POOR TEAMWORK

Evening Star, Issue 25565, 18 August 1945, Page 5

POOR TEAMWORK

GERMANY AND JAPAN NAVAL OFFICER'S STORY Japan had ■ always refused fully to co-operate with Germany in any united world strategy, according to a captive German naval officer named Rostj who for a long time was chief naval liaison officer to the German-Japanese Commission. Heavy aircraft carrier losses at Midway were attributed by the Japanese to petrol fires resulting from structural defects, and after the battle they recalled all their remaining carriers into dock for immediate structural modifications. Just at this time the German High Command made a special plea for naval co-operation, which the Japanese were not able to give because all their carriers were out of action. When the tide of war was turning against Germany in Europe they asked for Japanese naval participation in the overall strategic plan, with the Japanese taking responsibility for attacking Allied shipping in the' Indian Ocean and the Red Sea. Apart from a cruiser sortie in the direction of Ceylon, the Japanese excused themselves from further efforts on the ground that the monsoon period was approaching and that this would prevent effective activity. *

Rost said that, the Japanese, never grasped the fundamentals of tJ-boat warfare as expounded by the Germans. The Japanese, Rost said, used their submarines almost entirely in a scouting role, following and reporting the positions of enemy naval vessels and then surrounding the area of battle to finish off any damaged ships or stragglers. The Germans had never been able to get them to play a full part in | the U-boat war, as such. Contrary to what the German Naval High Command had expected, Rost said, they found that Japanese naval intelligence was not good; The only two naval subjects on which the Japanese offered valuable information were on their experiences in landing operations and on the technical construction and tactical use of aircraft carriers.