AIR WAR RESUMED

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 14, 16 July 1942, Page 5

AIR WAR RESUMED

JAP PACIFIC BASES BOMBED

(By TeUuraph—Press Association—Copyright.) (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, July 15. Allied air units on Tuesday broke the lull in the northern air war by making bombing raids on two enemy-occupied- bases. One attack was against wharf I installations at Kalabi, on Alor Island, where fires were started and a small vessel was sunk. Alor Island is just north-west of Timor, and is mentioned for the first time in the latest Allied headquarters communique. An enemy aerodrome at Salamaua was also bombed. The damage caused by the raid is not revealed. Describing Australia as "Japan's mousetrap in the south-west Pacific," and urging an early Allied offensive from Australia, Mr. W. -E. Lucas, cabling to the "Christian Science Monitor," says: "The Japanese strategy indicates that a full-scale offensive against Australia was never originally intended. It was more profitable, by threatening Australia, to draw seasoned troops from the Middle East and also to encourage the accumulation of men and materials from America. EFFECT OF CORAL SEA FIGHT. "However, the Battle of the Coral Sea, because of Japan's failure to cut the Australian-American communications, was a serious blow to Japan's long-range plans. It introduced the time factor and meant that'sooner or later Australia would become a menace and would have to be dealt with." Mr. Lucas believes that the Japanese are planning on several months of profitable stalemate before the Allies have sufficient air-power to break the ring of Japanese air bases. "Tokio calculates that by that time it will be free to turn all its forces against any Pacific attack," he says, and adds: "If the present position is allowed to continue, what advantages Australia possesses as an offensive base will disappear."