SQUEEZING JAPAN

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 24877, 26 April 1944, Page 6

SQUEEZING JAPAN

ALLIES IN PACIFIC .'NAVAL ACHIEVEMENTS SUBMARINES' BIG ROLE ißy Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright WASHINGTON, April '2! Admiral E. J. King, Commander-in-Chief of the United States Navy, said the war situation was desperate for the Japanese and Germans. In reviewing the progress of the war from Pearl Harbour to the present, he said: ''The encirclement of Germany is in sight, and the Pacific situation is as dark and threatening to Japan as it. is full of promise for the Allies.''' He pointed out that naval victories in the Pacific were completely reversing American numerical inferiority at the outset of the war, and were greatly aided by American and Allied submarines, ,particularly British. Canadian and Dutch, "which are now pounding enemy shipping to such an extent that submersible® alone may determine the course of the Pacific war.' Fate of Philippines Admiral King emphasised that, contrary to popular supposition, the Philippines could not have been saved even if there had been no losses at Pearl Harbour, because such an undertaking at .that time would have been disastrous for the American Navy, considering its available means. The United States now had 20 battleships in service, not counting the super-dreadnoughts Wisconsin and .Missouri, and over 50 carriers. Carrier strength had reached a catastrophical low level in the autumn of 1942, when the Saratoga was the only undamaged United States carrier afloat in the Pacific. _ . Admiral King disclosed that, oi

200,000 tons of Allied shipping in Manila Bay on the day of the Japanese attack, all except one ship escaped. The Santa Cruz battle was a defeat, as the United States forces were compelled to flee after losing the carrier Hornet and the destroyer Porter. Faulty planning, inexperience, unalertness and failures of communication caused defeat in the Savu Sea battle, in which three American cruisers and the Canberra were sunk. These losses temporarily swung to Japan the balance of naval power which they lost at Midway, but fortunately they did not know it and failed to take advantage of their opportunity. Cruiser Leander's Part

" Admiral King said that in February, 1942. a carrier task force moved out to , raid Rabaul, but enemy bombers spotted the Lexington and the attack was not pressed home. Two battles in Kula Gulf in July, 1943, in which the American cruisers St. Louis and Honolulu and the New Zealand cruiser Leander were . damaged, were costly, but removed the threat of enemy naval action which might have jeopardised Allied landings in New Georgia. The invasion of the Marshalls. in _ which four separate groups of carriers took part, was the largest offensive action yet undertaken. He urged that the Navy should never again be permitted to dwindle to its comparative pre-war weakness, and said that United States naval strength was now great enough to roam the seas un- , challenged and pick the spots where . and the times when to strike. "HowA ever," he added, "Japan will not be , directly under attack, as Germany now {'.'is, until the citadel area of the empire island and continental —is under , Allied threat or control."