CHALLENGE TO JAPAN

Evening Star, Issue 24277, 19 August 1942, Page 5

CHALLENGE TO JAPAN

LONG, GRIM FIGHT AHEAD FIRST STEP IN ALLIED COUNTER-DRIVE (Rec. 1.40 p.m.) NEW YORK, August 18. “ A long and grim fight in the Southwest Pacific is expected as a result of the successful attack on the Solomons by American marines backed by air and sea forces,” says the New York ‘ Sun’s ’ Washington correspondent. “The challenge to Japan is too full of unpleasant implications for the Japanese to accept American dominion of Tulagi and the surrounding islands without a major effort to reverse the situation. At the same time this American victory is but the first step in an Allied counter-drive against Japan. Its value lies in the position it gives the United Nations forces for further attacks. Behind the official phraselogy of yesterday’s navy communique lie hundreds of stories of individual daring in close-range fighting, involving cruisers and destroyers in the pitch darkness, and of the landing operations carried through with _ thoroughness characteristic of the marines. Mr Eielding Eliot, writing in the New York ‘ Herald-Tribune,’ says that, whatever the outcome of the Solomons attacks and whatever may be the future policy adopted on the western front in Europe, the actual attack in the one case and the preparation for it in the other have at least served notices on Japan and Germany. This notice is that the good old days in which those Powers could concentrate as they chose against a selected opponent while enjoying security elsewhere are at an end. The Chinese Government spokesman in Chungking declared that the United States action in the Solomons greatly strengthened China’s confidence in the might and unlimited possibilities of an American offensive. The epoch-making battle, which has drawn a substantial portion of Japanese naval, air, and land forces from the mid-Pacific, will inevitably force Japan to revise her continental plans.

NOTE OF VICTORY SUCCESSFUL LAND OFFENSIVE STRATEGIC BASES IN ALLIED HANDS The Press Association correspondent at a South Pacific port states that the measure of success which has attended the Allied operations in the South-east-ern Solomons is such that the Japanese are now pinned down to a losing defensive in this area. Their position can be regained only by a naval success of the first magnitude. Already it can bo said that from the strategical viewpoint the islands of Guadalcanal Tulagi, and Florida have been taken from tho Japanese. This does not mean that fighting has ceased, or is immediately likely to cease, but it does mean that the Japanese can no longer use the group for the object lor which they possessed them, and that was, to aid their offensive against the Allied positions and supply lines in the South-west and South Pacific. The land fighting is still bitter ? and, therefore, while caution must still bo exercised in assessing the general operational outlook, a note of victory can be struck in examining the progress of tho land actions. The Americans have successfully passed the stage of winning and consolidating bridgeheads. They have opened out in general attacks on various objectives, and they are reducing them successfully'. Everything 'now hinges on purely naval operations, the correspondent says. It is probable that the fleet in general has now been able to withdraw its immediate support of the land operations and has stood out in preparation for meeting a Japanese naval challenge in force The enemy units localised at the islands when the operations began have been sunk or have fled to the Caroline Islands. Ultimate success, therefore, turns on the developing crucial naval battle. Tho Japanese may attempt a frontal assault with their main licet, in .which case disaster for them would change the whole complexion of the Pacific war. If they cannot break open and maintain the supply route to the South-eastern Solomons they must count the islands as lost. The correspondent in conclusion says it is also clear that Vice-Admiral R. L. Gbnrmloy and his South Pacific headquarters staff prepared the whole sc.ienie. It was approved and it was helped by Admiral Chester W. Nimitz at Pearl Harbour, and he also greatly assisted in obtaining a tactical surprise and local advantages by organising the diversion in the Aleutian Islands.