of men, it has been as costly as a great land I battle; and in loss of ships it reprej sents a serious reduction in the ton-

i nage, armed and unarmed, which is the mainstay of their blitzkrieg. The battle still goes on, and the ships in Balik Papan are no safer than out in the strait, and probably not as safe. Much depends on the number of Allied aircraft available and the facilities for using them; There may be bases in Borneo. There certainly are in Java, 500 miles to the south. Singapore Storm Gathers. For a few days there has been less news than before of land activity in Johore, where the battle for Singapore itself will in the first place be fought. There has been a period of preparation for a solidified defence which must have a very different form from the earlier fighting in j Malaya. Hitherto the widely-spread defenders have been driven back by a combination of attacks by direct advance along the peninsula, flank attacks in their rear by landing parties, and superior air power. "Infiltration" has been the order of the day. The campaign is passing out of this stage. British forces which had been scattered through Malaya have been concentrated in/; the area south of a road which runs fairly across Johore, 70 miles long, and 70 miles from the tip of the peninsula, and in one part within 50 miles of Singapore Island. It is clear from "the latest dispatches that the battle will not be long deferred, and that it will be a grim affair. The Japanese have landed reinforcements at the Endau River, which is about 25 miles north of the eastern end of the British positions. This was a costly operation for them, but it was the only way in which additional strength could be brought to the area. . « , v Meanwhile Singapore is suffering the trials of heavy bombing.