Word: manila
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...Kimmel had been struck with war's most effective weapon: surprise. His whole mission had been vitally changed. He needed to re-establish the lifeline between the U.S. mainland and Admiral Thomas C. ("Tommy'') Hart's Asiatic Fleet along the line Honolulu-Midway-Wake-Guam-Manila. But for the moment his mission was mainly defensive. It was almost as thoroughly defensive as the mission of Lieut. General Walter C. Short, commander of Honolulu's Army defenses, who also fell victim to surprise, but who could probably blame it on the extraordinary inadequacy of U.S. Naval...
Spear & Shaft. The spearpoint of U.S. Naval effort in the Pacific is the Asiatic Fleet based on Manila. The shaft of the spear is the line between the Philippines and Honolulu. The fist that wields the spear is Admiral Kimmel's fleet, based among the naval shops and the complicated waterways of Pearl Harbor. As long as the Navy could maintain this base, the spear could strike where it was aimed in the Far East. So strategists, thinking of the shaft in terms of the supply it must carry, called it the lifeline of the Pacific...
...that carefully planned reconnaissance system failed, few civilians could tell when the blow was struck. But the important thing thereafter was that the lifeline had been cut between Pearl Harbor and Manila. It was even possible that its anchor had lost a great part of its effectiveness as a supply-repair base and reserve fortress for the fleet in the Pacific. And if that were true, the loss would be greater than the loss in warships, immeasurably greater in its implications than the wreckage of planes at Hickam Field...
Target & Tactics. Japan hit Pearl Harbor in order to reduce the striking power of the U.S. Fleet beyond Manila. Japan wants the rich (oil, tin, rubber, etc.) Netherlands East Indies. But the path to the South China Sea is watched by many policemen. Headed southward, Japan will have to pass Manila, with its complement of bombers. She must risk a full-out attack on the Philippine defenses or bypass them...
...news tickers clanged, hammered out seven words: "White House says Japs attack Pearl Harbor." Within a few moments the networks crackled with the news. CBS picked up Honolulu short wave. By 2:30 World News Today, discarding Geneva and Cairo, was ready to bring in Washington, London and Manila...