Word: truk
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...whatever point the next big blow is pointed, the next objective now is Truk. The Navy may intend to occupy nearby islands like Kusaie and Ponape, by-pass Truk. The Pacific Fleet, supported by island-based fighters and bombers, might be able to neutralize Truk. But one way or another Truk, base for the Jap fleet and a base the U.S. could use, must be canceled...
...raked Jap barge traffic coming down the Pacific islands to Rabaul. Daily they swept over Rabaul's five airfields, flushed as many as 80 Jap Zeros in one day, knocked down as many as 18. Nightly they struck farther: at Kavieng, on New Ireland, a way station between Truk and Rabaul. U.S. carrier-based planes pounded Kavieng's shipping. On New Year's Day they left two cruisers, one destroyer blazing; three days later, they hit two destroyers...
...hint of what may well be Douglas MacArthur's plan to reduce Rabaul, the Jap Southwest Pacific stronghold. The Admiralties lie on Rabaul's western flank. Kavieng, at the top of New Ireland Island, lies 150 miles to Rabaul's north, is a way station from Truk. Allied bases on the Admiralties and New Ireland, combined with bases already established in the Solomons, New Guinea and New Britain, will mean the encirclement of Rabaul. Last week the air-and-sea pincers were pressed from the Solomons, where a 17-months' campaign entered its final, victorious phase...
...German Navy dreamed of basing a fleet on Majuro atoll (north of Mili), and in World War I Admiral Graf von Spee stopped there on his way to the Falklands. Then in 1914 the Japs seized the Marshalls, along with the neighboring Marianas and Carolines, now site of the Truk powerhouse; they remained in possession with League blessing. From then on the Japs knew what to do. The U.S. would have to spend many a man now to undo his works...
Admiral Pownall's forces had still more business. From the Marshalls they headed for Nauru, the British phosphate island seized by the Japs in early 1942. There, Tarawa to Truk, the Jap Pearl Harbor, the American fleet, including battleships, shelled and bombed the enemy's airdrome and shore defenses. The score: ten Jap planes destroyed; two U.S. planes lost, one U.S. destroyer damaged by shore batteries...