Nelson Evening Mail FRIDAY. OCTOBER 16. 1942 BID FOR GUADALCANAR

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 16 October 1942, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail FRIDAY. OCTOBER 16. 1942 BID FOR GUADALCANAR

IF Japan’s strategy has been recast to make the South-west Pacific her, main theatre of war the decision is proving expensive Already in the Solomons she has had 52 ships j sunk or damaged and at least! 270 planes shot down. com-j pared with ten American ships I lost and an undisclosed number of planes estimated at a quarter of, Japanese losses. These figures in— j elude last Monday’s bag. one of the j best of the war in any theatre. For; * i this expenditure Japan so far can, ; show little result but the issue is a j long way from settled yet. Ameri-i can reoccupation of some of the' I Solomons stung Japanese vanity and. i also brought the realisation that the outer rim of her Pacific conquests) had been badly dented. In an at- * tempt to remove that dent and win ai more favourable position from which j to harry Allied Pacific supply lines! the Japanese are now committed to a major engagement in the Soloj inons. i At the moment a big naval bat-; tie is in progress there and, for the; first time in these operations, the 1 Japanese are using capital ships, one of which has been damaged. Their immediate objective is to dislodge the strong forces of American ma- j rines, joined now by Army troops,' from the island of Guadalcanal*.; This island, along with the Tulagi Harbour across the strait, is the key; to the whole situation. It is rugged, and heavily forested except on the' northern coastline where there is! flat land clothed with bamboo and; j other tropical shrubby grass. Dur- ! ling their occupation the Japanese, cleared ground near Koli for an i aerodrome which was practically! completed when the Americans cap-, tured.it, naming it the Henderson! airfield. Much depends on the re- j tention of that aerodrome, the only! one in this region suitable for land-; based planes. American airmen are J so far tipping the scale in the Solo-; mons mainly because they have such a handy base from which to operate. The Japanese hold positions on the eastern and western ends of the is- . land. These they have succeeded in reinforcing in spite of losses. They hope to build up their strength sufficiently to be able to advance: against Henderson airfield and final-j ly clear the Americans off Guadalcanal-. Persistence in this design has led to the air and naval clashes which, off and on. have been proceeding all this week. Monday’s midnight bag was collected in 30 minutes off the small island of Savo

north of the western tip of Guadal- j 1 canar* It was here that the Japa-J. nese caught the American cruisers): and the Canberra in the August bat-i tie and here again that the enemy j are now making another determined] bid to reinforce their troops on the i western end of Guadalcanal*. | There the issue stands for the pre-j sent. Operations are in charge of the * United States Navy and Admiral Ni-| mitz, who was on Guadalcanar a fort-) night ago, is confident that his forces ] there are strong enough in men, ships, planes and equipment to hold on and gradually enlarge their gains. The enemy on the other hand must feel there is a good chance of throwing the Americans out of the island or they would not persist in face of such losses. Most of their reinforce-! ing has been done by night landings) which the Americans now appear to be breaking up. No one in Australia or New Zealand will under-estimate the importance of the battle now raging. The Solomons are a shield for us and for the islands north of New Zealand as - well as a screen for Pacific sea lanes. Our American allies are now fighting: all they know to stop this shield be- | ing pierced. Some Australians are | with them and our own New Zealand' | airmen have gone to help.