WEAK POSITION

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVI, Issue 23029, 21 October 1944, Page 5

WEAK POSITION

Reason For Choice Of Leyte By Telegraph —N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright <ll.O D.m.) WASHINGTON, Oct. 20. The Washington correspondent of the "New York Times” says that Leyte is believed to be one of the weakest Japanese positions in the Philippines. Certainly it is less strongly held than Luzon and Mindanao. ' Observers suggested that Genefal MacArthur could seize a beachhead on Leyte at minimum cost, establish airlieids to harass nearby enemy posit.ons and then fan out, expanding his holdings, Furthermore, Leyte is reported to be the centre or guerrilla activity, and consequently it is reasonaole to assume that we may expect underground assistance there. Navy sources recently indicated that when General MacArtnur entered the inuippines he would be backed by a neet sufficiently large to ensure complete success. The correspondent of the “New York Times” at General MacArthur’s Head- < aarterc says that when General MacArthur goes ashore on the next operai. he will command one of the most < ‘aborate and best trained military precision machines in me world, one j. unique in the history of warfare. it will oe a flexible, hard-hitting force, one which has been meticulously developed irom daring experimentation, in which he learned to streamline his c.vn special type of amphibious operation —iong jumps across tropic waters, preceded by heavy air blows, followed by landings in jungle country, where every facility is lacking. The backbone of the torce is the careful training and long experience of staffs and men in the held, ranging irom hydrography and meteorology to me operation of bulldozers and concrete mixers. These men already have made seven landings this year. Tney have learned to conduct manoeuvres with machine exactitude, setting a pattern which is sadly familiar to the enemy, who is completely unable to find an answer to it. The most important element of the advances has been the co-operation between the Army, Navy and Air Force, who completely rely on each other. At the same time, success could not be achieved without special equipment h& landing-ship tanks, 047 planes, amphibious tames or buffaloes, and rocketships, which have become one of our most terrible weapons to Japanese beachheads.

Resurgence of Power Tile correspondent of the "New York Times,” Hanson Baldwin, says that the operations against the Philippines are intended to neutralise and eventually conquer Japanese bases, enabling further steps to Formosa, the Ryukyus, the Asiatic mainland and Japan, without threat to our flank and rear. It Will also enable a progressive reduction in the volume of enemy traffic through the South China Sea from the conquered territories of the Netherlands East Indies, thus tightening the blockade on Japan s military significance, matched by the political significance of the Philippines, whose conquest by the Japanese constituted a severe mow to American political and economic power and prestige in the Far Fast. The American flag again over the Philippines will be the first tangible, physical evidence in the East of Japanese defeat, and the resurgence of United States power, for which reason the political ana psychological repercussions ma; be widespread. The Toklo radio says that a Domei News Agency dispatch from Manila, dated October 20, reported that Japanese forces on Leyte Island were launching tierce counter-attacKs against the invaders, who landed at two points on the island on Thursday. Lncmv infantry, under cover of a smokescreen, commenced landing operations at noon on Tacloban, the north-eastern part of the island. Other infantry forces started landing at 7 p m in the Cabalian area, the southern tip of the island. A United States battleship ran aground at the Bunga Point on Samar island, off the northeastern coast of Leyte. The stern was submerged and the forward section was high aground. Intense Air Activity To-day’s South-west Pacific communique (issued before the special communique confirming the Philippines landing), features intensified Allied air activity in the battle for the Philippines. Aircraft of this command have co-operated with Admiral Chester Nimitzs forces by a record bombardment of the southern part of the islands. The port area of Davao (Mindanao* was hit with more than 100 tons of bombs, causing explosions and fires at docks and among oil stores. Thunderbolts and Lightning fighters, making another of their ibng-range sweeps, sank or severely damaged two ICOO-ton freighters, set fire to several small ships and destroyed a road convoy of IV trucks. Other air operations were hampered by adverse weather, but 50-ton bombing raids were made on oil installations at Balik Papan in Borneo, and airfields on Manado in the Celebes. Loth of tnese targets are of considerable strategic importance in the battle for tile Philippines. Ever since General MacArthur left the Manila Bay fortress of Corregidor in March, 1942, he vowed to return to the Philippines with an American army of liberation. Large numbers of JUlpini guerrillas, led by Americans who have been hiding from the Japanese for two and a-half years, are waiting throughout the Philippines to fight alongside the Allied invasion forces.