Word: surabaya
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...open to the kind of amphibious warfare-land, sea and air attack-that the U.S. Navy has long discussed. Flanking her southward march on the right is Hong Kong, a better-equipped base than the Philippines' Cavite. Ahead of her lie Singapore, the stout secondary bases at Surabaya, Darwin and Amboina. This week Japan was pecking at some of these places, but she had not yet apparently risked an all-out attack on any. And before she could hope to grab and hold the Indies, she must reduce Singapore...
...Surabaya, Java, for air-raid shelters, recently dug trenches, screened them with bamboo as protection against bomb splinters and flying debris. Last week travelers from Java reported that a few weeks after the shelters were built pleased natives wrote a letter of thanks to the Government. "Thank you very much for the new W.C.s," said the letter. "We have needed them for a long time." Dutch officers hastily inspected the new shelters, found the letter was no joke...
...open spaces around the great naval airfield at Surabaya, Java, are set with bamboo stakes, about waist high, their tops whittled razor-sharp. A visiting journalist recently asked what they were for. The commander of the base explained that they were designed as an unpleasant reception for parachutists, and added: "When Holland first fell and we were very excited we put poison on the tips of all these stakes...
...sharp stakes of Surabaya were just one sign last week of the alertness of The Netherlands East Indies. The islands had new cause to be wary. Another Japanese negotiator was on his way to Batavia ostensibly to talk oil-but the Dutch knew that selling oil to Japan might be a very minor part of the conversations. They recalled what happened to French Indo-China...
Japan's alternative would be a tough one, too-to reduce the flanking bases, while her aircraft, operating from Yap, Palau and other bases in the mandated islands, went to work on Amboina and Surabaya. In 1914, Tsingtao, garrisoned by about 6,000 German troops and wide open to attack, held out against the Japanese and British for more than two months. Better munitioned and better located (on an island) than Tsingtao, Hong Kong is garrisoned by 12,000 crack British troops. Once having silenced Hong Kong, Surabaya and Amboina, the Japanese Fleet might swing around the east side...