Evening star., 1942-03-15
Shipping Shortage May Delay
Much>Desired Allied Offensive
Adequate Troop Movement Is Held Impossible
at Present; Bold Plan for Allied Fleet
Concentration Abandoned
By Constantine BrOlrn.

The dangers involved would have been
extensive. It would have meant depriv-
ing the North Atlantic of the major part
of the conveying force and perhaps, by
that token, curtailing drastically ship
ments of raw materials and planes to
the British Isles and Russia. AS far as
planes for Britain are concerned. it was
pointed out that Britain today has an
adequate air force to combat any Ger
many attempt at invasion, a task for
which the fleet is secondary to aviation.
The Nazi feet might have come out,
it is true, and roamed the Atlantic. sink
ing everything in sight. 1t might even
nave come close to our shores and bonn
barded the principal cities on the At
lantic seaboard. This would have been
more spectacular, however, than dam
aging.
Would Have Been Difficult.
Coast artillery and aviation would have
made the task of the German fleet diff
ficult, so difficult, in fact, that in some
naval quarters it is doubted that the
NaziS would have riSked their excellent
but few battleships and cruisers for a
demonstrate ton which would have had
moral rather than material effect on
American cities.
1t is possible, and quite likely, that
some of the ships of the United Nations
armada would have been sunk, but in
view of the superiority of the combined
fleets, there seems to be little doubt on
whose side the final victory would have
been.
This plan was projected at a time
when Singapore was no longer useful as
a naval base for the Allies but Dutch
bases were still available. A successful
counteroffensive under conditions which
still prevailed some four weeks ago might
have changed the face of the war alto
gether, but the plan was never seriously
considered 1t was too much like some
war college theme.
At the outset of our war with the Axis,
the British, it is recalled. were anxious
to have us consider the Pacific area as
of secondary Importance. The slogan
was to defeat Hitler first; the japanese
would then collapse of their own weight.
The political strategy of the leaders OF
the United Nations was to hit the prln-
cipal antagonist first. They believed the
defenses of Singapore and the Neither
lands Indies were sufficiently strong to
permit their defenders to fight delaying
action
Under pressure from the Dutch and
Australians, together with complaints
from the American people that the little
brown men were running away with
everything, the strategy was altered
somewhat. The world was told that every
possible assistance was being rushed to
these outposts of the white race.
Offensive Must Wait.
Although political oratory revolved
about an offensive, policy continued to
be defensive and continues to be so, for
we have not yet the men or-what is
more important-the ships to send across
the Atlantic the hundreds Of thousands
of men and millions of tons of equipment
necessary to engage the forces OF the
United Nations in an offensive against
the Nazis.
Instead of taking an unorthodox
chance to win a signal victory, the
nations which are fighting the Axis have
decided to remain on the defensive,
meanwhile streWing their forces over
the whole surface of the globe. We have
a defensive force in the Pacific whose
principal task is to defend Hawaii and
the West Coast. We also have naval
force in the Western Pacific according
to reports from London-whose role is to
protect ships sent to Australia, and it is
doubtful whether the admiral command
ing it would risk battle with an over
whelming Japanese naval force.
When the Japanese think they can
tackle Australia and have decided to cut
all communications between the United
States and the British dominions in the
Southwest Pacific, they will undertake
such an operation with sufficient cruis-
ers and destroyers. They will do it with
a complete fleet at time when they
believe our forces in the North Atlantic
will not venture to attack the Japanese
islands themselves.
American task forces are doing splen-
did job of raiding some of the japanese