THE WAR IN REVIEW
THE WAR IN REVIEW ANEW offensive smash, described as the biggest offensive in the war against the Japanese so far, carried Gen. Douglas MacArthur's jungle veterans ashore on the Japanese dominated...
...A coup d'etat in Bolivia threw out the government of President Enrique Penaranda, %nti-Nazi and strong advocate of friendship with the United States...
...The general view was that the immediate results of the attack would make the Arawe airfield available for American air raids on Rabaul and would allow freer use of the water passageway between New Britain and New Guinea, thus putting the Allies in a better position to strike at enemy positions on the northwest coast of New Guinea...
...When AMG officials this week banned a political congress called by the Italian Committee of Liberation, an organization of liberal political groups, the unrest exploded into open protest...
...Judging from the length of time it has taken Lord Louis Mountbatten to organize his forces for the campaign against Burma, they observed that the command for the European invasion would soon have to be functioning if the blow is to be struck next Spring as some predict...
...Most observers believed that the announcement of who was to take command of the big operation against the continent would soon be forthcoming...
...At the extreme southern end of the line, Russian troops smashed into Kherson, the anchor city of the German line in the south...
...The attack was hailed by observers as a splendid example of coordination between air, land, and sea forces...
...His identity, they reasoned, could not be kept secret much longer unless the recent conference of the "Big Three" had not, after all, reached a definite decision as to the opening of the "second front...
...There were definite signs, however, in the United States that Gen...
...Steady pressure from MacArthur's forces in other sections of the Pacific combat zone was yielding good results...
...Allied authorities were also meeting with serious trouble on the political front...
...Although newspaper accounts spoke of the new government as being unfriendly to the United States, Victor Paz Estenssoro, leader of the coup and new Finance Minister, told an interviewer that "the Atlantic Charter and other obligations of Bolivia will be respected and maintained" and the "new government in no case will alter the international situation at the side of the United Nations...
...The Japanese were said to have suffered heavy losses and were under constant air attack from Chinese and American air forces as they attempted to extricate the remnants of their shattered armies...
...Meanwhile, dispatches from Chungking brought good news from another area of combat in the war against the Japanese...
...The development of the new Russian Winter offensive caused another flury of speculation concerning the probable time of an Anglo-American invasion from the West...
...Marshall To Stay...
...Correspondents on the scene reported that fighting this week took more American lives than any of the previous battles in Italy...
...In a letter to AMG officials, the Committee charged that the AMG had become "the tool of neo-fascism" and that its action in barring the meeting violated the pledges of the Moscow conference, in which the Allies agreed that "freedom of speech and of public meeting should be restored in full measure to the Italian people...
...The daring attack, giving American forces a foothold on the island on which is located Rabaul,, the enemy's most vital supply base in the Southwest Pacific, seemed to catch the Japanese completely by surprise...
...The main force, landing at Arawe, completely established its beachhead in less than an hour and subdued opposition in the entire area in less than three...
...Meanwhile, the fighting in Russia again took a turn against the Nazis...
...To the north in the area of Nevel, the Red Army launched a Winter offensive and slashed ahead toward the Latvian border...
...The western jaw of the pincers rested in the Gilbert Islands this week, but there were mounting signs that preparations were underway to move northward to the Marshalls as American bombers continued the steady softening up blows on enemy installations there...
...The Army and Navy Journal and the Army f-nd Navy Register, two leading service publications which frequently reflect authoritative military opinion, declared that recent meetings of Churchill and Roosevelt had apparently brought about a decision to keep Marshall in his present post...
...George Marshall, Army Chief of Staff, would not direct the assault, as nad been previously reported...
...Speculation was based primarily on the presumption that the Teheran conference ha'd established strategy calling for a concerted attack and as a consequence the Red Army would engage in no major offensive until the British and Americans struck from the West...
...Significance Of New Offensive Arawe, from where American troops were driving inland at mid-week, is on the southwest coast of New Britain, 260 miles from Rabaul...
...Reports stated that the new government drew most of its leaders from a political group that has long campaigned against the control of Bolivian mines by three major producing companies...
...It is cut off from the big Japanese base by dense jungle and mountainous terrain, much-of which has never been explored...
...Good News From Chungking In the larger strategic perspective it was seen as the setting in motion of the eastern jaw of the gigantic pincers closing in on Truk, Japan's mighty naval base, the capture of which would break enemy domination of the South Pacific...
...The battle for San Pietro, a small Italian village captured by the Yanks, was one of the "bloodiest, bitterest, and toughest battles of World War II," according to Associated Press dispatches from the battlefront...
...Upheaval In Bolivia Meanwhile, political disturbance rumbled in South America...
...Hanson Baldwin, military expert of the New York Times, who frequently has ac-cess to inside information, also reported Eisenhower as the most likely choice...
...In Italy the Allied drive on Rome was making only slight progress at a great cost of lives and material...
...It was this latter factor which posed a big question concerning the significance of the new drive...
...Dissatisfaction among anti-fascist and anti-monarchist political groups in Italy has been growing steadily since the Allied Military Government (AMG) committed acts indicating a preference for a return of monarchy to Italy...
...When this became known, Benedetto Croce, spokesman for the Committee and well known democratic political leader, asked that the protest be transmitted to President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill...
...The Australians, fighting for control of strategic Huon penninsula in New Guinea, were pushing the Japanese back in bitter hand-to-hand fighting, while American troops driving ahead in Bougainville reported that the enemy had apparently abandoned the whole southern end of the island...
...However, correspondents in that area who are acquainted with the difficult problems of transport and supply through the jungles and mountains, gave other interpretations...
...The strong German counterattacks west of Kiev were reported to have been effectively checked...
...Dwight Eisenhower, commander of Allied forces in the mid-Mediterranean area...
...There were no indications that Anglo-American forces were ready for the invasion...
...Some of the more enthusiastic "military experts" here at home saw it as the beginning of an overland smash at Rabaul...
...The Register reported from "well informed sources" that the supreme command would be placed in the hands of Gen...
...The landing operations, except for heavy casualties among one diversionary force, met with relatively slight losses...
...It was learned that the AMG had acted on orders from higher authority, believed to be the British and American governments...
...What effect the coup would have on the supply of tin which the United States and Great Britain receive from Bolivia's mines was not known...
...Political Trouble In Italy News from European war fronts was not so heartening...
...Douglas MacArthur's jungle veterans ashore on the Japanese dominated island of New Britain to make the biggest military news of the week...
...The enemy was reported to have suffered a "decisive defeat" in the battle for the Chinese "Rice Bowl" in central China...
Vol. 7 • December 1943 • No. 52
