North from Australia

The Jap learned last week -- if he did not already know it -- that, until he has taken all the key points in the Philippine Archipelago, he cannot be safe on any of its 7,000-odd isles.

The U.S. Army Air Forces gave him the reminder. From Australia 13 bombers swept north 1,400 miles to the Philippines -- a non-stop jump as long as from Miami to Portland, Me. There they snugged down on hideout fields, proceeded for three days running to whack the Jap with fury and effectiveness. The negligible air opposition they met seemed to indicate that the Japs must have shifted most of their planes from the Philippines to southeastern Asia.

Their mission accomplished with the loss of one Fortress (bombed while grounded for repairs), the bombers pulled out after three days, whisked back to Australia again with a heartening score. They had sunk at least four Jap transports, hit four others. They had rescued 34 refugees from Bataan, including the Filipino air ace, Captain Jesus Villamor. In Davao, on the island of Mindanao, where the Jap had set up a base, they had fired docks, oil stores and warehouses. On Cebu, where the Jap was clawing his way to capture of the island, they had smashed at his troops with guns and fragmentation bombs. They had shot down at least four planes, damaged others, had dropped 220,000 Ib. of bombs. Most gratifying of all, one Flying Fortress flew on toward Manila, bombed Nichols Field, started such a fire at the onetime U.S. air base that the flames could be seen for 75 miles -- far enough to cheer General Jonathan Wainwright's beleaguered garrison on Corregidor.

The foray, a token proof of what air power can do in the southwest Pacific, was led by a seasoned West Pointer who has been flying Army airplanes since 1914. Long-nosed, husky, 51-year-old Brigadier General Ralph Royce and two of his pilots got the D.S.C. for the exploit. Said he: "It was quite a picnic."

In actual damage done, the raid was tactical small potatoes. But it proved that Australia is more than a rear area for attack on the nearby Indies, that it is actually a first-class springboard for slashes into Japan's flank, far up into the South China Sea. It also proved that U.S. airmen and mechanics, given enough equipment, can lance through the Philippine area until the Japs have captured all the airfields in the islands.

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