ALLIED NAVAL FORCES

Evening Star, Issue 24329, 19 October 1942, Page 3

ALLIED NAVAL FORCES

“SOMEWHERE IN VICINITY"

FINAL OUTCOME WILL BE DECIDED AT SEA

| (N.Z.P.A. Special Aust. Correspondent)

SYDNEY, October 18. What little late news has been received of the Solomons fighting is of a sombre character. It is revealed from Washington that in the face of apparent Japanese sea and air control, American anxiety about the outcome is growing. Beyond the earlier report that a naval battle is raging, however, no official mention has been made of operations by a strong Allied naval force somewhere in the area. Now that American landbased- air power has been so seriously •crippled, it is on the hidden operations of the Allied fleet that the final outcome will depend. With the American and Japanese forces on Guadalcanal evenly matched, the victory must go to the side able to throw the speediest reinforcements into the battle. IN THE BALANCE. It is believed that large-scale laud fighting has not yet developed, but an American Press correspondent says: “ The peril of the American troops has increased ominously, not only with the landing of strong enemy reinforcements, but with the news that a large group of enemy ships has been sighted

near Shorthand Island, 260 miles northwest of Guadalcanal. It is evident that America’s hold on the South Pacific war crucible in the Solomons is truly in the balance. It is evident that the enemy intends to envelop and smother, the American positions ashore, after .having softened the fire points and crushed the airport facilities.” Japan’s first objective of neutralising American land-bhsed air power on the vital Henderson airfield appears to have been accomplished, and the secrecy-shrouded sea battle must be the final determining factor. “ If the Japanese succeed in retaking the Solomons without crippling losses to their own sea power, they might" accomplish their original Pacific strategy of driving on to New Caledonia and taking that,” declares a war commentator in the Sydney ‘ Sunday Sun,’ and he adds.: “If New Caledonia fell to the Japanese, and the Allies were so weakened in this area that they could not take it back, the outlook for Australia and New Zealand would be dark. The enemy would have a base beside our main Pacific supply lines from America. He would be only 1,000 miles from Sydney and Auckland. New Caledonia would afford him harbours, airfields, and mineral riches, including vital nickel to plate his bullets and chrome and manganese to harden his steel. It is the natural base from which to strike at Eastern Australia.”.

. A Japanese conquest of New Caledonia would almost certainly involve the preliminary occupation of Allied bases in the New Hebrides and the New Guinea stronghold of Port Moresby.

AMERICAN QUESTIONINGS. The American news magazine ‘ Time ’ to-day declares: “General MacArthur has enough men to retake all New Guinea, but offensives risk ships, and the prize may not be worth the cost.” ‘ Time ’ places the number of Japanese in all New Guinea at not more than 20,000, and, pointing out the audacity of the enemy in stretching his fingers over thousands of miles of the Pacific, says that there were not more than 3.000 'Japanese in the south-east Solomons when the American marines launched their offensive early in August. Japan’s total Pacific expansion engaged probably not more than 200.000 troops. Some Americans were asking why more Australians wore not fighting with the Americans in the Solomons, the American news 'analyst, Mr William Winter, said in a special radio talk to Australia from San Francisco. He indicated that the answer was Australia’s recognition that this was a global war, and she had sent her troops to fight in other parts of the world. Australia would be the nation most directly affected by an American defeat in the Solomons. Apart from the danger to her supply lines, Brisbane and other eastern coastal cities would be threatened.