ENEMY’S PROBLEM

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25673, 23 October 1944, Page 5

ENEMY’S PROBLEM

SUPPLY OF GARRISON

WITHDRAWAL TO FORMOSA POSSIBLE (Rec. 9 p.m.) NEW YORK, Oct. 21. The Herald-Tribune’s Washington correspondent says that military experts see the possibility of a Japanese withdrawal from the Philippines to Formosa rather than risk heavy ship losses by establishing another "Toluo Express,’’ similar to that used to supply their forces on Guadalcanar. They point out that the Japanese have no longer enough shipping to send down in the face of the strong concentration of American sea and air power. Officers in Washington are confident that the Japanese fleet is still largely unbalanced. The enemy is fearful of sending his eight to nine battleships to the Philippines area to clear the sea lanes.

Meanwhile experts emphasise the magnitude of the American supply problem in the Philippines. They say that 250,000 ■ troops require 1,500,000 tons of equipment for the landing, including 235,000 tons of combat vehicles, 200,000 tons of ammunition, 200,000 tons of medical supplies. In addition, 332,000 tons must arrive every 30 days. The Pearl Harbour correspondent of ’the New York Times says the destruction wrought on the enqmy by the Pacific fleet in the past few weeks unquestionably badly impaired the Japanese ability to oppose the doublepronged American trans-Pacific advance and may have eliminated enemy air-power almost 100 per cent, in the immediate Philippines area. The unrelenting slashing of enemy shipping throughout the entire Western Pacific has undoubtedly crippled Japanese ability to reinforce and supply the beleagured garrisons in the Philippines, who must fight now without sea and air power. Despite the bright aspects, there is no disposition here to indulge in exultation. The fighting in the Philippines is expected to be as long and bitter as it was on Saipan, Guam and Peleliu, where the enemy also lacked naval and air support.