The Wilmington morning star., 1943-12-07

Kula Gulf, July 6 Kolombangara,
July 1918; vella Gulf, August 81.
We have made the waters OF the
middle Solomons costly and dan
gerous for the japanese.
1 regret that security does not
permit a breakdown or submarine
action in our theater. This much
I can say without aiding the enc
nv Our underseas forces grow
daily they strike him hard and
often. where it hurts most-in his
military breadbasket. His attenu-
ated supply lines which he must
frsntically guard in his efforts to
pour more men and materials into
his cracking permieter defenses,
provide a 3,000-nile target for us.
I call to witness the exploits of
such submarines as the Wahoo-
which disposed Of whole convoy
OF badly needed japanese supplies.
In the air, our Navy, Marine
and Army pilots. generally out
numbered but never outfought, shot
down more than 1900 enemy
planes of all categories. We can
say with pardonable pride that on
August 6, this year, one American
was worth at least four Japs in
aerial combat.
As our forces grow, we have
been able to send heavier aerial
concentrations into tn skies
against the enemy. The final days
of our unrelenting onslaught
against Munda saw more than two
hundred aircraft bringing our
wrath down upon his head in the
form of high explosives, cannon
fire and machine cunning The Jap
found his own attempts at mass
aerial attack devastating-to h'ra-
self. Witness his rout on April Z,
June Is, and June 30, on when
three days he lost a total of 234
planes.
Early this year the South Pa
c;fic force, which has always been
and remains an integral part of
the United States Pacific t1ec1,
came under the strategical COM
mand of General Douglas MacAr-
thur. Each of US, he in his the
alter, and we IN ours, had long
been aiming at the same ultimate
ob]ectives. Coordination of our eff
forts was nothing new. This unity
OF command was the natural ut
come of our northward progress.
Throughout our entire South Pa
cafic operations, Army bombers
under General MacArthur's COM
n7and played an essential role in
the successes we attained here.
Teamwork has always been of the
highest order.
We have begun a new phase of
the campaign in the waters and
Gu the islands of the Southwestern
Pacific.
Many months of unrelenting la
Dor brought us to this desirable
stage in the conflict. These were
hard months of preparation, made
harder by the fact that we started
from scratch. We went into mar.
bors where little if any docking
facilities existed--and built them.
We cut the turn-around time of
cargo ships carrying vital supplies
from weeks to days. Our magnifi-
cent engineers, Navy Sea bees and
Army units, hewed airfields out of
jungles-and we got planes n o
them in time to stem all enemy
ccunterattacks against our hard
won, new advanced positions.
Sometimes it was touch-a d-go.
Often sheer CUTS, as exemplified
by the Marine flyers who ferried
gasoline drums into Guadalcanal
in unarmed transport planes dur
ing the dark days of October, 1912,
tipped the scales from defeat to
Ultimate victory.
1t is with the deepest gratitude
that I pay tribute to all these
componens Of the South Pacific
force.
Thanks to their labors, we now
have these springboards from,
which our future offensives must
be launched.
This I can promise: We SHALL
have offensives. 1t is not the ma
ture of Americans, Australians, or
New Zealanders to sit idly by wn,le
the enemy overruns their lands.
Nor does anyone of us feel that
he has begun to win until he reach
e3 enemy soil. Taking back what
was ours originally is lust the
start. Each of US has an appoint
f1ent in Tokyo.