| Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS by edward C wayne united nations rush reinforcements to far east battle fronts in effort to check spreading of jap attacks nazis again take offensive in afifa NOTE when opinions are expressed in theme columns they are EDITOR those of the news and not necessarily of this newspaper released by western newspaper union 7 a I 1 1111 ak W JI M az v 7 1 v 7 Z this dramatic picture taken of a somewhere in the pacific ocean carrier being circled by a navy dive U S navy offensive patrol plane bomber as it begins its antisubmarine anti submarine duties note in the picture that on both the side and under part of the plane there have been deletions of certain parts and insignia which might give information to the enemy also on the top rigging of the carrier you will notice further deletions for the same reason LUZON epic battle hailed as an epic of warfare that would live in all history the defense oi of bataan peninsula and of the fortresses holding the entrance to manila bay had been diverting large jap forces needed elsewhere than in the philippines the adding to macarthurs Mac Arthurs embattled and smoke begrimed army of a battalion of blue jackets and marines was welcome news and showed that perhaps not all of the men of cavite and Olon had been withdrawn but that they had been given a post of honor with the defenders up on the mariveles mountains they were entrenched and no matter what strength the japs hurled against them they were holding firm on one moonlit I 1 night nighta f a whole regiment of small boats moved down the coast using the same tactics that had hurled the british back on malaya the effort was to get in on mae mac arthurs flank and confuse the defenders at the same time signalling sign alling for an offensive on the central front but the shore defenders and artillery opened up on the jap invaders left scores of them struggling in the water and the few that made shore were quickly mopped up by the filipinos there was apparently at least one japanese warship which managed to run through the eight mile strip of water between the fortresses at the entrance of manila bay one of the united states intrepid torpedo boat skippers piloting his tiny craft at close to 80 miles an nour swept down on her in the moonlight and launched two torpedoes which struck the ship she is believed to have been sunk the attack was carried out diorec directly aly into the glare of the warships searchlights and under the full power of her guns but so skillfully did its skipper maneuver that she was not struck and escaped with all hands to tell the tale WAVELL and reinforcements the statement by general wa wavell vell that great reinforcements were to arrive and calling on the sing singapore acore defenders to defend the city as to bruk was defended was more than a little significant bobruk was the bastion that held out for months despite being surrounded on three sides by axis forces anxious to wipe it out and finally was relieved by the allied winter drive Wavel wavelle ls statement to the singapore army smacked of a situation w which aich might see sufficient reinforcements sent to malaya to do the same thing not only to relieve the garrison but send the japanese on the run again whether this reinforcement was going to be sent to singapore itself or whether a method was to be found of f striking at the japanese rear which might be lightly held was not revealed but either method it was pointed out might work no british commentators felt that the war in the south pacific would be lost utterly if singapore was to fall but the ability to hold the east indies would immeasurably be weakened if this was to happen hence wavelle Wavel ls strong appeal to the cites defenders to hold out at all costs GERMANS not out yet reading endless stories of russian successes in battles on the east front and the continuous hammering back of brommels Rom mels forces in north africa had brought many over optimistic souls to feel that the war was over and that all which remained was some sort of mopping up process the turning of the tide in north africa and the success of german counterattacks counter attacks in the crimea showed that with favorable weather conditions the nazis were still very much to be reckoned with the crimea was a much warmer battlefield than the 40 below zero n northern sectors where the russians undiscouraged by the cold and more adame home 0 such weather were able to hurl the nazis back constantly on a wide front but the minute the weather moderated in the crimea they found themselves more or less up against a stone wall on the british and american forces was falling the brunt of the japanese blitz and its successes on malaya and in the P philippines showed that this was no minor minor war but an effort against powerful antagonists therefore events generally pointed to what washington had assured the people was coming a long and bloody war not to be lightly won though generally speaking the news wa was s not as unfavorable as it might have been there was much less to be cheering about about than there was to be worrying about and the seriousness of the situation was apparently keenly appreciated by all those in power including the president his cabinet and the congress RUBBER keeps coming although tire rationing was apparently here to stay the rubber situation was relieved somewhat when it was announced that shipments from the east indies were continuing t almost a normal pace A glance at the map showed that considerable areas of the dutch east indies were still technically out of the active war ozone zone and the defeat of the japanese armada in the straits halted a jap threat which might li ave ve halted much of the rubber shipping summarily jesse jones secretary of commerce and federal loan administrator was author of the statement that rubber shipments continued to be received he said enough had come in materially teri ally to increase the united states reserve supply for instance since the war started on december 7 he asserted that tons of raw rubber had been received truly a considerably amount he said we are unloading some every day and rubber is being shipped every day brozi the dutch east indies we will F continue to get it as long as we can keep the lanes open and as long as i they can load it some rubber is still coming out of singapore this was even after the city had gone under siege the japs had launched an air attack on soura baya which was the only major javanese port P ort to undergo such a war blow but it was recalled that it would take more than an air blitz to put a huge port like this out of normal action SINK INGS continue heavy the U boat raids on the north atlantic continued heavy with a total of 16 ships attacked of which two escaped and 14 went to the bottom with about an average loss of life since our entrance into the war two navy tankers had been torpedoed the first managing to reach iceland celand under her own power but the second one the neches going down with a reported estimated loss of 56 men with men escaping to fight again the location of the neches torpedoing was not immediately announced by the navy but ship losses had been small in the pacific after after pearl harbor more than equalled equal led two to one by allied sin kings of jap ships there were growing reports of allied naval strength in the pacific showing that increasing numbers of ships were active in those waters and in one case having carried the attack to the japanese held marshall and gilbert islands generally in the australia defense zone with terrific results in this action though 1 no strictly war vessels of nip nippon on were sunk the navy reported several auxiliaries were sunk and damaged which might include tankers transports supply ships used for naval purposes that our forces lost 11 planes but no ships showed that probably one of our aircraft carriers was in the neighborhood and that a vessel of this size was being used in a task force offensive action demonstrated that admiral nimitz was keen on getting even with japan for pearl harbor RUSSIA buying za insurance the russians having fought the germans back considerably past their announced winter line on the northern sectors might be said to be buying insurance against the nazis spring drive some observers including senator tydings in addresses had warned that the germans had some divisions of soldiers that they had been holding out of action just for the spring offensive against russia the red armies were not however believed to be losing anywhere nearly as heavily on the whole front as were the germans so this taste of victory even though temporary was expected to stand them in good stead when the time comes to hang on after may 1 experience of 1940 and 1941 was that the russian winter would not break until about that time to any appreciable degree and at that point the germans might be expected to launch another all out attack the red armies were well into sk province reporting that the germans instead of fighting holding actions were no now hastily moving back to better fortified forti d lines and trying at al all I 1 costs to save as much mat material erial and as many men as possible it was considered probable that the russians would be able before the corning coming of spring to shove the germans at least back to sk thus giving the nazis miles to cover in reaching moscow again a distance that the russians had already fought over twice once going and once coming and which they would defend even more stubbornly than the first time and they would it was pointed out be able this time to get an ever increasing amount of allied aid and not be subject to the same quality of surprise which gave the germans so much advantage the last time the battle lines now being so well drawn it would be imps impossible sible for the nazis to gain much momentum |
