Evening Post. Friday,-June 2, 1944. WHAT WE OWE TO THE AMERICANS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 129, 2 June 1944, Page 4

Evening Post. Friday,-June 2, 1944. WHAT WE OWE TO THE AMERICANS

A very critical period for New Zealand in the South Pacific war occurred between June and December, 1942. It can be divided roughly into two parts, which separate themselves, on October 18, 1942, when Admiral W. F. Halsey arrived at Noumea, New Caledonia, to find himself commander of the South Pacific. "Within seven days came the Battle of Santa Cruz!" The first period will for ever find a place in Pacific Ocean history because of the fact that it was marked by the first overt step in a great strategic decision, which history will find to be not only a military landmark but the beginning of far-flung political events. This strategy was implemented by the bold landing of United States Marines at Guadalcanal, in the South Solomon Islands, where the Americans were to begin an ingenious process o~ climbing up "the Solomons ladder," jsland by island, towards New Britain and the Japanese stronghold of Rabaul, where an isolated Japanese army is now pinned down, powerless in 1944 to dispute the Allies' initiative. Less than two years ago Tokio radio ridiculed the Guadalcanal landing and declared that it merely meant the doom of 3000 American Marines at the hands of avenging Japan. But today those Marines and their' successors have cooped up very many thousands of Japanese in various Pacific bypassed islands, and by "triphibious" warfare the Allied power has blanketed not only the Solomons but New Ireland, New Britain, and v New Guinea. It was also in the climbing of "the Solomons ladder" that the art of bypass, in insular conditions, originated. The audacity of the Solomons campaign, begun at Guadalcanal, is understood when the Japanese naval superiority is 'remembered. It is true that Japan's was a "waning" superiority—to use Mr. Churchill's word—but it took some time to wane. Instead of letting {he Japanese complete' their mastery of Guadalcanal, the Americans landed, overcame the Japanese garrison, and took the great risk of being isolated if the Japanese were willing to concentrate in the Solomons sufficient power to drive the Allied naval forces right out of the region. Guadalcanal is a name that should be in every New Zealand history, for it was the starting-point of an offensivedefensive that was vital to New Zealand in 1942, and which, moreover, was destined to develop into the Allied offensive of 1943-44. As was to be expected, the Allies and particularly the Americans had to pay a price for this strategy. Their then powerful naval foe struck back, and the early series of sea encounters did not lack occasions of Allied defeat. Nevertheless, the Americans in the Solomons hung on; and that brings the story to Admiral Halsey's accession to the South Pacific command on October 18, 1942. A few days later he "gained breathing time" against his sea-and-air enemy by the losses inflicted—with a margin above those received—in the Santa Cruz battle, and early in the next month (November) came what is called the third battle of Savo Island, where again Japan suffered heavy sea-and-air losses, with the result that "the waters of the Middle- Solomons were never again seriously threatened by the Japanese," and Tokio's earlier boast recoiled on its own head. Halsey's victories reinsured the Allied offensivedefensive and paved the way for the great strategic offensive which is rolling back Japan's Pacific front. At a time when a school of thought in America was arguing—and probably always will argue—that America's South and South-west Pacific strategy was diversive, that correct American strategy was an offensive against Japan in the central Pacific, and that Australia did not matter strategically —at that critical time America sent her troops to these shores in the black winter of 1942; a little later landed in Guadalcanal; and again a little later sent to the South Pacific her most experienced . sea-going Admiral, who put the coping-stone on the offensivedefensive of 1942, directed with conquering determination the South Pacific phase of Mac Arthur's hardhitting war, and finally so cleaned up his own Pacific sphere of operations that, as he said in a message to his forces: "The South Pacific campaign is virtually completed, except Eor mopping-up and starving-out operations." As he said at Auckland, "in the South Pacific area" the Japanese are "washed up"; the Japanese in this area do not exceed 15,000, of which "no more than 2000 are effective." He also told Auckland interviewers that today "there are no Japanese in New Ireland, New Britain, New Guinea, Bougainville, Choiseul, and the rest of the Solomons who can do anything to hinder anything we want to do. They might make a nuisance attack, but that is all they can do. The very grave danger New Zealand and Australia faced two years ago is absolutely obliterated. I think you people here can breathe in perfect security." These words also deserve to go into history. About eighteen months ago, in midNovember, 1942, Halsey had at his command "one injured aircraft-carrier, one injured battleship, one uninjured cruiser, and I have forgotten how few destroyers." Those figures reflect the cost of hastening the waning of Japan's naval superiority and the freeing of this country from threat. This transformation has come so quickly that it is hardly recognised. Honour then to America and to him of whom the interviewer writes: "No one could listen to him without being convinced that in Admiral Halsey the South Pacific had the perfect leader." This six-footer sexagenarian, whose 160 pounds of weight are still found mostly around his chest and shoulders, is young enough to be still an air pilot who flies. In the United States there is some argument as to whether new naval high commands should be given to naval officers who are purely naval men, or to those who are also airmen. On either test, as on the test of Pacific performance, aerial and maritime, Halsey stands high. "In this day when the navy has shifted from a sea to a sea-air technique, he is theidol both of the older generation which is wedded to battleships and of the younger men who favour the carriers." His sending of his promotion stars to the widows of the two Rear-Admirals killed in the third battle of Savo— which brought his own promotion—is a characteristic act. Admiral Halsey is a man who knows men. Admiration coming from him is no mere flattery. That is why New Zealand can find the highest honour in his appreciation of the fighting qualities of New Zealanders, to whose mana in the Middle East he adds Pacific laurels well and truly won under his own observant eye>