U.S. NAVY DOUBLED

Grey River Argus, 29 November 1943, Page 5

U.S. NAVY DOUBLED

WITHIN A YEAR Now 838 Vessels (Rec. 7.40.) WASHINGTON, Nov. 27. Colonel Knox, addressing a press conference, said: “The numerical strength of the United States Fleet has been doubled in the past eleven months. The new craft include forty aircraft carriers. Some of these are •baby flat-tops,’ having been converted from merchantmen. Our fleets on all the oceans now number 817 combatant vessels. Within the next fortnight new construction will also make good twenty-one vessels that have been lost this year, bringing the total fighting fleet to 838 of all types from destroyer escorts to big battleships/’ Colonel Knox said: “The fleet was doubled last Wednesday when a new aircraft carrier the “Wasp,” was completed, making 419 new warships completed this year. The present fleet compares with 344 combatant vessels at December 7 1941. Although 1943 has been, a bumper year for naw ship production, 1944 will be larger.” Japanese Main Fleet NOWHERE YET ENGAGED. (Rec. 11.25.) WASHINGTON, Nov. 27. Mr. Foster Hailey, New York Times correspondent with the U.S. Pacific Fleet, says: Most naval strategists and observers are convinced that the Japanese fleet will not come out to do battle until the Pacific war is nearing a conclusive stage, lhe "Japanese have used only older warships and aircraft carriers in the Solomons. Enemy heavy cruisers now appear to be moving back into action, but I'ecent reports have not indicated tne participation of carriers or battle, ships. None of the sixteen-incn-gunned Japanese battleships has been m an v action. It is indicated that a major sea battle in the Pacific wil not come until we have fought our way much closer to the Japanese mainland. Drive at Japan PROSPECTS OUTLINED. (Rec. 11.25.) NEW YORK, Nov. 25. The Washington correspondent o„ the New York Times says: “After capture of the Gilberts, a broad picture of the Pacific appears to be develoohm as follows (D Expected early control of the Marshall Islands will give us a safe passage over almost two thirds of the Pacific, enabling early moves against the mandated islands. (2). A slow, . but inevitable deterioration of remaining Japanese positions in the South-west Pacific brings nearer the day when a major move may be made either against the’ Dutch East Indies or the Phillippines, but probably against the latter. (3) If the Philippines should be retaken, all of the Japanese conquered islands to the southward will virtually be cut off. Then the time would be ripe for a conceited drive against Japan proper, witn American forces flowing from Philippines and Central Pacific bases and Hawaii. (4) Such a double threat could be converted into a triple threat if Lord Mountbatten’s forces took up positions to strike simultaneously against Japanese Burma and China. (5) Our firmly-established bases in the Aleutian Islands menace Japan’s northern defences, and also are adaptable to conjunctive timing. ’