TOLL OF SOLOMONS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXIII, Issue 24, 28 December 1942, Page 5

TOLL OF SOLOMONS

JAPANESE PLANE LOSSES

ALMOST EQUAL OUTPUT (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright.) (Rec. 9.5 a.m.) NEW YORK, Dec. 27. Writing in the Herald-Tribune, Major Fielding Eliot estimates that the Japanese since August have lost 1416 planes in the Solomons, averaging 314 monthly. , They have produced in the same time 250 to 400 combat planes monthly. This means they arc losing almost their entire production. The total does not include losses in New Guinea, China, and the Aleutians, also operational losses in training, ferrying, and convoying. The Japanese are making the greatest efforts to increase their output but are meeting with insuperable obstacles, particularly a shortage of machine-tools, fuel, and lubricants, making it impossible to design and produce new models embodying recent fighting experience. On the contrary, American designs have steadily improved. Furthermore, there is ample evidence that the Japanese in their pilot training programme are unable to keep up with the losses.