Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1943-01-08
Japanese Can't Stond
Strain Of Ship Losses
Macarthur Blow From Air
May Have Crippled New
Roboul Move at Outset
By Maj. George Fielding Eliot.

By Maj. George Fielding Eliot.
There seems considerable evidence Of
renewal of japanese activities in the
Southwestern Pacific japanese destroy
ers have attempted to land supplies on
Guadalcanal and transport off Short
land Island. In the operation OF Bou-
granville, Is Zero fighters and f1oat-type
biplanes rose to attack our aircraft. Japa-
nese dive-bombers from Munda resioted
a naval bombardment of the airfield
there.
AT Rabaul, a concentration of Japa-
nese shipping was attacked by bombers
of Gen. MacArthur's command with re-
suits reported as the destruction of eight
merchant ships and destroyer tender,
and probable sinking of a destroyer
moored along@ide the tender. The total
tonnage sunk in this operation is es.i-
mated at $4,000, which means that the
nine ships sunk averaged over 5000
tons each, indicating that they were
vessels of considerable size. So many
ships Of such tonnage would hardly be
collected within reach of our bombers
save for some serious purpose.
Thus, both by sea and in the air, the
Japanese are growing active, and we may
expect further signs of activity unless
Gen. MacArthur's blow has crippled the
Japanese operation at the outset. What
the Japanese intentions may be we do
not yet know. They may be merely try
ing to reinforce their garrison at Sana-
nanda Point, or that on Guadalcanal.
They may be engaged in Strengthening
of their positions on Bougainville, New
Georgia and Santa Isabel, and at Rabaul
itself, in anticipation of coming Allied
offenslve-for which the bombardment
of Munda may be preliminary move.
Or they may be intending to make a
real endeavor to retake Guadalcanal and
throw us out of the Solomons alto
gether
One thing is certain, the japanese
cannot go on losing shipping in $4,000
ton lots Indefinitely. This loss repre-
Sents probably about one -eightieth of
their remaining merchant fleet. which
is pretty heavy blow for single action
lasting only few minutes.
1t cannot be too heavily emphasized
that Japanese shipbuildng capacity is
simply not equal to keeping up with such
strains. Working at full blast. it will
take per cent of Japans annual pro-
duction to replace, just the loss of this
one action alone; of course, we do not
do this well every day, but our total
slnkln2S, including the losses inflicted
by our lndefatigable submarines, are well
over the total possible replacement.
Another interesting feature is the re-
ported appearance of Japanese de-
stroyer tender. Available information
does not indicate the possession by the
Japanese of any vessels of this class,
though they have a number of subma-
rlne tenders. This fact suggests that
the original Japanese war plans did
not contemplate the operation of de-
stroyers at great distances from es-
tabllshed bases, since the purpose of de-
Stroyer tenders is to provide routine
maintenance and overhaul facilities for
destroyers operating with fleets in areas
where normal base facilities are not
available
1t is, OF course. possible that the Amer
lean aviators have made a mistake, and
that the ship reported as a DESTROYER
tender is actually just tanker engaged
IN refueling the destroyer. But if the
japanese have really been compelled to
Nf
class, this suggests that the base ia
clllties they have been able to provide
al Rabaul and elsewhere in the South
west Pacific are not of very extensive
usefulness.
Still another point to be noted is the
constant appearance in this and other
communicates of japanese "float-type"
planes. These planes are designed to
alight on and take off from water sur
faces, as distinguished from land-type
planes with wheeled carriages.
In the Japanese Navy, the f1oat-type
planes are operated from seaplane ten
ders, type for which japanese naval
constructors have gone in heavily, no
less than nine large ones (three being
of very recent construction and equipped
with four catapults EACH being reported
in the latest issue of James Fighting
Ships, though there have been some
losses in this class
The continued presence of float-type
seaplanes in japanese operations, despite
the fact that the extra weight of the
floats imposes severe handicap on these
planes as against land-based or carrier
based fighters, gives the impression that
the japanese are compelled to use really
desperate measures in order to have
some sort of mobile air power in the
fighting areas: and is another sign
pointing to present shortage of Japa-
nese aircraft carriers, though this may
be only temporary condition pending
the repair of damaged carriers or the
completion of new ones
Copyright, 1943, New York Tribune Inc).
A Suggestion for Reporters
On Conducting Interviews.
To the Editor of The Star