Word: palau
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...Since Sept. 6 when I left Mitscher's flagship, I have watched the Palau and Philippine operations from five big carriers, five destroyers, one cruiser, one tanker. During the strike at Manila Bay I was on the bridge. Suddenly the squawk-box warned: 'Four Jap planes closing in,' and our ships moved into tight anti-aircraft formation. Through our ear-cotton the flash of guns sounded like a mad symphony on kettle drums. A Jap fighter made two strafing passes at our stern and got away with it, but a minute later I watched him dog-fighting...
...Palau. On the ground, where Japs dig in and wait to be rooted out with grenade and bayonet, no such overwhelming combat superiority is possible. Yet more than 10,000 Japs had been killed on Peleliu and Angaur in the southern Palaus. (By last weekend seven other nearby small islands had been occupied, including Ngesebus and Kongauru.) Resistance simmered down to one small pocket on Angaur and "Bloody Nose" Ridge on Peleliu...
Without invading Babelthuap and the other northern Palaus, the U.S. could not immediately use the vast Palau fleet basin. But airfields in the southern Palaus would serve: 1) for bombing the Philippines-if MacArthur invaded the central Philippines instead of Mindanao, Peleliu would be closer to the invasion coast than Morotai; 2) for air patrols which could clamp the northern Palaus in a neutralizing vise. Last week marine flyers based on Peleliu were already strafing and bombing Babelthuap...
...hell on Palau for his ist Regiment-as hot a hell as Chesty has ever stepped into. Some 60% of his unit were casualties...
Present History. Meanwhile at Angaur Island, southernmost of the Palau group, the 81st Army Division proceeded to clean up lastman resistance-the mopping-up which always costs U.S. casualties-and to count its score of victory: 975 dead Japs...