PACIFIC STRATEGY

Greymouth Evening Star, 19 January 1944, Page 6

PACIFIC STRATEGY

BOUGAINVILLE CAMPAIGN. SURPRISING THE JAPS S. PACIFIC HEADQUARTERS, J January io. Rear-Admiral Robert B. Carney, Chief of Staff to Admiral Halbey, in an. interview to-day, .^ mm^, r ?mrriign ! successful Bougainville and made observations on the c°u se ( of the Pacific war. He told wa _ coi . respondents: Our campaign against. Bougainville was launched P ril J? al tn' to give us bases close enough to. Rabaul and to give u V lg u ™ thTt for sustained bomber attacks on stronghold. It was a mattei o geometry. We figured the achoi radius of our fighters, aud how long we needed them over this , then we picked Empress August- X as the logical objective. We ex the' landing would pi’ovol;e vi° le nt Japanese reaction. We actual y looked forward to by-products. B } cause we had feinted at Cho s , Shortlands and elsewhere the sui prise was almost complete at Empress Augusta Bay Then we poured u-oops into our beachhead fastei tha the enemy could counter Additionally, he sent forces into Choiseul

and Shortlands along with heavy equipment, which became a distinct liability. Even the Japanese hazilyproduced artillery tailed Jo halt aggressive troops at lorokina. They went after Tojo’s prowlers with a spirit of confidence that smashed every Japanese effort before it g started. The ground orations had been perfectly executed. The msi major Japanese reaction was to bring Town’ from Truk ships to replace those lost in the battie of i/2 and further supplement their sui Lice strength in Britain area, so we hit them with the caries strike of November a, hitting ad ten cruisers found at Rabaul. Six days later we did it again, mainly to convince the enemy we could hit him at anv time we‘ wanted. .These outstandingly successful raids P io 'k d his bases were not immune to V directed carrier operations. continuous air cover, we pushed tn complexion of three airfielas witlim Empress Augusta Bay. lhe perimttei bomber strip was a specially ma°" niricent job. It was an outstanding performance by the Seabees —-an out nt which is virtually spear-heaaing the South Pacific campaign. xnus with air support we now control tne sea well northward of Buka Island. The Japanese have been forced to resort to night barge traffic between New Ireland and Buka ffor evacuation and supply. The enemy is not only getting through insufficient to implement any offensive, action, oiit we will actually starve him out. as at Kolombangara. In effect, we surrounded the whole island by one landing.”

JAP PREDICAMENT He said that the Japanese had given up all attempts to hold the BukaBougainville airfields in use. They were operating only a few floatplanes out of this area. “Now we are conducting round-the-clock assaults on Rabaul including highly damaging mast-head level attacks on shipping and installations and low altitude attacks against airfield revetments. The Japanese reacted with a tew puny raids in New Georgia area, but. it is doubtful if they could, maintain even that pace. Their desperate effort to maintain contacts with Buka has been soundly punished, especially by Captain Burke’s destroyers. There'was no question that Buka was already a laibility to the Japanese. Plainly the next points of Japanese strength were Rabaul and Kavieng. It was evident the South Pacific and South-west Pacific forces were pushing along their respective areas towards eliminating these bases. ■ “They are next on the list. We pr;

to put them out but just how we wm do it will be something the e,i.<my least expects. It will not be in accordance with the familiar pattern.” Surveying the offensive from the Gilberts to Solomons, Adm. Carney said: Between these two areas the only Japanese holding which they might use to advantage against us is Nauru Island. It is not logical to expect us to permit him to occupy this salient much longer. Christmas operations at Rabaul were diversionary pressure exerted to keep the enemy’s air strength spread during General MacArthur’s lightning operations at Cape Gloucester. Then the New Year’s Day carrier strike caught two cruisers and two destroyers indicating the Japanese are still running an occasional section of the Tokio express. “Our continual aerial observation at Rabaul and Kavieng indicates the enemy has already lost confidence m his ability to use these bases for anything of great value. He knows his number is up. We proved we can hit him exactly when and where we want. By co-ordinating forces in air and on sea, we will blockade his New Britain-New Ireland forces, which may total about one hundred thousand men. It is even possible he plight attempt to evacuate Rabaul, if it becomes really untenable, and if he can -find means to withdraw. Howlong will he stick it out? He quit Kolombangara after five weeks. The evacuation of South Bougainville has already begun overland, and by barge. He would dearly love to get out of Choiseul.if he could. If he evacuates we win the easy way. If he tries to hang on, we have more than a better chance of battering his ships, planes and ground forces. The enemy would like us to become entangled in a rear-guard action instead of employing our present tactics. This would delay us in our movement into his stolen empire, but we are not going to play right into his hands that wav.”

NAURU ISLAND (N.Z. Official Correspondent) SOUTH PACIFIC BASE, Jan. 18. Nauru Island, which has briefly been mentioned by Rear Admiral Carney in his conference with war correspondents, is of oarticular interest 1o New Zealand. Until two years ago it exported vast quantities of phosphale to Australia and New Zealand. Lis cantilever and other facilities for handling phosphates represented not only engineering achievements but the outlay of a very large sum of money. It will be remembered that Nauru came first into news prominence in this war in December, 1940. when two German raiders, operating in the vicinity of the island, sank five British ships whose aggregate tonnage was over twenty-five thousand. One of the raiders, the Manyo Maru. having turned the survivors from the ships ashore on Emirau Island, then returned to Nauru flying Japanese colours, and shelled the phosphate workings, and shipping plant, causing considerable damage. A year later Japanese planes bombed the island, damaging the cantilever and other installations. On August 2, 1942. Nauru was finally occupied by the Japanese in whose hands it has continued down to the present time. The island is oval-shaped and about twelve miles in circumference. Upon it the enemy has constructed airfields, from which he can patrol between the Gilberts and Northern Solomons. ’Situated just south of the Equator, it is a likely base, and New Zealand will be interested in Admiral Carney’s statement that it would not be logical to expect the Allies to permit the Japanese to hold this salient much longer.