Situation Desperate For Germans And Japs, Admiral King Says

Northern Advocate, 26 April 1944, Page 4

Situation Desperate For Germans And Japs, Admiral King Says

WASHINGTON. April 23. The war situation is desperate tor both the Japanese and Germans, declared Admiral King, reviewing the progress of war from Pearl Harbour to the present when “encirclement of Germany is in sight and the Pacific situation is as dark and threatening to Japan as it is full of promise for the Allies.”

Admiral King pointed out that naval victories in the Pacific, completely reversing American numerical inferiority at the outset of the war. were greatly aided by American and Allied submarines, particularly British. Canadian and Dutch, “which are now pounding enemy shipping to such an extent that submersibles alone may determine the course of the Pacific war.”

Admiral King emphasised that contrary to popular supposition, the Philippines could not have been saved even if there had not been losses at Pearl Harbour, because such an undertaking at that time would have been disastrous for the American navy, considering available means. 20 Battleships Now He revealed that three of six battleships officially listed as damaged in Pearl Harbour attacks were resting on the bottom, technically sunk (presumably the California, Nevada and West Virginia). The United States now has 20 battleships in the service, not counting the super-dreadnoughts Wisconsin and Missouri and over 50 carriers. He explained that carrier strength reached a catastrophical low in the autumn of 1942 when the Saratoga was the only undamaged United States carrier afloat in the Pacific. Admiral King disclosed that of 200,000 tons of Allied ships in Manila Bay on the day of the Japanese attack, all except one ship escaped. The Santa Cruz battle was a defeat as United States forces were compelled to flee after losing the carrier Hornet and the destroyer Porter. Early Inexperience Faulty planning, inexperience, un alertness and failures in communication caused defeat in the Savov battle in which three American cruisers and H.M.A.S. Canberra were sunk. These losses temporarily swung to Japan the balance of naval power which they lost at Midway, but fortunately they did not know it, and failed to take advantage of the opportunity. Admiral King revealed that in February, 1942, a carrier task force moved out to raid Rabaul, but enemy bombers spotted the carrier Lexington Therefore the attack was not pressed heme. Two battles in the Kula Gulf in July, 1943, in which the American cruisers St. Louis and Honolulu and the New Zealand cruiser Leander were damaged were costly, but removed the threat of enemy naval action which mi.tht have jeopardised Allied landings in New Georgia. Admiral King pointed out that invasion of the Marshalls in which four separate groups of carriers participated, was the largest offensive action yet undertaken. He urged that the navy should never again be permitted to dwindle to comparative prewar weakness. He declared that the United States naval strength was now great enough to roam the seas unchallenged and pick the spots where, and the time when to strike. “Japan will not be directly under attack, as Germany now is, until the citadel area of the empire—both island and Continental —is under Allied threat or control,” he added.