Japanese Ships Flee

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 134, 9 June 1942, Page 5

Japanese Ships Flee

AMERICANS IN PURSUIT

LONDON, June 8. A message from Pearl Harbour says that United States planes and warships are still .trying to regain contact with the Japanese Fleet which is now steaming westwards after its defeat off Midway Island.

In the first stages of the battle, American fighters went up to tackle Japanese planes launched from aircraft-carriers. Carrier-based American dive-bombers and torpedo-planes then roared through the Japanese fighter and anti-aircraft screen to press home tremendous attacks on the enemy ships.

All told, the Japanese had at least 14 or 15 ships sunk or damaged. Two or three Japanese aircraft-carriers, with all their planes, and a Japanese destroyer went down for certain. The Americans lost only one destroyer and an aircraft-carrier was hit. ■ x •

An American submarine is now reported to have torpedoed an unidentified Japanese warship and a 5000-ton Japanese merchant ship.

The Commander-in-Chief of the United States Pacific Fleet, Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, announced in a communique today that the great battle off Midway Island has ended for the time being. !

Giving the wider perspective of the operations, Admiral Ernest J. King, Commander-in-Chief of the United States Fleets, said at a Press conference in Washington last night that two, large-scale battles, involving aerial and naval forces, were at present in progress—one beyond Midway Island and the other in the vicinity of Dutch Harbour. Naval operations were still in progress from Hawaii to the Aleutian Islands. The American losses so far were inconsiderable in comparison with those of the enemy.

Admiral King emphasised that the battle in the Midway area might determine the outcome of the war in the Pacific, adding that the Japanese obviously intended to occupy Midway Island since they had thrown the bulk of their sea power into the action there. He declared that Hawaii must be held

at all costs, and described Pearl Ha*bour as the key to the Pacific The Admiral' declined to say that the Japanese had been defeated in the Midway battle, simply stating "they have withdrawn." SHORE-BASED PLANES. American shore-based aircraft played a. large part in the Midway battle. Admiral King revealed, but he pointed out that the enemy also has a great deal of shore-based aircraft, and that this means it would not be advisable for the American forces to try to follow the retreating Japanese fleet. 1 Admiral King emphasised this important point because, "among the 130,000,000 amateur strategists in this country many have probably advocated such a mopping-up action." The Admiral said that the situation in the Dutch Harbour area was somewhat obscure, first because the weather had been bad for several days, and secondly because the naval action report gave only the minimum of information to Washington. Asked whether the Japanese threw everything into the , Midway Island battle, Admiral King replied, "Perhaps not everything, but the bulk of it. One of their methods of doing things is not sending a boy to do a man's job."