Evening star., 1942-11-18
What Next in the Pacific?


road from Rosslyn to Leesburg.
What Next in the Pacific?
The great naval victory in the
Southern Solomons raises highly in
teresting possibilities concerning the
land fighting on both Guadalcanal
and New Guinea. There seems to be
good prospect of clearing the enemy
from both those disputed areas be-
fore the japanese can regroup their
shattered forces and stage another
offensive
Navy spokesmen assure us not only
that the waters around Guadalcanal
are dominated by our ships and
planes but also that the next local
task will be to clear the island itself
of the japanese. Apparently little
if any aid reached the enemy garri-
son there from the four beached
supply ships destroyed by our bomb
ers, and they had been virtually cut
off from reinforcements since the
previous japanese repulse last month.
Considering the hard land fighting
that has occurred in that interval,
those isolated forces should be run
ming short of munitions and food,
while our communications have
functioned continuously. Much hard
fighting doubtless lies ahead of our
marines and soldiers before the
foes lurking in Guadalcanal's ex-
tensive jungles and mountains are
entirely exterminated Nevertheless,
given enough men and equipment,
the job probably can be done during
the breathing space that lies before
us.
Equally promising is the situation
on New Guinea. The combined Aus
tralian and American offensive is
steadily crowding the Japanese back
on their beachhead at Buna from two
sides. At one point, the Allied
offensive is reported to be within
long-range cannon shot of the town.
Our air supremacy is so decisive that,
for weeks every japanese attempt to
supply and reinforce their troops by
sea has been thwarted; so here, as on
Guadalcanal, the Nipponese garrison
should be suffering from critical
shortages of every kind. 1t is highly
significant that General Douglas
Macarthur, supreme commander of
the Allied land forces, has moved his
headquarters from Australia to New
Guinea. He would hardly have done
this unless the operations there were
reaching decisive phase.
Indeed, this move may betoken
something more than the expulsion
of the Japanese from Buna. The
great japanese offensive against
Gualdalcanal included a big convoy
of transports loaded to the gunwale"
with troops. Those sunken trans
ports sucked down to their deaths a
possible $4,000 or 10000 soldiers
presumably picked jungle fighters for
the anticipated cleanup in the
Southern Solomons That should
have been the cream of the japanese
land forces concentrated on their
main bases at Kieta in the Northern
Solomons and Rabaul on New Britain
Island. It is we'll within the bounds
of possibility that we soon may wit
ness an Allied counteroffensive aimed
at those seats of Japanese power in
the South Pacific before the enemy
can rush reinforcements to fill the
gaps in their depleted forces. Such
an operation could operate under
umbrellas of land-based planes, the
vital prerequisite for sea borne ex-
peditionary forces without prohibi-
tive losses
Of course, this is mere speculation
Yet we may rest assured that, if
feasible, the attempt will be made.
General Macarthur is known to be
offensive minded, while in Admiral
Halsey we obviously possess a seaman
who has what the British call the
Nelson touch" And one of Lord Mel
sons best-known orders was: If
they won't come out, 60 in and get
em!"