NOTES ON THE WAR

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 52, Issue 3277, 18 June 1943, Page 6

NOTES ON THE WAR

ALLIES’ NEW STRATEGY DIRECT ATTACK BY AIR EUROPE AND THE PACIFIC The remorseless air offensive of the Allies continues in both main theatres of war—Europe and the Pacific. This has become the new pattern of the strategy of direct approach by air. In Europe the Allies already have air bases in Britain, North Africa and Rusisa from which they can reach the greater part of Hitler’s European fortress. The North African bases most in the picture now in the continuous air offensive against the Axis areas in the Mediterranean are, first, the tip of Tunisia and, second, the bulge of Cyrenaica between Benghazi and Tobruk. From Tunisia within a 300-mile arc are all Sicily and Sardinia. A 400mile arc includes Corsica and the western mainland of Italy, with Rome and Naples well within the circle. A flight of 500 miles from Tunisia covers practically all Italy as far north as Genoa and Bologna and as far east as Brindisi. From Cyrenaica it is 200 miles to western Crete and 300 miles to the. Greek mainland of the Peloponnese, as well as the rest of Crete. Athens is within a 400-mile radius and Salonika just outside the 500-mile. All these places are therefore well within the range of Fortresses and Liberators for full-load daylight precision bombing in the clear Mediterranean atmosphere, better suited to that method of attack than the foggy air and cloudy skies of northern Eurpoe. Russia has also bases suitable for long-distance bombing, but has too much to do fighting the Axis in the air at closer range to specialise in strategic bombing. The purpose of the Allied air offensive in Western Europe and the Mediterranean is to prepare the way for land operations which in their turn, by providing air bases nearer to the heart of the enemy, will enable the air offensive to be pressed home at closer quarters. Further From Japan In the war against Japan the Allies have nowhere .yet got within suitable striking distance of the heart of the enemy in Japan itself by air. Attu is the nearest point in the Pacific, being just under 2000* miles air-line to Tokio. Midway is more than 2000; Guadalcanal, 3550; New Guinea, 3340; and Calcutta 3740 miles from Tokio.,

The most practical direct land hemisphere approach to Japan from Allied territory lies across China, where the Yangtze River flows from near the Burma frontier into the China Sea near Shanghai. Chungking is on this line of approach. Here are the mileages by air: From Calcutta to Chungking, 1200 miles; Chungking to Shanghai, 920 miles; then Shanghai to Nagasaki, 500 miles; to Kagoshima (coal area), 530; Osaka and Kobe, 840; Nagoya (industries), 925; Yokohama and Tokio, 1090. ■Shanghai is, of course, still in Japanese hands, but there are airfields in Chinese hands not more than 200 miles away. The full use of such airfields by the Allies would imperil the main line of Japanese communications by sea with the outlying conquests—Burma, Malaya, the East Indies, and New Guinea. It would also hinder the use of bases like Hong Kong by the Japanese navy. To develop a large-scale air and land offensive in China may take time, as the sole source of supply by by air over the Himalayas from India. In the meantime a strong Allied air offensive in the South-west Pacific should pave the way to the acquisition of air bases among the islands now in Japanese possession and make possible the harassing of Japanese naval bases like. Truk, forcing the fleet to take to sea or be bombed in harbour like the Italian battleships at Spezia. But China remains the best approach at present—until or unless Russia comes in with Vladivostok as a b aS e.—for a concentrated air attack on Japan itself. To fight the Jap. in the jungle is to fight him on his own ground. Japan is far more vulnerable from the air.