Evening star., 1944-06-24

miral Spruance's flag in the vicinity
OF Guam and Rota. It looks very much
as though Admiral Spruance had an
tlcipated just some such Japanese re-
action as came on June 18-he was
certainly all ready for 1t, otherwise we
should never have been able to shoot
down 353 Japanese aircraft with a loss
OF only 81 Of our own.
The japanese air attacks were largely
over as major affairs by 1880 noon on
June Is. During the afternoon there
were other attacks, possibly by the few
Japanese planes which succeeded in
landing on Guam and Rota to refuel.
Admiral Spruances next thought was
the carriers from which they had come.
He could not know whether these car
riers were just part of a task force or
whether they were backed up by the
whole Japanese battle fleet. M
He moved westward in the direction
IN which he believed the Japanese ships
to be. BY 10 p.m.," as Mr.. Worden
says, there were no further alarms"
II we assume that the pursuit was
taken up in earnest at 10 pm, on June
Is, what had the japanese been doing
all that time? Milling around" is the
phrase used by Secretary Forrestal, who
sees all the official reports The Japa-
nese admiral was probably waiting to
find out how his aircraft were doing.
His job was probably to close in and
finish of damaged American ships, then
establish himself at Guan-if the air
attack was reasonably successful. He
could hardly have anticipated such utter
destruction OF his attacking force, with
out doing his enemy any damage worth
speaking Of. The reports he received
must have been fragmentary and highly
unsatisfactory. No doubt he waited un-
til we'll after nightfall. Let us say he
Withdrew at 20 knots. Then at pm.
next day-"late in the afternoon"-
when he was definitely located by our
reconnaissance aircraft, he would have
travelled $50 nautical miles If he started
from 400 miles west of Guam, he would
then be 760 miles west OF Guam, or
little over half way from Guam to
Luzon That is where our communique
placed him. Sunset in that area Is
about $50 pm. in mid-June. So our
planes had little time, now that their
target was located. Mr.. Worden says
they took off almost into the setting
sun. They had only couple of hours
OF light left and the trip ahead of them
was at absolute maximum range for
carrier planes" Allowing for half
hour of usable twilight, that means
that the take-offs averaged about
pm. But our flyers were determined
ito try and reach and slow down the
enemy so that fast battleships could
catch them"
They did their best. those Navy air
men. Long after dark came the radio
report two carriers smoking" Then
nothing until hours later the first planes
began coming back. Many ran out of
gas, and had to land on the water.
They had evidently kept on attacking
without much regard for falling gas
gauges. But they did not have enough
time to do the job, and the feet was
delayed for hours while the carriers
turned into the wind to pick up the
planes. The pursuit seems to have
been resumed before sunrise, but by
that time the Japanese must have been
Well away to the westward, seeking
safety in the direction of the channel
between Luzon and Formosa.
What happened after that we do not
know.
Copyright. 1914. the Tribune Coz