MORE AIR STRENGTH WANTED

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 78, 10 March 1943, Page 5

MORE AIR STRENGTH WANTED

TO STRIKE SWIFT BLOWS CASE TO BE PUT TO ALLIED LEADERS (Rec. 10.0 a.m.) Canberra, This Day. The Australian Government’s aim was to put to Allied leaders a case for increased air strength in the SouthWest Pacific, which would permit swift and massive blows at the enemy, said the Prime Minister, Mr Curtin, last night. Stressing that such air strength did not yet exist, Mr Curtin said the Bismarck Sea victory was achieved by a brilliant concentration rather than by overwhelming numerical superiority. The total weight of bombs used was 226 tons as against 1,500 tons dropped on Essen in less than 40 minutes.

A cable message from America and Britain indicated an inclination on the part of press commentators that the destruction of the Japanese convoy established the fact that overwhelming air superiority had been established north of Australia. The disclosure of the small forces used, however, put the Bismarck Sea victory in its correct perspective.

When the South-West Pacific Command had at its disposal forces for concentrated bombing like the Essen raid, the task of blasting the Japanese out of their ring of northern bases would become immeasurably easier.—P.A.