Word: airfield
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...handful of U.S. planes and pilots. As the Japanese have spread their land forces all over Asia, Chiang's armies have swept back with the tide. Last week they had thrown the Japs back in Chekiang province, were closing in on the last "bomb Tokyo" airfield in the province...
...forces that had taken over the South Seas island were in a hurry. An airfield had to be built and there was a lot of work to do. Native labor on the island was short. So Captain Martin Teem sent a sergeant of Massachusetts infantry to a nearby island to round up help...
...Solomon Islands 750 Japanese were trapped, then "massacred" by tanks which ground hundreds of the bodies into the rubble and splinter of a coconut grove. At Milne Bay in New Guinea 120 Japanese were "slaughtered" by U.S. and Australian troops slugging it out for a vital airfield. Far north at Kiska Harbor in the Aleutians, U.S. bombers and escorting fighters flushed land troops and "mowed 'em down like straws." These were actions that the Japanese, fighting just as desperately, could respect. They could also understand the U.S. strategy of kill-or-be-killed...
Work on the bases has already begun. Building an airfield on the rough terrain would be a major engineering job, but there are sheltered coves for seaplanes, good anchorages for ships. The workers and sailors will have to import water; on Albermarle, which has almost no fresh water, the ranchers and cattle hands drink coconut juices, wash in salt water...
...officer stays with every unit commander to tell him what jobs can be done from the air, the best plan of an attack and the number of planes needed. Once this is decided, the armored commander can talk directly by radio and in plain English with the nearest emergency airfield, which should not be more than ten flying minutes away...