Word: hollandia
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Landing. The surprise achieved by MacArthur was complete. The large force had feinted toward Palau, then reversed itself at night to steam southward into Hollandia. Other feints had been made toward Madang and Wewak, Jap-held bases in Australian New Guinea, where enemy forces had been concentrated, perhaps in expectation of the attack...
There was little opposition as U.S. and Australian troops, veterans of Salamaua and Buna-Gona, hit the beaches. Jap soldiers at Hollandia, evidently numbering considerably fewer than the 10,000 expected there, dashed into the jungle, leaving uneaten breakfasts. Beachheads were secured as easily at the other two points...
Seizure of Hollandia, with its three excellent airfields which have accommodated as many as 300 Jap planes at a time, means that MacArthur would gain a base 960 miles southeast of the great Jap base at Palau (whose seizure may be necessary before landings can be made in the Philippines) and 1,200 miles southeast of Mindanao, second-biggest island in the Philippines...
...first landing on Dutch territory since the East Indies fell. Hollandia is just over the border in Dutch New Guinea, which comprises the western half of the island of New Guinea...
Significance. The landings at Hollandia were hardly "the Pacific equivalent of the Second Front," as one delirious reporter acclaimed. But the operation was a notable step. Once the bases have been cleared of Japs and put into U.S. operation, they will be invaluable in the long, weary road back to the Philippines...