Evening star., 1943-10-30
Pacific Drive Soon
May Show Results
By Maj. George Fielding Eliot.

The successful American landing on
Mono Island looks very much like the
beginning of an all-out attack on
Bougainville, the last japanese strong
hold in the Solomons Archipelago. 1t
bears close resemblance, from the
operational point of view, to the pre-
iminary landing on Rendovo Island,
which was the first move in the reduc-
ton of the Japanese positions on New
Georgia; or to the capture of Pantelleria
as preliminary move to the invasion
OF Sicily. 1t reminds us once again, if
we are in any further need of being
reminded, that landing operations can
not be attempted today except under
cover Of close air support from bases
sufficiently near at hand so that short
range fighters can operate efficiently
over the chosen landing points.
Mono Island is comparatively small
(about Ga miles across and like most
OF the Solomons is densely wooded.
With its neighboring islets, it possesses
some very fair anchorages and the
miracles which Army and Marine Corps
ready have wrought in creating air
fields in the unlikeliest places undoubt-
edly can be repeated on Mono. The
slight resistance encountered suggests
that the Japanese no longer have fight
ing strength to waste in defending every
outpost and that they may be concen-
tratirg all their energy for the defense
n Nyil1 10 ryrl..
abandonment of Choisoul Island is a
straw in the same wind.
Bougalnvllle Island may we'll turn out
to be difficult proposition to capture.
1t is big island, just about the size
and shape of Long Island-llO miles
long, 25 miles or more wide The lam
anese can, if they have made up their
MINDS to defend it, make us pay grim
price for 1t. They have Well-developed
air fields and naval bases on Boueain
vile and they can give it strong support
from their main base at Rabaul.
Moreover, they have good reason to
defend Bougainville strongly, for it
forms the last defensive outpost of
Raeaul on the east and when it falls
Rabaul is directly exposed to attack
from the east from the Solomons, AS
1t now is exposed to attack from the
south with the fall of Finschhafen)
ana may soon be exposed to attack from
the west as well from Mandang and
WeWak)
lhlS move toward Bougainville is
indeed only part of a general CAM
palen which seems to have Rabaul as
ltS primary objective. The landing on
Mono is one move in that camnaipn
looking to advancing the eastern arm
OF the plncers on Rabaul, the Austral-
ian advance overland on Madanp in
New Guinea, is another move, looking
to advancing the western arm of those
pincers. The position of Rabaul was
a strong one, while it enioved the no.
Sitlon OF being great supporting CEN
ter for far-fung series of japanese
outpostS IN the Solomon Islands and
IN Eastern New Guinea. This japanese
defensive system would have been COM
plete had the japanese been able to
hold Guadalcanal. and had the Jana
neSe overland expedition to Port
Moresby been crowned with success.
When Guadalcanal fell. and when the
Japanese were driven back across the
owen Stanley Range. the tide turned.
The desperate weeks during which our
Marines clung to their precarious foot
hold around Henderson Field, those
other desperate weeks when Australians
and Americans somehow found the
means to push nOrthWard through New
Guinea jungle and mountain to emerge
on the coast at Buna, were the BEGIN
Rings of the offensive campaign against
Rabaul, which is now moving swiftly
forward to its final act.
The completion of the present moves
on Bougainville on one SIDE. on Ma
dang and Wewak on the other, will
leave Rabaul hopelessly exposed, iso-
lated and directly threatened with con-
Nerelng attacks It's only communica-
tlonS will then be directly BY sea, in
volvlng the use by the japanese of
some OF their dwindling supply of
an-going shipping and affording
further opportunities for our SUBJ
MAJ lies ana aircraft. Inc end NAV
not come Immediately, but that end
Will be made inevitable by the COM
pletion of the preliminary operations.
Further embarrassment seems likely to
be caused the Japanese, in such coun-
termeasures AS they may have in con-
temptation, by attacks launched in
the Central Pacific against the outer
positions in the vast island network
which they hold and which has so
far covered their vital bases and lines
OF communication Of this system.
Truk is the center; and of Truk, Ra-
baul is the covering outpost Just as
Solomons and New Guinea were the
covering outposts of Rabaul. Consid-
ering how the factors of relative air
and naval power are altering in our
favor, it seems probable that from
now on, our Pacific offensive NAV
begin to move at an accelerating rate,
(Copyreht 1913 by New York Tribune, Incl
When WeukIinqs Talk