CHOICE FOR JAPS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 78, 24 November 1943, Page 2

CHOICE FOR JAPS

NAVAL CLASH OR LOSS OF GILBERT ISLANDS

VIEW OF U.S. OBSERVER (Rec. 12.20 p.m.) New York, Nov. 23. The Japanese must choose between a major naval clash with the United States Pacific Fleet or losing the Gilbert Islands in the central Pacific, say American military observers. Without naval support enemy garrisons on Tarawa, Makin and Abemama cannot hold out against the powerful United States forces. A Japanese communique says: “Severe fighting is in progress particularly on Tarawa.” The Japanese also claim that their air forces operating in support of the defenders of the Gilbert Islands have since Friday sunk an Allied medium aircraft-carrier, destroyed or damaged three aircraft-carriers, a battleship and a transport and shot down 125 planes. They claim only 15 Japanese planes have been lost.

The “New York Times” Pearl Harbour correspondent expects Makin will fall first and says other landings may be made on Japanese-held islands, probably Nauru and Ocean Islands. From Tarawa, Nauru is 450 miles south-west and Ocean 300 miles south-west. Future plans are obviously being kept secret, but there is no question of the effect of current operations on Truk, the Carolines, and other Japanese bases against which our superior air and sea forces can move when the Gilbert positions are assured. TEST FOR JAPANESE Major Fielding Elliot writing in the New York “Herald-Tribune,” says: “The Makin, Tarawa and Abemama landings are a test of Japanese sea and air strength. No Pacific atoll can contain a garrison which unaided would be able to hold out against the terrific power of a modern amphibious striking force. What is really important is the test of Japanese ability to hold the central Pacific at all. Many observers believe their air power is so thinly spread and depleted by heavy losses in the South and South-West Pacific that it is unequal to the task. Therefore the Japanese must now choose between loss of the Central Pacific or throwing their battle fleet in in an attempt to restore the situation.”

The “New York Times” says a major sea battle appears contrary to Japanese strategy. “The Japanese regard their navy primarily as an auxiliary to the army and responsible for the army’s communication lines within the island empire,” adds the paper. “Prospects of the Japanese navy risking defeat in open battle and thereby endangering communications of Japan’s farflung battlefront is more than dim.”

A Pearl Harbour spokesman describes the United States Army forces in the Central Pacific as principally untried troops not hardened and toughened by long training. Abemama, where the latest landings have been made, is 12 miles by five. A lagoon has entrance for vessels up to 500 tons, and there is good anchorage. Before the war the atoll had a trading station and a Roman Catholic mission school.