Word: vilas
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...cruiser was part of the first task force to bombard Munda and Vila," he said in an interview soon after his arrival at Harvard. "We also were the first to venture 300 miles north of Guadalcanal...
Some of them tried to escape in barges across Kula Gulf to Vila on Kolombangara Island. PT boats operating in the dark gulf took a heavy toll. The original Jap garrison at Bairoko was estimated at 400 men, probably increased later by troops retreating from Munda, twelve miles south...
...around Vila this week an unknown number of Japs uneasily awaited the next step. U.S. artillery and aircraft menaced them from New Georgia. They were cut off from their big base on Bougainville by U.S. troops which had skipped around Kolombangara to land at Vella Lavella (TIME, Aug. 30). Unless they could be evacuated by sea under the noses of U.S. naval and air forces, their fate was slow death...
...likely that U.S. soldiers will be thrown into an amphibious assault on Vila. Soft, mucky, much-bombed Vila Airfield is of no use to anyone. The Japs there, hemmed in and immobilized, may be left to starve to death. Said a Navy officer: "It may be necessary for us eventually to go in and bury their dead...
...unexpected move bypassed Jap-held Bairoko Harbor, Vila airfield and lesser positions in such jungle islands as Gizo. Vella Lavella was important as bait. The Jap bit. He tried almost immediately to land reinforcements on Vella Lavella and came down in 20-to-30 troop-carrying barges escorted by four destroyers. U.S. warships struck. One Jap destroyer was probably sunk, another damaged and a third hit. Most of the barges were sunk. Although an estimated 300 Japs managed to get ashore, some 1,000 perished...