BATTLE FOR THE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 10 August 1942, Page 2

BATTLE FOR THE

SOLOMONS HIGHEST IMPORTANCE ATTACHED PREPARATIONS WELL KEPT SECRET (Rec. 1.5 5 p.m.) Sydney, This Day. The highest importance is attached here to what the Japanese radio has referred to as the “Battle for the Solomons.” Preparations for the engagement have been the best kept secret of the South-West Pacific war. No indication has yet been given of the size of the forces engaged but it is generally accepted that Australian troops are taking part in the operations. Repossession of the Solomons would smash the eastern end of the 3200 miles arc of enemy bases enveloping northern Australia. The Solomons would then be linked up with the New Hebrides and New Caledonia as “a string of Pacific sentinels for the Allies.”

The establishment of Allied bases in the area would provide striking points against Rabaul. Japanese concentrations in Papua, where the enemy is now believed to have some 20,000 troops in the BunaGona sector, would be imperilled in a sea and land pincers’ movement between Port Moresby and the Solomons. Additionally, it is believed the occupation of the Solomons would provide security for shipping in Australia’s sealanes, since enemy submarines are thought to be based in this area. Japanese forces first landed in the Solomons on 25th January at Kieta, in Bougainville Island. Bases were then established in several of the northern islands of the group. Occupation grew more serious on 19th June, when large enemy forces landed at Guada Canar, further south, where the construction of large airfields was immediately begun, Enemy forces there were increased on 4th July. Guhdal Canar is about 600 miles from Rabaul which was the main target for Allied aircraft. “Interdiction raids, having as the object the making of enemy aerodromes unuseable for a long period. The raids are believed to have been markedly successful.

STRONG RESISTANCE EXPECTED

While no official news has been released, it is anftffpated that Japanese forces in the area attacked (principally bases around Tulagi) would offer strong resistance. Japanese Imperial headquarters announced that units of the Japanese fleet had initiated violent attacks on units of the Anglo-Ameri, can fleet in the Solomons area and that the battle is still in progress. Prominence is given here to the views of a noted American analyst. Major Fielding Eliot, who says: “Tlie attack will hardly stop in the south-eastern Solomons. Merely to seize a few of these islands would be to leave the isolated garrisons exposed to concentrated Japanese attacks under conditions wholly favourable to the enemy. It is therefore quite possible that what we are now seeing is the beginning of a campaign to drive the enemy off the whole area.” This, he says, would relieve all anxiety about a Japanese attack on Australia’s east coast or on New Zealand, and would be the best safeguard for American and Australian communications. It would also render Japanese outposts in the i£arshalls and eastern Carolines untenable and would force a Japanese withdrawal from a very large portion of the central Pacific.—P.A. Special Australian Correspondent.