Road Open--Men at Work

The Japanese homeland has been left "wide open" by U.S. victories in the air, on the sea and on land in the western Pacific, said Vice Admiral Marc A. Mitscher last week, when he returned to California for a 30-day leave. Gnomish "Pete" Mitscher, dried and puckered by wind and sun, brought back the staff which had helped him plan and execute a historic cleanup of Jap ships, planes and fighting men. In nine months (Jan. 29 to Oct. 27), his fast carrier task forces of the Pacific Fleet -- operating part of the time as Task Force 58 -- had:

P: Sunk 88 warships (including at least five carriers), probably sunk 25, damaged 89 -- total, 202.

P: Sunk 282 merchant craft, probably sunk 78, damaged 233 -- total, 593.

P: Shot down 2,568 aircraft, destroyed 1,857 aground -- total, 4,425.

Part of this achievement was in the resounding Second Battle of the Philippine Sea, just ended, in which Mitscher-men had shared with battleships, cruisers, destroyers and PT boats the additional credit for: P: Sinking 24 Jap warships (two battle ships, four carriers, nine cruisers, three flotilla leaders, six destroyers) ; P: Damaging 34 to 37 (seven battleships, ten to 13 cruisers, 17 destroyers).

Length & Breadth. But if the road to Japan had been widened, the portion which U.S. supplies must travel had been lengthened, as hardheaded Admiral Mitscher was quick to point out. The Pacific war, said he, must slow down now, not because of defeats, but because of victories which have moved U.S. bases forward by thousands of miles. In his best professorial manner Mitscher soundly lectured: Americans have no idea of the effort consumed in getting food, ammunition and other supplies to the islands of the Pacific--it means a lot more shipping than is available now. "We'll just have to cut a couple extra holes in our belt."

But Airman Mitscher was sure that the war in the western Pacific would not stop, and as he spoke, the jittery Japs got proof: four-engined bombers which they identified as B-29 Superfortresses droned in ones & twos over the Tokyo area. They dropped no bombs, and eventually the Japs figured it out: the big planes were on reconnaissance, looking--among other things--for crippled Jap ships in Yokosuka navy yard, where they might have fled from Mitscher's flyers a week earlier.

The Japs' home air forces, staging in the Bonins, turned on a flurry of attack, bombed new U.S. airfields on Saipan and Tinian in the Marianas. But this preventive did not prevent another scare: three days later the U.S. reconnaissance planes were back over Tokyo. The Japs, who had been panicked by Jimmy Doolittle's token raid in 1942, were in a dither again, even before the first B-29 raid on Tokyo had been staged.

Third Dimension. The Japs' aerial slaps at the Marianas took few casualties and did little damage. But it was clear that the enemy was making a determined drive to capitalize on his front-line land planes now that his front-line ships and carrier planes had been crippled. He did some bomb damage (unspecified in U.S. communiques) to U.S. ships off Leyte.

But the Third Fleet's carriers, under Mitscher's substitute, slashed back, damage or no damage. Over Luzon as this week opened they sent 300 planes (by enemy count), which left a heavy cruiser sinking, damaged a light cruiser, three cans and several cargo ships. They destroyed 191 planes in the air and aground, and hammered at airfield facilities. The Japs' aerial counteroffensive was up against it.

If the U.S. still had a difficult job ahead along the road to Tokyo, as Mitscher said, Japan had an impossible task in trying to keep the road closed.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.