MAJOR ADVANCE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 147, 18 December 1943, Page 7

MAJOR ADVANCE

ALLIES ON RABAUL ROAD

' (Special P.A. Correspondent) Rec. noon. SYDNEY, Dec. 17. The sensationally successful American landings at Arawe are being hailed in Australia as an important advance on the road to Rabaul..A-difficult campaign in wretched, fever-ridden country is believed to lie ahead. "The bent and battered Japanese" line which once ran through the Solomons to the 'edge of the Coral Sea now rests upon Rabaul itself," says the "Sydney Morning Herald" editorially, "and the Allies are plainly resolved that it shall not rest there much longer. But Rabaul has been the main supply base for the Japanese activities in Melanesia throughout' the past two years and lit is hardly likely the enemy will retire from it without putting up a strong and tenacious defence." Commentators point out that the Japanese must have known that the amphibious invasion of New Britain was certain, yet they failed to stop it. The "Sydney Morning Herald's" military correspondent says that this latest Japanese evasion of a clear American challenge to come out and fight again draws attention, in striking fashion, to Japan's ultimate weakness at sea, although the maintenance of her hastilywon empire depends upon long sea lanes. The continued toll of naval and merchant tonnage must further transform the strategy of the Pacific war. The campaign against Rabaul, the aerial importance of which enemy base remains undiminished, will involve the immobilisation and later the occupational use of enemy aerodromes, particularly for fighter planes until the Allies secure close fighter cover over Rabaul itself.