To Save Men's Lives

September was the worst month of the war for Japanese aviation. U.S. flyers destroyed more than 1,300 planes -- close to the maximum monthly output credited to Jap factories by the most conservative U.S. authorities.

About 200 planes were credited to pilots from the Mountbatten, MacArthur and Chennault commands, but carrier-based navymen of Vice Admiral Marc A. Mit-scher's task force, from Halsey's Third Fleet, went on a more destructive ram page. In seven carrier raids from Aug. 30 to Sept. 25 (four of them over the Philip pines) 1,101 Jap planes were destroyed. Significantly, Halsey's fourth raid, an nounced last week, was met by only seven Jap planes in the central Philippines. Left on the ground for Marc Mit-scher's pilots to destroy were only 29 others.

There was a good explanation for the carrier men's stealing the show: Jap planes nowadays stay out of range of land-based aircraft; only far-ranging carriers can reach Jap flyers, who have all but abandoned offensive air operations.

Ships Too. As Japan is pushed into her Inner defense citadel, her supply lines become shorter. Navy Under-Secretary Ralph Bard said last fortnight that Japan may even have a shipping surplus now to transport the leavings of her once-great Empire traffic. But not even the shortest supply lines can withstand the loss of about 600 small and large ships which the Empire suffered in September. Most of Japan's losses occurred in the Philip pines, where Mitscher's flyers sank 205 vessels of all sizes, damaged over 200 more.

In these devastating attacks against planes and ships Mitscher's force lost 61 planes to enemy action. Once again it was clear that the U.S.'s vast carrier-borne air power was capable of smothering land-based air defenses.

At Palau. On the ground, where Japs dig in and wait to be rooted out with grenade and bayonet, no such overwhelming combat superiority is possible. Yet more than 10,000 Japs had been killed on Peleliu and Angaur in the southern Palaus. (By last weekend seven other nearby small islands had been occupied, including Ngesebus and Kongauru.) Resistance simmered down to one small pocket on Angaur and "Bloody Nose" Ridge on Peleliu.

Last week the haggard ist Marine Division got some help from fresh units of the 81st Army Division, which landed, pushed through 4.000 yds., then encircled Bloody Nose. Peleliu's collapse was only a matter of time, might come in the typical banzai charge wherein all Japs are killed or kill themselves.

But even before last week's casualties had been counted, Peleliu's hillside caves and mangrove swamps had not come cheap. The marines killed more than 8,000 Japs but lost 981 in killed and missing (against Tarawa's 984), had 3,639 wounded (against Tarawa's 2,072). Percentagewise, the 81st Infantry Division's losses on Angaur were higher. In killing 1,075 Japs, the soldiers had 880 casualties: 106 dead, five missing, 769 wounded.

Palou's Significance. Plainly, meeting entrenched Japs was an operation expensive in human lives, which are highly regarded in the U.S. if not in Japan. Wherever possible, U.S. strategy has been to by-pass Jap defenses. From air bases on Angaur, Peleliu and Ngesebus, the U.S. can now neutralize not only the 25,000 Japs on Babelthuap, Koror and the other northern Palaus, but also an estimated 100,000 others on once-mighty Truk, Ponape and other Caroline islands.

Without invading Babelthuap and the other northern Palaus, the U.S. could not immediately use the vast Palau fleet basin. But airfields in the southern Palaus would serve: 1) for bombing the Philippines--if MacArthur invaded the central Philippines instead of Mindanao, Peleliu would be closer to the invasion coast than Morotai; 2) for air patrols which could clamp the northern Palaus in a neutralizing vise. Last week marine flyers based on Peleliu were already strafing and bombing Babelthuap.

Having attained air superiority over the Japs, the U.S. would use planes wherever possible to save the heavy casualties which are the lot of the man with the rifle.

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