SHIFTED TO AMERICA?

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 136, 11 June 1942, Page 5

SHIFTED TO AMERICA?

AIR SUPREMACY IN PACIFIC

(Rec. 9 a.m.) NEW YORK, June 10. The "New York Herald Tribune" declares editorially: "The Midway battle provides another impressive confirmation of the overwhelming power of the air arm in sea warfare, together with the relative uselessness of heavy battleships in the first line of attack." The paper recalls the sinking of the Bismarck, the Prince of Wales and the Repulse, and the neutralisation of the Tirpitz, in which the one-time backbone of the fleet collapsed under aerial attack.

"Clearly, air supremacy has become an absolutely critical factor in sea warfare as well as land warfare," says the newspaper. "Therefore, the terrific destruction wrought upon the Japanese aircraft-carrier fleet is far more importari* than the damage which the Japanese did to the United States battle line at Pearl Harbour.

"It is possible that we now hold supremacy in aircraft-carrier strength in the Pacific."

The "New York Herald-Tribune" continues: "It is unlikely that an advance will be made over the long peripheral road by way of Australia and the Netherlands East Indies. Rather will it be upon the Japanese centre, striking direct at the home factories and training fields, which are the sources of Japan's air strength."