Word: kwajaleins
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...Kwajalein, key to the Marshalls, was secure in U.S. hands. The second amphibious attack on Central Pacific atolls had been successful far beyond the first heroic but costly assault on Tarawa and Makin. As they were learning through experience about other phases of war, U.S. forces were improving their amphibious operation. Kwajalein's casualty list was only about half as large as Tarawa...
South Battle. The Army found the going slower on Kwajalein Island, whose strong pockets held out until battleships and bombers were recalled to help the land-based artillery and bazookas. Kwajalein's pillbox-to-pillbox struggle ended after four days, and Corlett's soldiers rushed northward to capture Ebeye with its seaplane base, Loi and Gugegwe...
...capture of Kwajalein tore open the Jap's far-flung outer defense, already punctured at the Gilberts and ruptured in the south. Allied forces pressed against Japan's inner ocean frontier. Now, with the initiative completely in their hands, Allied strategists had to decide: What next...
...Kwajalein, even more than the Gilberts, had shown the capabilities of the now mighty Pacific Fleet. Navy officers had once worried about mooring warships in Pearl Harbor. In a bold and disdainful gesture last week the Navy moored its ships inside Kwajalein's landlocked lagoon, 375 miles from Jap-held Kusaie and less than half that distance from bases which the Japs still occupy in the Marshalls group. The Navy, with its new carrier strength and antiaircraft fire (see p. 65), was no longer nervous about land-based aircraft...
...Kwajalein is only one of several Marshall strongholds. But Kwajalein is in the heart of the group. Some of the other islands can be left to wither. Submarines and aircraft can choke them off and pin them down, render them useless to the enemy and no longer a threat. If it is necessary, U.S. troops can clean out enemy garrisons. Wake to the north and Nauru to the south will also have to be taken or knocked useless by air power...