Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS by edward C wayne merchant vessel losses in atlantic cause shortage of shipping crews india dissatisfied with cripps plan observers ponder new jap strategy NOTE when opinions at bvrd sV rd in theme are those of be mews analyst and n nee irl y of n released by western newspaper News union 4 pg J 0 v 71 pictured somewhere in australia pacific naval chiefs of tho the united nations athons discuss mutual war problems left to right vice admiral herbert F leary in com command manI of allied naval forces in the anzac area vice admiral sir guy royle chief of the naval staff and commodore parry idof calef of tho the new zealand naval staff BATAAN defense vigorous most serious attack against gen eral Wain wrights bataan defense had been launched in the form of a land attack ordered by general whose men had ic remained quiescent altogether too long to satisfy tokyo who soon might have ordered another hara kirl to bo be carried out but the japs found that tho the men who had served macarthur so wen well were the some same ones working under general wainwright who proceeded to make a quick shift in his front to get reinforcements to the be league longue red spot and to meet the japs with the bayonet so vigorous was the hand to hand fighting that japanese dead had littered the battlefront but the american une line had held firm and was not reported pierced at any point wainwright had admitted to the loss of a few advance positions that was all WAR AT SEA whittling away the german U boats perhaps with some italians working with them were the only sea force of the axis which was causing any lasting concern to the allies as the japanese fleet was rapidly and constantly being whittled down to american can size while our fleet was growing larger by about two warships dally daily best news was the navys announcement that a total of 28 axis submarines have been sunk by U S military and naval forces up to april 1 the japanese air fleets were suffering losses of five to one pearl harbor was already twice avenged in ship and plane piano losses and the general outlook of the battle against the nipponese was more favorable looking as time went on despite the map showing of conquered territories tories the U bonts boats were continuing their ratio of sin kings along the atlantic coast for a wide area but some hopes had been expressed that the loss of the port of saint nazarre might be a costly blow to the nazis and that the arrest of a spy ring in brazil might make it more difficult for the U boat skippers to find targets the sin kings by U boats still was not exceeding our commissioning of new merchant vessels but it was making it constantly more difficult to get skippers and crews congress had before it a bill to award sailors hero medals for bravery at sea in torpe doings of the same type as those awarded to navy heroes while many seamen were brave enough in newspaper interviews it was getting increasingly hard to man ships with survivors of torpe doings and the shortage created by those who had died at sea had to be filled by now new trainees for the most part it was one of the worst war bottlenecks and the army and navy were combining in a coastal patrol to which small boats were to be added in on effort to sweep the subs out of Ameri americal cai shore lanes one plan brought forward was to haul oil and sugar up the east coast by the inland waterway in boats of 80 to tons and in shallow draft barges this traffic could be carried out safely and profitably surveys had showed LABOR both the american Americ nn federation of labor and the CIO had sent me messages to general macarthur in complete support of his command there and this was held in most circles to mean general support for the war effort in the meantime tho the senate had backed up the administrations antagonism to tampering with the 40 hour week law and it seemed that this effort to take away from labor Us chief gain since the last war was doomed to defeat JAPANESE plans plaits obscure tho the certainty felt by germany that tho the japs were going to move into india with their major offensive instead of australia gave rise more and more to a feeling that perhaps the landing of substantial reinforcements in the down under continent may have given tho the japs pause at that it was certain that the japs were having more success in burma than they were around australia and the view was held that perhaps the japanese might keep a token force north of australia and a considerable naval power there to immobilize the americans and aussien Aus sies at the same time these observers had held the japs might turn their attention to india and profiting by the difficult efforts britain had bad had to line up the hindus on their side in the forthcoming battle sweep in with their military and win their way to the persian gulf chief drawback to this view was the fact that the japs were said to have only half a million sold soldiers lers in the entire southwest pacific perhaps enough to attempt an invasion of population scarce australia but surely not enough to spread out through a country populated with people unless the hindus were more than passively opposed to the british unless they were willing to welcome the jap invaders with open arms it would be a hopeless task to attempt occupation of the whole subcontinent any more than the japs had been able to do anything in china with far more troops therefore many took still a third view that neither australia nor india was the prime objective of the japs but siberia to open a new front against the russians in the first place and simply to hold and attempt to develop the east indian resources of oil and rubber while doing their real fighting back of Manchu kuo if either cither of these objectives however were carried out instead of the occupation of australia it was pointed out that it would play into the hands of australians and americans whose ultimate objective was an offensive against this the japs not merely holding their own INDIA D dissatisfaction whether india was finally to accede to britaina Brit ains wishes or not it still had been evident that the rank and file of the indian people had been vastly disappointed with the mission of sir stafford cripps and the message he brought them virtually they pointed out it was the same as that offered them back at the beginning of the war with the sole difference that britain was committing I 1 to the giving of india of some form of dominion status while heretofore britain had merely said she would talk it over after the war it apparently so much that the hindus wanted their freedom now but it was that they want to be put into the position of having to fight for their freedom under the direction of the british and as a vassal state the indian lenders leaders wanted britain to give thorn them the right to organize finance and carry out their own defense with the aid of britain and the other allied nations to this sir stafford cripps had indicated he had no power to accede gandhi and nehru both abeln being quoted as saying they hoped for a settlement and other leaders joining them in this hope hobe back of it all was the hindu desire to carry out a passive resistance to the japs figuring on their own enormous numbers and their dark and devious ways of doing things to beat the japs rather than to attempt the seemingly hopeless task of organizing the country militarily for a battle with planes tanj and guns OFFENSIVE expect drive lit in two Dirc directions etious londona Lon dons listening posts on the european continent apparently hod had been able to confirm that aerman germanas germanys Germ anys ys spring offensive was as had been thought to bo be directed against russin russia with new divisions many of the them fro from c conquered 0 n bcd or an bleie ed cou countries n t at the same time tho the clamor had been renewed in england for a spring offensive on the part of britain that would include a major land offensive as well as the air blitz which already had got under way A new front in europe europ e had been urged right along in many quarters and now lord beaverbrook Beaver brook himself had broken with churchill at least to that extent and from miami flat fla t had joined the ranks of those who believed the time had come for britaina Brit ains 1 large arge land army to break out of the islands and go across to some occupied coun country and start for berlin victory in 1942 was the slogan of those who believed the time was ripe to strike ashore as well as in the air and they pointed out that russia had fighting men on tho the eastern front against hillers Hit lers 4 even with the new divisions and that a new front on the west would spell ruin to adolf even the bulgara Bul gars traditional blood relatives and friends of the russians had been forced to contribute men to the now new getman german armies the reports had it italy instead of sending g a million men as had been demanded by berlin had sent half this numb number or and had biad tried to get out of that it had been reported the italian losses on the east cost front lost last winter had been frightful the direction of the probably offensive was seen as twofold two fold one major series of drives to be headed toward the crimea and the territory south of the donets basin the other major objective was to be the far north the port of mur mansk through which most of the american and british lease lend aid had been going BURMA air power gorte gone once again the british according to their own reports had found themselves on a fairly major battlefront with no air support at all the japs the british wired to new delhi have complete control in the air the chinese under general stillwell an american and the british 1 3 IT A M 7 10 GENERAL STILLWELL fighting a divided front and indian forces had divided the burmese front between them and were fighting a brave though apparently patently ly losing battle against combined japs and burmese the latter having gone over to the nipponese soon after the invasion started the british themselves unable to arm the indians to defend their homeland had found the japs in no such difficulty when it came to giving arms to natives willing to join their fighting forces thus the defenders were finding themselves battling as they did in malaya with a force well equipped with native guides and native fighters in the anomalous position of defending burma from the burmese as well as the japs |