LONG FIGHT FORECAST

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 12 June 1942, Page 5

LONG FIGHT FORECAST

STRUGGLE FOR ALEUTIANS POMPOUS JAPANESE CLAIMS Washington, June 11. Washington newspapers say that the battle for the Aleutian Islands is continuing and express the view that the islands will be in the news for many weeks. Tokio official radio said the official naval spokesman, Captain Hiraide, in a nation-wide broadcast yesterday, laimed that the Japanese attacks on Dutch Harbour and Midway were effective blows against the American continent, at one stroke extending Japan’s defensive waters 2500 nautical miles eastward. Admiral Yamamoto’s strategy in the Pacific, he said, had been to destroy the enemy aircraftcarriers, and with this purpose he attacked Midway, catching an enemy naval unit consisting of carriers of the Enterprise and Hornet types. Hiraide asserted that the Japanese action against the Aleutians had destroyed a base from which the enemy might have attacked Japan. Referring to th e loss of a Japanese aircraft-carrier, he declared, “The Japanese Navy never loses a ship without inflicting heavier damage to the enemy. The Japanese Navy’s purpose was to destroy the remaining enemy aircraft-carriers. This task has been accomplished, in spite of the casualties. The Navy’s aims have been fulfilled. “The naval operations have crossed the international date line and entered the Pacific area, and the occupation of the western Aleutian Islands has pointed a sword at the enemy’s throat.” AMERICAN POINT OF VIEW At Pearl Harbour Admiral Nimitz says that the reports which are coming in indicate that the Japanese fleet consisted of at least 30 vessels, of which probably 50 per cent, were casualties. He added that the Japanese loss in personnel totalled several thousands. In many cases the liard-pressed Japanese ships did not even take the time to pick up survivors from the sea. The New York “Herald-Tribune” declares in an editorial: “The Midway battle provides another impressive

confirmation of the power of the air arm in sea warfare. j c together with the relative uselessness v of heavy battleships in the first line c of attack. . . . Therefore, the terrific i destruction wrought upon the Japan- * ese aircraft-carrier fleet is far more t important than the damage which the n Japanese did to the United States c battle line at Pearl Harbour. It is d possible that we now hold supremacy a in aircraft-carrier strength in the j o Pacific.” t The “Tribune” continues: “It is un- ! p likely that an advance will be made » over the long peripheral road by way h of Australia and the Netherlands t East Indies. Rather will it be upon 1 11 the Japanese centre, striking direct at the home factories and training fields, which are the sources of Japan’s air strength.”—P.A. U.S. MERCHANTMAN TORPEDOED C — Y Montreal, June 10. v It is officially announced that a Y United States merchantman was tor- d pedoed and sunk off the west coast, i One seaman was lost through ex-1F posure; he was in the sea for 33 1 hours. This was the first torpedoing t of an American vessel off the Pacific 1 1 Coast since December.—P.A. 'c