OFFENSIVE BLOWS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20859, 11 August 1942, Page 5

OFFENSIVE BLOWS

A ft £bJ* * iwa » «« * * SOLOMONS ZONE U.S. CHEERED BY NEWS PUSH TO RETAKE AREA (By Telegraph—Press Assn. —Copyright.) (2.40 p.m.) NEW YORK, Aug. 0: The entire American press features the Allied move against the Sol-; omons, giving it precedence even over the Nazi advance on Maikop in the Caucases and Indian situation. The Pearl Harbour correspondent of the Associated Press of America calls the action “the turning point from a’ war ot' attrition to one of offensive blows." ~ • Observers point out that .the Midway and Coral Sea battles, however .far-reaching'ln their results, were defensive actions, while the Solomon Islands Battle, at least technically, is purely offensive in its nature. The New York Daily Mirror's j correspondent in Washington quotes. the Navy Department spokesman as] saying: “It seems that the battle is i the first x-eal attempt to retake Jap-anese-occupied .territory.” The Washington cori’espondent of the New York Times reports that there is speculation in military circles that the Japanese had assembled considerable invasion forces in the Solomons, preparatory to an assault on Australia. Referring to the operations against Kiska, Major Fielding Eliot, writing in the New York Herald—Tribune, says: “It was certainly a diversion fog in the south-west Pacific and. at the same time, a move to eliminate Japanese interference with possible direct American aid to Russia.” Major Eliot issues a warning; against expecting miraculous swift results. Time must elapse between the successive steps of an operation of this magnitude earned out by our limited forces. He sums up the general reaction to the news “that we are on the offensive in the Pacific is sufficiently cheering news in itself.”