World Battlefronts: The Japs Get Ready

For weeks there had been signs that the Japs were building up their land, air and naval strength in the Southwest Pacific.

Last week there was definite evidence:

> Sixty Jap planes (40 of them bombers) plastered Allied-held Oro Bay in New Guinea.

> At Kavieng in New Ireland, 530 miles northeast of Port Moresby, New Guinea, a large naval and merchant fleet was assembled.

> Five Jap destroyers and a cargo ship were spotted steaming toward New Georgia, apparently to reinforce frequently bombed Munda.

> Northwest of Guadalcanal, U.S. airmen intercepted a swarm of 30 to 40 Zeros, evidently headed for Henderson Field.

> In the area northwest of Australia, the Japanese were established on at least eleven different bases; in the northeast, on at least 25.

In the attacks on Oro Bay and Guadalcanal the Japs lost 31 planes. Liberators and Flying Fortresses of MacArthur’s command, in three assaults on Kavieng, sank two Jap cruisers and a destroyer, damaged other warships and merchantmen.

Just how the balance of U.S. and Japanese power in the area stood the official accounts did not say. But the implication of Pacific staff talks, concluded in Washington last week, was that U.S. commanders in the Southwest Pacific want more than they now have, and will need it soon.