Word: kwajaleins
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Dates: during 1943-1943
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...Kwajalein, world's largest atoll, an 80-mile string of islets, is the hub of the Marshall fortifications. It has a major airfield (on Roi Island), a seaplane anchorage, submarine facilities. In its tremendous lagoon, raiding U.S. planes (TIME, Dec. 20), have caught cruisers, carriers, seagoing merchantmen and many varieties of inter-island craft...
...commanders, Rear Admiral Charles A. Pownall, powerful task forces plowed through the night toward atolls 500 miles north and west of the Gilberts. At least four carriers, perhaps more, readied their winged brood. At day break torpedo and dive bombers and Hellcat escorts swarmed from the flattops. Their objectives: Kwajalein and Wotje atolls, the Marshalls' strongest points...
Tensely the task ships waited for word. One hour after the takeoff it came: "Enemy taken by surprise." Kwajalein's roomy lagoon (80 miles long, 20 miles at the widest) was full of shipping: sampans, inter-island craft, seagoing merchantmen, tankers, warships. Said a U.S. pilot: "It was a dive bomber's paradise, and we turned it into a Japanese hell." The score after ten minutes of concentrated attack: two light cruisers, one oiler, three cargo transports sunk; one troop transport, three cargo transports damaged; grounded planes and shore installations hard...