SOFTENING UP

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 276, 22 November 1943, Page 5

SOFTENING UP

ENEMY-HELD ISLANDS IN PACIFIC W—MORE RAIDS BY U.S. BOMBERS IBy Telegraph—>re»B Association—Copyright, Recd. 7 p.m. Washington, Nov. 20. American bombers on Friday carried their offensive against the Japa-nese-held Gilbert and Marshall Islands into the seventh successive day, says Tokio radio. rive new attacks on Wednesday and Thursday nave oeen announefea uy ■ Aunurat Nimitz. carrier-based <)ianes I also dropped 90 tons of bombs on jxMauru isxand, west of the Gilberts. 1 This continued oiiensive suggests a soiiening up oi ciiemy»isianu uastions I preparatory to a lutare Allied invaision. The latest raids announced by Admiral Nimitz were: carrier-based planes raided Betio isxand., in the Tarawa group of the Gilberts, start-; ing large fires. Land-based Liberators | struck at barracks, an aerodrome, i runways and oil dumps on Milli atoll, I one oi the most southerly of the Marshall group. Liberators also bombed the Malodai seaplane base,' just to the north. Other Liberators’ raided Milli and Tarawa. Carrierbased planes made the Thursday raid on Naurtj, causing fires on aerodromes, destroying Several grounded planes, and setting fire to a ship. Tokio radio says the latest Allied air attack, mads on Friday, was on the Gilberts. Raids on central Pacific enemy-held islands announced earlier last week included two heavy attacks on Jaliut, in the Marshalls, and another attack on Tarawa, in the Gilberts.

ALLIED FORCES

WEST OF SOLOMONS LACKING IN STRENGTH 1 Reed. 6 p.m. New York, Nov. 19. A thorough survey of the Pacific west of the Solomons clearly demonstrates that the Allied forces lack the strength for a major thrust, says the New York Daily News correspondent, Jack Tureott, in a dispatch from the South-west Pacific. This may be a deliberate policy of London and Washington, intended to save soldiers and planes for other areas, says the correspondent, but the publicity campaign in the United States proclaiming that the Pacific is now armed with half of America's power has certain sinister implications. Mr. Tureott' asserts that he flew across the Pacific twice in the last seven weeks and observed the impressive American strength at several of the oceanic bases which literally dot the Pacific of the Japanese-mandated islands. "Indeed, the United States has thousands of combat planes and hundreds of thousands of soldiers in the Pacific,” he said, “but the most sizeable portion of them defend places which are becoming more and more remote from the active combat zones.

“The strong installations in the Fijis, Samoa, Hawaii, and the Aleutians are naturally gratifying for Americans, but they all are not available to General MacArthur, though he commands the only Pacific army zone where lighting is in progress. “General MacArthur is even unable to requisition Admiral Halsey's fleet from the the Solomons, New Hebrides, and New Caledonia, though Washington, which apparently desires to leave a contrary impression, blared forth the announcement that Admiral Halsey was under General MacArthur’s command.”

Mr. Turcott concludes by stating: "General MacArthur's position is neither- fish nor fowl, as United States officialdom restricts him from anything except minor campaigns. If he commanded everything in the Pacific, including the hundreds of thousands of Americans who have never seen and probably never will see action, he could redeem the Philippines within a year and then go on to defeat Japan. DESTROYER-TRANSPORT LOST Recd. 8 p.m. Washington, Nov. 20. The Navy Department announced the loss of the destroyer-transport McKeen as a result of an enemy aircraft attack off Bougainville on November 17. A destroyer-transport is a heavily-armed transport ship.