ANOTHER NAVAL ACTION

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 November 1942, Page 5

ANOTHER NAVAL ACTION

•NEAR GUADALCANAL

JAP. LOSSES REPORTED

(Rec. 12.15 p.m.). WASHINGTON, November 19.

The Navy communique states: “Reports just'received from the South Pacific' reveal that United States battleships participated in an action on Saturday night and early on Sunday morning. Rear Admiral Lee commanded the task force which engaged a Japanese surface force in the Guadalcanal area during Saturday night, and inflicted the following damage on the enemy: One battleship or heavy cruiser sunk. Three large cruisers sunk. One destroyer sunk. One battleship damaged. One destroyer damaged. “It is possible this report may include some damage already reported in the previous Navy communique. Clarification of this point must await receipt of a complete summary of the action from the commander of the naval forces in that area.” AERIAL ATTACKS.

PIUGBY, November 19

Mr. Stimson .said that United States Army aircraft based on Australia and New" Caledonia, played an active and effective role in last week’s air and naval battle in the Solomons. Planes from Australia not only bombed the Japanese forces north-west of Guadalcanal before and during the battle, but also participated in important reconnaissance. Army bombers from New Caledonia have been assigned to the Navy, and details of their action would soon be forthcoming. PREPARING FOR NEXT ROUND. (N.Z.P.A. Special Australian Correspondent). (Rec. 12.35 p.m.) SYDNEY, Nov. 20. From an analysis of Japan’s crippling losses in the Solomons, United States naval experts deduce that the enemy will require at least three weeks to organise a further expedition against Guadalcanal. This delay is held to be sufficient to give the United States ample time to replace their own relatively small losses and to be ready lor the third round of the battle. Meanwhile, the main part of the battered Japanese forces is believed to have left the South-West Pacific and withdrawn to the shelter of enemy bases in the mandated islands. This places the vessels out of range of Allied bombers. Neither Australian nor American experts attach any special naval significance to the appearance of eight Japanese destroyers off Buna, since light "task forces of the opposing fleets must be continually in operation throughout the South Pacific. It is expected that the next 24 hours will reveal the purpose of this force.

Discussing the war against Japan, with correspondents on Guadalcanal, Vice Admiral Halsey said he considered that eventual victory would not be

won without an invasion of the Japanese home islands. “And I want to be there!” he added. The interview was given on November 9, two days before the opening of the battle in which Admiral Halsey routed the enemy licet in the Solomons. Admiral Halsey then predicted that the United States Navy in the near future would be able to prevent the Japanese reinforcing their troops on Guadalcanal. “Control of the sea is the key to the Pacific situation,”, he said, and he described the then existing naval, situation as “fine from our point of view. But you can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs—and you can’t fight a naval war without losing ships.” Admrial Halsey declined to relegate battleships to the category of obsolete weapons. “The carrier is a great offensive weapon but the battleship still retains its role and will continue to play the decisive part.in Pacific warfare —and I am an airman,” he said. (Admiral Halsey ,is regarded as America’s most airminded admiral. He learned to pilot a plane eight years ago, at the age of 52, and has long expressed a belief that the victory in the Pacific will be won by the combined efforts of warships and warplanes.) As the alternative to risking more ships in the sixth effort to recapture Guadalcanal, the Japanese must wait for the Allies to move against thenmain base at Rabaul, it is suggested from AVashington. The columnist, Raymond Clapper, comments; “The Japanese will come against us at Guadalcanal, but probablv we will never again be nervous about it, as we were last week. CHICAGO PRESS' CLAIM. (Rcc. 11.55 a.m.) NEW YORK, November 19. “The American Navy fighting in the Solomons and the American Army and Marines on Guadalcanal have saved Australia from invasion without material assistance from any otner nation,” says the “Chicago Tribune in an editorial. “Except for the protection accorded by our soldiers and • ailors, Australia to-day would be wide open and in all probability an attack would long since have been launched. “AVhen Singapore 1011. Australians awoke to the realisation that Britain could no longer be relied upon, and that their only hope lay in America. That hope was not misplaced. Inevitably, Australians will regard this new "relationship as the cornerstone of their international policy. For an indefinite future, New Zealand, ana perhaps South Africa, and certainly all the Americas including Canada, are dependent indeed on United Slates military power, which is now beginning to make itself manifest m many parts of the world, and is destined to be a determining factor in the organisation of the post-war world. We have become the principal partners in the United Nations. Those A -Tierleans who have felt, a sense oj inferiority to Europe are living in the past. This is the American century!

COMMENTATORS’ ESTIMATES

BOSTON, November 18

The “Christian Science Monitor’s” writer, Joseph Harsch, says: The naval victory in the Solomons can be measured only in the terms of whether it opened a way to Rabaul. because our defensive will not be substantially improved before the Allies hold Rabaul and the whole Bismarck Archipelago. Rabaul obviously has been the objective of our original move in the Solomons, and although the campaign thus far has contributed to an ultimate Allied victory. the fact remains that the Navy, after three months’ fighting, has still not advanced beyond the original positions, and still counts victories in terms of repulsing enemy counterattacks. One does not move under the guns of an enemy fortress, except, for the purpose of attempting to capture it. therefore it is reasonable to assume that Guadalcanal and Tulagi are jumping oft-points for Rabaul. which is the major goal in the Pacific. Strategical implications of the recent naval victory are uncertain, so long as it is not known whether there is enough strength left in our Pacific Fleet to capitalise the enemy’s withdrawal and follow him to Rabaul. NEW YORK, November 18. “The peak of the Japanese naval and air strength in the Pacific has now passed, and the future should be ours to make.” declares the “New York Times” commentator. Hanson Baldwin. The Solomons battle showed very encouraging evidences of the ‘aggressive, daring leadership, patterned on the Nelsonian tradition. For the second time in this war we

have clearly licked the enemy with gun, not bomb and torpedo. Our surface ships have come into their heritage of victory we won in the first phase of the Solomons campaign. They should soon be ready to push northward.” In this connection. Major Eliot, in the “New York Herald-Tribune,” predicts an Allied advance to Santa Isabel and Bougainville after the situation in Guadalcanal is cleared up. Furthermore, if MacArthur drives out the Japanese from Buna, we will then be set for a grand attack against Rabaul.

Meanwhile. Pearl Harbour observers are more cautiously assessing the results of the battle. The “New York Times’s” correspondent there writes: Japanese naval superiority is whittled down, but it is not felt that the United States has attained the balance of power in the Pacific. The United Press correspondent at Pearl Harbour points out that although the Japanese suffered heavy losses, the remainder of the fleet is extremely powerful. For example, the battleships involved in the recent battle were of the old Ktingc class, while carriers wore not used. PACIFIC WAR COUNCIL. WASHINGTON, November 18. After the meeting of the Pacific War Council, Lord Halifax said that Mr. Roosevelt gave a very encouraging review, but pointed out that though the Solomons nows was good, Col. Knox’s cautionary statement about the Japanese returning was correct, therefore the United Nations’ efforts must not relax. Mr. Roosevelt outlined the interlocking nature of the various war operations, particularly the Pacific and North African fronts.

Mr. Nash said the Council devoted considerable time to the “ninth front.” meaning the aerial front. He said the Allies were developing a new strategy which would probably mean heavy bombing and smashing of Italian production centres. He“predicted that mass bombing would be made on Italy after the capture of Tunis, on a devastating scale, similar to the recent aerial attacks against Germany. Mr. Nash said that General MacArthur’s campaign in New Guinea was 'proceeding reasonably well.