Word: palaus
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Dates: during 1944-1944
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...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...
...lives, which are highly regarded in the U.S. if not in Japan. Wherever possible, U.S. strategy has been to by-pass Jap defenses. From air bases on Angaur, Peleliu and Ngesebus, the U.S. can now neutralize not only the 25,000 Japs on Babelthuap, Koror and the other northern Palaus, but also an estimated 100,000 others on once-mighty Truk, Ponape and other Caroline islands...
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...
Three times the Japs counterattacked with their inferior tanks, were thrice thrown back. Peleliu's airfield, best of the five in the Palaus, fell to the determined marines the second day. After three days 5,495 dead Japs were counted. Peleliu was doomed but, like all dug-in Jap positions, it would not come cheap...
...capture of Peleliu and Angaur alone will not secure the anchorage. That is situated off the northern Palaus: 25-mile-long Babelthuap and Koror (where the capital is located). But, said Admiral Nimitz: "We will have a base from which to cover and support General MacArthur's Philippine campaign...