WAR REVIEW

Franklin Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 3, 11 January 1943, Page 3

WAR REVIEW

FORTUNE IN FLUX RETROSPECT OF 1942 In an atmosphere of good cheer and good hope for the future Hie most critical year of the war for the Allies —194 2 —-has ended. There were times in 1942 when it looked as if the war might, have been lost, or, at least,, in the only sense that matters to the Allies —complete victory—not won, but, short of some colossal unforeseen disasler or a, supine handling of accruing' advantages hard to imagine, such a contingency seems now out of the picture. The fortune of war, so violently in (lux in 1942. is favourable now to the Allies, and it, is possible to contemplate 1942 in broad retrospect as a year in the main of achievement and promise against' heavy odds.

The year opened with mingled hopes and fears for the Allies. in Russia the Bed Army was advancing on alt fronts and the Eighth Army in Libya bad apparently surmounted its checks at Sidi Bezegh and was approaching Jedabia. But in the Far East Japan was moving swiftly southward on the mainland and through Ihe islands of the Malay Archipelago. Hong Kong surrendered on Christmas Hay. Ihe first of many disasters. Mr Churchill was then in America, visiting Washington and Ottawa, where tie addressed the United States Congress and ihe Canadian Parliament, reviewing the war to I lie end of 1941.

Outlook Darkens. Within the next three'months—the first, three of 1 H j2—the outlook for the Allies darkened deeply. The Russian counter-offensive in an unusually cold winter even for Russia and against, increasing resistance, especially at vital German strategic points—flic “hedgehogs" of the German line —slowed down to a standstill. The Eighth Army had once more to fall hack from western Cyrenaica before Rommel’s thrusts to a tine covering Tobruk. The U-boat campaign in the Western Atlantic took an increasingly heavy foil of Allied—-mostly American —shipping. If the Western theatre of war had its disappointments the. Far Eastern brought a succession of sheer disasters. The worst was the fall of Singapore on February lb with the surrender of the British garrison upwards of 7b,bho men. It was. as Mr Eliureliill said. Hie worst disaster in British military history. II sealed the fate of the Far East for the time being. II was the sequel to a chapter of misfortunes —the greatest being the crippling of the American Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbour on December 7. I fit I', for on the American fleet Britain had been forced by circumstances to rely for the defence of Die Western Pacific. The loss of a British Imperial army at Singapore was all the more disastrous. as there is tittle doubt, that if. as General Wavelt sought in vain, it had been transferred to Burma, Burma might have been successfully defended and become a threat to the Japanese continental right flank. Singapore and the British Army in the Far East in the hands of Japan, two British capital ships, the Prince of Wales and Repulse. lost by air attack in the South Gliina Sea, the American Heel badly weakened at Heart Harbour, the Huleli defences of the East Indies lacking in material and weapons-—there was little or nothing In slop the Japanese advance. From Peak to Pit. The curve of Hie Allied fortunes in I!> i? follow'd ! lie precedent of Hie pi e\ ions years in falling from a peak about Glirislnias and Hie New bear In a pit in the summer. Tims, in I 9 i n 11 1 ere was the collapse of France in June and llw deadly peril of Britain for Hie next few months, and a rise towards the New bear victory in the Battle of Britain and the conquest of Italian East Africa and Waveli’s victories in Libya in early iPi 1 . Tien came the retreat in Libya and the illstarred Greek and Givlan campaigns. Things looked heller in Ihe northern autumn of 11)4 l with tlm renewed British offensive in l.ibva.

But in July. J'.iiJ. things looked vs black as they had ever been for the Allies, except in the brief period of I '.i in fol lowing 11 1 e ml lapse of Era nee when Britain stood alone willmiil allies except for Hie little nations of occupied Europe and Hie growing friendsli ip and help of I lie tinted Stales. At the end of May Marshal Timoshenko's anticipatory offensive in the Kharkov region had come Hi a stalemate in a sultry atmosphere of unnatural calm foreboding a stw m. The storm broke in the great Axis Russian offensive of IP ID which in little over a month carried the enemy to Hie foothills of Hie Caucasus and the outskirts of Stalingrad. Meanwhile. Sebastopol had fallen after a memorable siege of eight months, on July Meanwhile, also, the Britisli Eighth Army had suffered heavy defeat at Hie hands of Rommel on Hie line covering Tobruk, and Tobruk, with some 28.000 prisoners, fell to Rommel on June 22. On July .1 Axis and Allied forces clashed west of El Ala me in. 60 miles from Alexandria. That was Hie furthest point of Rommel's advance, and the front was stabilised, after a series of tactical moves and sharp engagements at Alamein, not to be broken till October. Rommel made one more attempt in Angus I to get through to the Nile Delta, but was heavily defeated.

The Limit to Japan. During this period of the summer of 1942 Japanese expansion reached its high-water mark. Burma was occupied in May, but attempts to advance up the Burma Road into China were foiled. The arrival of Hie monsoon put an end to large-scale operations. In the south the Japanese in land. sea. and air operations bad swept over the whole of the Dutch East Indies, had compelled the surrender of the last regular American forces in the Philippines at Batan

and Gorregidor, had landed in New Guinea, and pushed into the islands of the Melanesian Archipelago, Including the Solomons, seizing and strengthening strategic points. The peak 6f the Japanese advance was reached in the crossing of the Owen Stanley Range from Buna and the threat to Port Moresby. What finally checked the Japanese in the South-west Pacific was undoubtedly the action of the United States in sending naval, air, and land forces to the threatened area. The great naval battles of the Coral Sea (May 4-8) and Midway Islands (June, (>) limited Japanese ambitions in the Pacific area. Change for the Better. i Since I he-'dark days of the summer : of 1942 there has been a remarkable 1 improvement. The United States landings in the Solomons and the AustralAmerican /counter-attack in New Guinea have caused heavy losses to the Japanese and forced back Ihe threat to Australia and New Zealand. Japanese, naval and air losses are likely to preclude any further moves in this direction.

In the western theatre the gigantic Russian counter-offensive now in progress has altered the whole outlook for the Axis in Russia to one of extremo danger. The victory of the Eighth Army at Alamein and the subsequent, pursuit of Rommel halfway along the Mediterranean coast of North Africa, and I,tie Allied landings in French North Africa have similarly changed the situation in the Mediterranean.

tn all the operations which have turned the scale against the Axis Powers, at least in Europe, air power and sea power have played predominant parts. Without them armies could have done little. Air power- and sea power have similarly made the heaviest impressions on the Japanese. Land action here is still to come.

War, in the last analysis, is a trial of strength. For three years" the strength of the United Nations has been barely equal to the task of holding the enemy at some point beyond the range of vital damage to the Allies.

The Allies have now gained the strength they require for the job and I lie I rial in 19 4.8 should find them equal to it. Admiral Halsey and M. : Stalin are certain of victory this year.-