BACK FROM CORAL SEA

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 86, Issue 113, 16 May 1942, Page 5

BACK FROM CORAL SEA

AUSTRALIAN’S RETURN “GREATEST NAVAL ACTION , SINCE JLTLAND” Special Aus. Correspondent, N.Z.P.A, (Recd. 12.5 a.m.) Sydney. May 15. Sailors who fought in the ( oral Sea Battle have now landwd at ail Australian port. Some arrived as ’ casualties. Others have been given shore leave. The first intimation that the sailors 2 ashore had been through the ordeal - ol whal | described as "the greatest Y naval action since Jutland" came at u a gathering at a hotel bar, where “ three sailors drank silently and then I broke Ihe stems of the glasses. "What did you do that for?" de- ■ manded the hotelkeeper. p They replied: "You had better go ' away. We arc toasting our shipmates who did not come back.” The significance of Ihe Coral Sea continues to be widely debated, 1 and Ihe Japanese threat to Australia and the American supply line is gen--1 erally admitted 1o be unabated. "The strength of the forces which the Allies hammered in the Solomons and beat back in the Coral Sea." says the Sydney Morning Herald in an editorial, "shows how deeply the Japanese are committed to continuance of their southward drive, with the invasion or immobilisation of Australia as their primary aim. Military neces- . sity would dictate this policy, even if , ! Japan’s ambition and appetite had i I been satisfied by victories and terri- ' tories already won. It is in the New Guinea and' New' Britain area that the most pressing danger lies. There , the enemy has a great and growing force." All commentators emphasise that I the Japanese certainly have been steadily building up their air forces in | the area, and probably their naval 7 forces. Tho struggle for air mastery lover the islands is described as provI ing "protracted, bitter and costly.” Emphasis is also given to the growing ; threat of the Japanese naval forces to "Australia, its oufposts and its supply lines. It must be decisively countered lest the fruits of the Coral Sea victory b<- lost."