NOTES ON THE WAR NEWS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 120, 17 November 1942, Page 4

NOTES ON THE WAR NEWS

NAVAL VICTORY

EASING OF TENSION

No more welcome news could be had at this juncture than the announcement/which arrived just before middayj that a smashing naval victory had been won by the United States navy against the Japanese in the Solomons area. Official Washington reports de- , scribed the fight as the biggest naval battle of the war. There will be a feeling of intense relief at the result. It has profoundly altered a situation about which there has been cause for anxiety. The battle is the result of a renewed attempt to restore the Japanese position at Guadalcanal and Tulagi, and the enemy was making a really formidable effort; even if no other ships than those sunk or damaged had been engaged, it would have been no small affair. Radio Tokio has been persistent lately in declaring that the United States fleet is practically non-j existent, but it will now either have ; to admit error, or credit supernatural I powers to the American remnants, or | resort to lying again. Control of the Mediterranean. Already the westward advance of the'; Eighth Army is showing its effect on the general Mediterranean position by easing the lot of ships in the eastern 'part of the sea. Until British aircraft: could work frpm Cyrenaica, the sea space between Crete and the African { coast was dominated by enemy aircraft based there and on Crete. Now that space is within R.A.F. fighter range, and with their, air superiority the way can be kept clear of Axis bombers. To the west and north of Cyrenaica also, air operations will seriously interfere with the enemy's efforts to save the Afrika Korps by reinforcement or evacuation. Still further west, as the invading Allies develop their grip .and get the use of bases in Tunisia and Algeria, their, air forces will be able to put full control over the narrow Sicilian channel, and complete aerial domination over the whole sea route from Gibraltar to Alexandria will be brought about. More Help for Russia? Among the many possible results of an Allied recovery of control of the Mediterranean is the improvement* of the supply of war materials to the Soviet armies. In spite of the enormous extent of Russia in Europe and Asia, it is, for purposes of supply in /this war, almost blockaded. There are only two present routes of supply. One is to Murmansk through the Arctic, where it is subject to the concentrated attention of all the weapons Germany can use from Norwegian bases, and to the hazards of the weather. The other, beginning with the long sea journey from Britain and America to the Persian Gulf, traverses Iran (Persia) by, road and rail, and continues by ship through the Caspian Sea to J Astrakhan1 and other ports. The length | and complications of this route, and thej inadequacy :of the railway through ; the mountainous regions of Iran combine to make a serious bottleneck, whose restrictions account for the necessity to continue the very costly and difficult service via Murmansk. , Long Haul Cut Out. If sea transport via the Mediterranean, can be resumed with reasonable freedom, the Allied forces in the Middle East can be wholly supplied that way, cutting out the long haul, excessively costly in time and tonnage, round Africa. Though those forces J have been and will be greatly in-1 creased, requiring more ship service, the net result may be to release more ships for supplies via the Arctic route. Supplementing this possibility is the assumption, reasonable in the circumstances, that .'the new lay-out created by the African operations will draw off some of the aircraft and submarines used by the enemy against the Russian supplies, and make the service less dangerous.