NOTES ON THE WAR

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 15, 19 January 1944, Page 4

NOTES ON THE WAR

IN THE PACIFIC

STRATEGY OF DISTANCE

At the moment no striking developments are reported from the European theatre of war, where the struggle goes on relentlessly in Russia and Italy, and, in the air, over other parts of Europe. Rear-Admiral Carney, U.S.N., Admiral Halsey's Chief of Staff, has given an outline of Allied strategy in the Pacific. At the present stage no two theatres of war could be more different than the European and the Pacific, and the methods of warfare differ accordingly. In Europe it is land warfare —on a vast scale in Russia and on a smaller, but by no means insignificant, scale m Italy. Air warfare has its part, closely allied to land warfare in Russia, extending further afield in Italy to strategic as well as tactical operations, reaching the Balkans and Austria, while from Britain as a base, strategic bombing of Hitler's western Europe is proceeding at a tremendous and increasing rate. Part at least of these operations is designed to prepare the way for the invasion of Europe by the Allies from the west, and, possibly the south. . _ In the Pacific the strategy is influenced by the distances over the ocean. When it is realised that Europe itself is not much bigger than Australia, and the area of conflict certainly less, and Australia is only a large island, on the fringe of the South-western Pacific, the distances loom up large indeed. To the magnitude of the Pacific theatre compared with the European may be added the contrast in climate. Fighting in the Pacific is close to the Equator, and in the heart of the tropics. Europe is in the grip of winter, severe in Russia, and more rigorous than might be expected in so-called sunny Italy." But distance is the most important factor in the Pacific, distance over water. Allied Outer Circle. The Allies—the United States, Australia, and New Zealand, with the United States as the greatly predominant partner—operate from a vast concentric belt with the outer circle the Pacific coast of North AmericaAlaska, British Columbia, and the Pacific States, including the Panama Canal, and south-westward across the Pacific Islands to New Zealand and Australia. The outer circle could be continued across the Indian Ocean to India, where Britain is the main force, and over the mountains to China. The inner circle of the belt runs from Attu in the sub-Arctic Aleutian Archipelago, south through Midway Island and the Hawaiian group, with Pearl Harbour as the base, and through the Gilbert Islands, recently reconquered, most of the Solomons (reconquered), and New Britain and New Guinea, where fighting continues for possession of important bases, such as Rabaul. Japan holds all the interior of the circle facing south and east, from the Kurile Islands in the north, through Wake Island in the east, and the Marshalls in the south-east to the Solomons, New Britain and New Guinea m the south—these latter disputed territory. Thousands of Miles. Here are some of the distances on the map:—Dutch Harbour (m the Aleutians) to San Francisco, 2061 miles: Pearl Harbour to San Francisco, 2091 miles; Pearl Harbour to Panama, 4685 miles; Pearl Harbour to Sydney, 4429; Pearl Harbour to Suva, 2783; Suva to Auckland, 1150; Auckland to Sydney, 1280; Panama to Auckland, 6512; Auckland to Noumea (New Caledonia), 998; Noumea to Guadalcanal 1050. It will be seen by. these few samples that the distances in the Pacific average nearly ten times the distances in Europe between the belligerent countries and their bases. Distance makes an enormous difference in logistics—the science of the supply of a force m the field with all it requires. It also makes a great difference in the war in the air. It is difficult, for instance, to bomb any place a thousand miles away consistently, yet in the Pacific such ranges are frequently exceeded. Stronglydefended bases like Rabaul cannot safely be attacked without fighter escort, which explains, as Admiral Carney put it, the occupation of Empress Augusta Bay, in Bougainville. Therefore many places within Japans transient empire are beyond bombing range Tokio is 3394 miles from Pearl Harbour and over 2000 from Attu, in the Aleutians. Manila is as far away from the nearest Allied airfield in New Guinea. Profit and Loss. Thus Japan profits by distance in having her most vital targets beyond range of Allied aircraft, but she has a corresponding handicap m excessively long supply routes, leading to a heavy strain on her shipping resources, steadily worn down by attrition ol Submarine and air attack. For. communication by air Japan is admirably situated, as there are island steppingstones" tto the north-east and southlast, with no big gaps. Allied strategy in the Pacific will therefore be to eliminate distance by the capture of "stepping stones" m the ocean and by land advances through Burma and China until the mainland of Japan and its war industries are within reach of the bombei\_