The Grey River Argus THURSDAY, November 19, 1942. MAJOR NAVAL VICTORY.

Grey River Argus, 19 November 1942, Page 4

The Grey River Argus THURSDAY, November 19, 1942. MAJOR NAVAL VICTORY.

The result of the battle, said to have bjeen the greatest naval engagement of the war, which on Thursday, Friday and Saturday last was fought in the waters around the South Solomon islands of Guadalcanal* and Tulagi, is by President Roosevelt described as hhving been for the United States Fleet a major victory. That must be credited as the fact of the matter. The Japanese claim that they lost only live warships, instead" of the eleven claimed by the Americans, and that the victory was their’s, must be regarded, as rather a naive endeavour to “save face.’’ The enemy navy’s retreat, especially when it is conceded still to possess a. definite margin, of superiority in the South Pacific, cannot be explained otherwise than by the fact of a defeat. It is not now denied that the Americans had been apprehensive of the outcome. Nor was it primarily by air superiority that they triumphed. The Japanese before the war often boasted that their navy would prevail against any enemy by taking the fight to it. Last Friday, however, it wjas the Americans who took the fight to the Japanese. It appears that the Americans had it on the Japanese not only in tactics, hut also in gunnery. One United States cruiser actually traversed the enemy’s entire lines, taking on a battleship, which it disabled and rendered an easy prey. Moreover, the American destroyers, judging from their casualties, were evidently more in the fray than those of the enemy, in spite of Japanese pre-war 1 claims that their smaller craft would ram opposition. if no other means of success were immediately available. When it is borne, in mind that the Americans had to bargain upon encountering in the aggregate a tonnage greater than tneiv own, the question is.whether the Japanese did not allow themselves to be met in vital conflicts without being able to bring' their firing power into the fullest use. When the “San Francisco’.’" traversed their lines, the enemy warships arc said to have fired, on eachothcr, in darkness, indicating that, they thereby were misled, and lacked full co-ordination. One further 'conjecture seems also justified, that the Americans had in the Solomons waters greater firing power th'an the Japanese had calculated, the use of battleships having been stated by a United States Admiral to have proven in this battle that capital units are still most useful. The battleship whose loss is admitted was one of Japan’s oldest, but the type of the one damaged has not yet been disclosed. Observers infer that last week’s unquestionably absolute repulse of the enemy should enable the Allies, who appear to be about to hunt the Japanese from the North i Papuan coast, to carry the fight

northwjards, alike to Lac and Salamaua in New Guinea, and to the Japanese bases at Buin in the North Solomons and later the larger base at Rabaul in New Britain. The chances of a Japese naval success—without which further retreat seems inevitable — are lessening every day. At the same time, the enemy doubtless has heavier capital ships, if he is prepared to risk them simply for possession <of the South Solomons, and more especially the airfield of Guadalcanal’, which is fan and away the best in the whole region, and which must have functioned to American advantage last week. The Americans, however, are able to make good losses and to augment. their fleet at a much faster rate than the Japanese, and Japanese naval superiority must rapidly decline. Therefore, the situation appears much brighter than it did even last month, and Australia and New Zealand especially are in less danger than they were before last, week’s operation. Japan has to take into account American naval and air action in the North Pacific, land the likelihood of an Allied attack on her forces in Burma, while Tr-’k. and other naval bases require extensive forces for their defence. The Japanese are not displaying successful strategy since their earlier almost' unopposed run of success. Their chance in New Guinea appears to have been utterly lost, and they have nothing to show in the Solomons for the abandonment of their Papuan initiative. The way evidently is now being paved for the ‘Offensive which from the outset has been the object of Allied strategy.