MacArthur May Bypass Halmahera

Manawatu Times, Volume 69, Issue 205, 30 August 1944, Page 4

MacArthur May Bypass Halmahera

Next Few Months Charged With Fate For Japan (By Telegraph—Pre«s Assn.—Copyright.} (Special Australian Correspondent.) Received Tuesday, 10.45 p.m. SYDNEY, Aug. 29. The anchorage at Manado (Celebes) is becoming a graveyard for Japanese shipping. Enemy losses there in the past 10 days have been eight freighters sunk, and a cruiser, four freighters, 40 luggers and barges destroyed or seriously damaged. Manado at the northeastern tip of the Celebes is the Japanese headquarters for that area. The latest attacks on shipping there were made on Saturday and Sunday when United States Navy Liberators and Catalinas destroyed or seriously damaged four 1000-ton freighters and four small vessels. Manado is 150 miles west of Halmahera, the Japanese island bastion between New Guinea and the Philippines. According to reports from United States sources published by the Sydney Morning Herald to-day. hera is likely to he MacArthur’s next objective.

Commenting on this the Sydney Sun, in a leading article to-day, says: “Other critics take the view that it would be possible to bypass Halmahera, neutralise it as New Guinea and New Britain has been neutralised, and strike straight for the Philippines. A third and more daring strategy is favoured by some naval authorities who declare that to force the Japanese fleet to action by striking directly at Japan, defeat it and then land on the Japanese coast would shorten the war by cutting off the head of the octopus.

“Whatever strategy unfolds itself it is plain that the war is about to enter on its last phase. The next few months should be charged deep with fate lor Japan’s gimcrack empire.”