Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY. FEBRUARY 10, 1944 AN ALL-WAY APPROACH

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 79, 10 February 1944, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY. FEBRUARY 10, 1944 AN ALL-WAY APPROACH

A JAPANESE presentiment that the American naval raid on Paramushiru is a preliminary to invasion may have some foundation. More likely, however—for the present at least—it is a stroke to make the Japanese draw in their horns. The Kurils are Japanese home territory, being a series of some thirty volcanic islands stretching up to near Kamchatka, with Paramushiru as their most northerly base. Until now they have belonged to the Aleutian pattern of approach to Japan proper. Since Kiska and Attu were cleared of the enemy the possibility of a drive from the fog-bound north has come into prominence. Now this zone forms part of the huge arc which extends from Wewak, in New Guinea, through Rabaul and the Marshall Islands to the northern Kurils. Along it the Japanese are being subjected to pressure which suggests that Allied Pacific strategy is taking a wide sweep over this vast ocean.

In view of this integration of strategy it is not very relevant to consider which sphere of operations is primary and which secondary. Admiral Nimitz’s strong thrust into the Japanese mandated territories in the centre certainly gives new perspective to the progress in New Guinea and the Solomons but these fit into the wider pattern as necessary operations. The foothold which has been won in the Marshalls opens up fresh prospects of by-passing tactics being employed to render such strongholds as Jaluit untenable. Kwajalein did not prove as tough as Tawara and the other islands in the Marshall group remaining to Japan are not big enough to have very strong garrisons, though the fixed defences could contain some surprises. They are already under intensive air attack, specific information about the bombing being withheld so as not to give useful information to the Japanese. Estimates of Allied naval strength now operating in the Pacific place it at double that which Japan can muster—a very different tale from the position only a year ago. With the new-style amphibious war on which we have embarked on a large scale the Japanese are constrained to watch out at all points from which fresh thrusts may be launched. It is logical to believe that the Imperial Fleet will not be risked in trying to save the outliers of Japan’s empire but will be husbanded in order to stave off the attack on the mainland. The whittling away of warships, air strength and merchant shipping, which has been going along steadily for a considerable period now, is beginning to have a cumulative effect and the opinion that the Japanese capacity for maintaining its defensive screen is unbalanced seems justified by the latest reactions to new drives. Nippon is apt to be caught on the wrong foot and now must experience the difficulties which gave us such a headache in the early stages; those of being strong at widely separated points at the same time. The Allies well know the immense strain that this places on available forces.

Admiral Nimitz, who. after lying low in his Pearl Harbour headquarters for a long time, has emerged to put a new complexion on the Pacific war, believes that Japan can only be finally defeated from bases in China and not from the sea alone. The Allied objective, he says, is to get ground and air forces into China as soon as possible. Pushing across the Pacific is thus only another big instalment of the complete plan for Japan’s overthrow. As the different

parts of it mature we may expect to sec other blows unleashed in what is designed to'be an all-way approach to her heart.