READY FOR GREAT OFFENSIVE

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XLXII, Issue 15241, 6 January 1943, Page 3

READY FOR GREAT OFFENSIVE

AMERICAN PREPARATIONS PACIFIC WAR ACHIEVEMENTS. HERCULEAN TASK COMPLETED. (Received 12.10 p.m.) United Press Assn. —By Electric Te legr a p h— ( V» py right NEW YORK, Jan. 5. United States aimed forces after fighting a defensive holding war in til© Pacific for a year are now *>. o paring for a great, offensive against Japan, declares Robert Miller, United Press of America correspondent at Guadalcanal. The invasion ot Guadalcanal despite glaring policy mistakes and numerous operational blunders, has placed the United States in a formidable position in the South Pacific. The most amazing scenes in history are taking place preparatory to a huge offensive; miniature Gibraltar's are being made, of islands i previously occupied only by copra planners and natives, great airfields are befug hewed from dense jungles anu immense harbours are being dredged in scores of sections along til© vital line from the United States to Australia. The supply route to Australia. which at first was only a thin thread is now a gigantic highway anchored together by strategic islands to which miliums of tons supplies and hundreds of thousands of thousands of United States troops are massing. The navy in the Pacific showed a wonderful recovery after a disappointing start, the early operations being hindered by a lack of experienced officers. 'Thousands of raw recruits of the United States Air Force carried th© hall during tin' first year and no praise is too great for the air force * which saved our skins at Coral Sea. Midway and the Solomons.’ There is still a crying need for more planes. The greatest accomplishment in the Pacific theatre, unbelievable unless seen, has been th© herculean task of building bases, the men labouring d« v and night in malarial swamps, desolate coral reefs and dense jungle.