COSTLY ERRORS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25309, 20 August 1943, Page 5

COSTLY ERRORS

JAPANESE STRATEGY CHANCES LOST IN PACIFIC (Rec. 8 p.m.) NEW YORK, Aug. 19. A high-ranking war plans officer of the Pacific Fleet told the war correspondent of the North American Newspaper Alliance, Mr Ira Wolfert, that the Japanese committed a “mortal error ” when they attacked Hawaii and the Philippines at the outset of the war. He explained that if the Japanese had by-passed the United States possessions entirely they might have gone down the Pacific all the way via Oceania and perhaps taken Australia and New Zealand “while we spent the war fighting isolationists. Then, with these bases consolidated over a period of years, the Japanese could have taken whatever they wanted, including Hawaii,’ and even the Panama canal, and we would have lost the war for ever.” Experienced American naval officers the writer adds, do not understand why the Japanese did not invade Hawaii instead of merely raiding Pearl Harbour. They explain that even if they were unable to hold the island, the Japanese could have wrecked the military installations and made Hawaii useless to the Allied war effort for years. The third error which experts regard as fatal is the Japanese invasion of the Aleutians without sufficient forces to roll on to Alaska.

The correspondent adds that the most costly Japanese error was their overestimation of the element of mobility in aircraft construction. In order to make their aircraft lighter and hence more manoeuvrable, the Japanese added too much magnesium to their alloys, thus making their machines almost as vulnerable as gasoline-soaked papers. A very significant Nature of this error is the Japanese apparent incapacity to change the constructional designs of their aircraft.

Developing the thesis, that Japan is incapable of waging a first-class war. Mr Wolfert says the Pacific campaigns show that the Japanese do not possess road-building gear or ships to carry such heavy equipment to enable them to work and fight effectively in terrain hostile to wheeled vehicles. “We build roads as we fight,” writes Mr Wolfert. “Our bulldozers land with the first waves of troops, and our engineers and construction battalions ride with the infantry against the enemy."