NEW OFFENSIVE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 3, 3 July 1943, Page 5

NEW OFFENSIVE

AUSPICIOUS OPENING

OUTLOOK IN PACIFIC

(Special P.A. Correspondent.) Rec. 1 p.m. SYDNEY, July 3. Any victory claim must be delayed until it is proved that we are able to hold the territory occupied, supply our forces, and oust the Japanese, writes an Australian war correspondent with the American forces hi the Solomons when discussing the current operations. He adds that a better start to these operations could scarcely have been made.

Incessant rain, which covered the Allied troop movements, was providential. Sometimes the ceiling for planes was down to 50 feet. Had the Japanese aircraft been able to find and attack the American fleet more quickly the cost of the initial operations would have been infinitely greater. It is claimed that the important enemy central Solomons air base at Munda is now in danger of capture. Despite the swift Allied successes all commentators agree that emphasis must be on heavy fighting that still lies ahead rather than on the remote prospect of a Japanese collapse,; and withdrawal' to the inner Pacific base at Truk.