US History/US History (Bureau Development Inc.)(1991).ISO/dp/0093/00939.txt

Text File | 1990-12-23 | 12KB | 220 lines

$Unique_ID{USH00939}
$Pretitle{87}
$Title{The War Against Japan
Section III   The Offensive - 1941}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Greenfield, Kent Roberts, General Editor}
$Affiliation{US Army}
$Subject{islands
enemy
island
air
japanese
forces
naval
new
troops
area}
$Volume{CMH Pub 12-1}
$Date{1988}
$Log{Specialized Training*0093901.scf
Waterproof Jeep*0093902.scf
Gun Emplacement*0093903.scf
Enemy Plane*0093904.scf
Tokyo Local*0093905.scf
Questioning the Enemy*0093906.scf
Buffalo*0093907.scf
Water Depot*0093908.scf
}
Book:        The War Against Japan
Author:      Greenfield, Kent Roberts, General Editor
Affiliation: US Army
Volume:      CMH Pub 12-1
Date:        1988

Section III   The Offensive - 1941

     The battle of production and supply, designed to build a foundation to
support unprecedented Allied air and naval power, was won during 1942 and
1943, while Japanese air and naval power greatly diminished.  Hawaii, the most
important naval base in the Pacific, had become a training center and staging
area for U.S. troops as well as one of the many important supply bases.  In
1944, the strategic offensive against Japan began.

     Following the invasion of the Gilberts in late 1943, U.S. forces prepared
for an assault in the western Marshalls, the principal objective being
Kwajalein and Eniwetok Atolls.  According to plans for the assault on the
western Marshalls, a Marine division was to seize the northern half of the
Kwajalein Atoll, principally the islands of Rol and Namur; Army ground forces
units were to capture the southern half of the atoll, including the island of
Kwajalein, and to occupy Majuro Island, one of the finest naval anchorages
west of Pearl Harbor.  Supporting naval and air bombardment and artillery fire
(the artillery had been ferried ashore on the small near-by islands) were
brought to bear on the selected landing beaches of Kwajalein and Roi Islands
of Kwajalein Atoll.  Unopposed landings were made on both islands on 1
February 1944, with slight resistance developing after advance was made
inland.  Six days after the main landings, all the islands of the Kwajalein
Atoll were in U.S. hands and Majuro had been occupied.  On 17 February
landings were made on the islands of Eniwetok Atoll; resistance was wiped out
five days later.  A two-day strike against Truk, 16 and 17 February, was
executed by a large carrier task force to screen the assault of the Eniwetok
Atoll and to test strength of the Japanese base there.

     Although the strong enemy island bases in the eastern Marshalls were
bypassed, the air forces maintained continual attacks on them throughout the
year.  Conquest of the western Marshalls provided air bases and a new forward
fleet base in the Pacific.

     The Mariana Islands, the next objective in the Central Pacific, differ
from the coral atolls of the Marshalls and Gilberts.  The individual islands
are much larger and the distinguishing terrain features are precipitous coast
lines, high hills, and deep ravines.  Plans were made, ships and supplies
collected, and the troops given special training for the invasion; meanwhile
Japanese air and ground reinforcements poured into the Central Pacific.

     An intense air offensive against enemy installations in the Marianas
began on 11 June 1944 and a naval bombardment of Saipan began on the 13th, two
days before the landings on the 15th.  Opposition was heavy at first, but by
the 25th U.S. troops, supported by tanks, heavy artillery, renewed naval
gunfire, and aerial bombardment, drove the enemy from the high ground on the
central part of the island.  Again advances were slow and difficult with heavy
troop losses.  On 9 July the mission was completed, except for mopping-up
operations which continued for nearly two months.  On the morning of 24 July
an attack was made on Tinian, supported by artillery on Saipan.  Enemy
resistance, slight for first two days, increased when high ground was reached
in the central part of the island.  The entire island was overrun by 1 August.
Meanwhile, Guam had been invaded on 21 July by U.S. forces in two separate
landings.  This invasion was preceded by a thirteen-day aerial and naval
softening-up process.  The two beachheads were joined after three days of
fighting.  The troops, greatly hampered by heavy undergrowth, concentrated on
the high ground in the northern part of the island and, except for resistance
from small groups of scattered Japanese, were in command of the island by 10
August.

     A force of nearly 800 ships from the Guadalcanal area sailed for the
Palau Islands, the next hop in the Central Pacific.  Marines landed on Peleliu
Island on 15 September while Army units landed on Angaur on the 17th.  These
were the two southernmost islands of the Palau group.  Opposition on Angaur
was relatively light.  Much stiffer resistance was met on Peleliu, which
contained the site of the major Japanese airfield on the islands.  The troops
succeeded, by 12 October, in pushing the enemy into a small area in the
central hills of Peleliu, but many more weeks were spent destroying the
remaining opposition.

     During the fighting in the southern Palaus, Ulithi Atoll in the western
Carolines was taken to secure a naval anchorage in the western Pacific.  Air
attack against bypassed islands was maintained.  Meanwhile, huge air bases
were being developed in the Marianas for use by B-29 bombers.  On 24 November
B-29's operating from Saipan made the first of a series of attacks on Tokyo.

     Concurrent with the operations in the Marshalls, Marianas, Palaus, and
Carolines, forces of the Southwest Pacific Area moved swiftly along the
northern coast of New Guinea, jumped to Vogelkop Peninsula, and then to
Morotai and on into the Philippines.  The first amphibious advance of 1944 in
this area was made on 2 January at Saidor, to capture the airport there.  The
next major advance was begun early on the morning of 29 February when a
landing was effected on Los Negros in the Admiralty Islands.  The Japanese
sent reinforcements from Manus Island, separated from Los Negros by only 100
yards of water.  Except for isolated groups of enemy troops, Los Negros was
cleared on the 23d and Momote airfield, on the east coast, was ready for
operation.  Manus Island was invaded on 15 March, after the seizure of a few
smaller islands, and an airfield there was captured the next day.  At the end
of April most of the enemy had been cleared from the Admiralties.

     In New Britain the beachheads established in 1943 were expanded.  On 6
March another landing took place on Willaumez Peninsula on the north coast.
This operation, together with the establishment of airfields in the
Admiralties and the occupation of Green and Emirau Islands, completed the
encirclement and neutralization of Rabaul, the once powerful Japanese base.
On 26 November U.S. units left New Britain, the enemy being contained on the
Gazelle Peninsula by the Australians.

     In New Guinea, after the Saidor operation, the enemy organized his
defenses in the coastal area between Wewak and Madang.  Surprise landings by
U.S. troops were made at Aitape and Hollandia, both west of Wewak, on 22
April.  Within five days the airfields at Hollandia and Aitape were in Allied
possession.  In July 1944 the Japanese Army, which had moved up the coast from
Wewak, attacked the Allied perimeter at Aitape.  Within a month the Japanese
had been thrown back toward Wewak.  At the end of the year Australian troops,
which had begun relieving U.S. forces at Aitape in October, started a drive on
Wewak from the west.  While the enemy was bottled up in this area, the Allies
continued to leap-frog up the New Guinea coast.

     On 17 May forces debarked at Arare, 125 miles northwest of Hollandia, and
established a strong beachhead.  Wakde Island, just offshore, was assaulted
the next day and was secured by the 19th.

     Other units assaulted the island of Biak on 27 May to seize additional
air base sites.  Here considerable resistance was met and the island with its
airfields was not secured until August.  Noemfoor Island, where three
airfields were located, was invaded on 2 July by troops which landed at points
where reefs made invasion hazardous.  The Noemfoor airstrips were captured by
night of the 6th.  The last landing on New Guinea was an unopposed one made on
30 July in the Cape Sansapor area, on the northwestern coast of the Vogelkop
Peninsula.  The Japanese in New Guinea had been eliminated from the war.

     Another air base site on the southern tip of Morotai Island, northwest of
the Vogelkop Peninsula, was seized on 15 September at slight cost.  The
invasion of Morotai, lying between New Guinea and the Philippines, was the
last major operation undertaken by Southwest Pacific forces before the attack
on the Philippines in October.

     Prior to the invasion of the Philippines a seven-day air attack,
beginning on 10 October, was undertaken against enemy bases on the Ryukyu
Islands, Formosa, and Luzon.  On 17 October, Suluan, Homonhon, and Dinagat
Islands, guarding Leyte Gulf where the main invasion was to be made, were
captured.

     Despite all this activity, strategic surprise proved complete when, on 20
October 1944, the assault forces landed on Leyte.  Heavy opposition was
encountered on only one of the many beaches.  Throughout the entire campaign,
opposition at times was fierce although it came from relatively small units or
from separate defense positions.  Between 23 and 26 October the naval battle
for Leyte Gulf took place.  The enemy made every effort to hold Leyte;
reinforcements were rushed in by every means available to them and during
November an all-out struggle for Leyte developed.  Bad weather conditions in
November seriously interfered with the supply of U.S. forces and with air
operations.  On 7 December U.S. troops landed on the west coast of Leyte at
Ormoc to place new strength at the rear of Japanese forces holding out in
northwestern Leyte and to prevent the Japanese from landing any more
reinforcements in the Ormoc area.  By 26 December Leyte was declared secured
but mopping up against strong resistance continued for several months.

[See Specialized Training: Hip-shooting with 30-caliber machine guns during
jungle training. Emphasis was placed on specialized training in patrolling,
ambushing, hip-shooting, stream-crossing expedients, and jungle living.
Training was also given in the assault of fortified areas, hand-to-hand
combat, and the use of demolitions. As the varied problems of assaulting the
Pacific islands arose, the training was changed to suit the particular
requirements.]

[See Waterproof Jeep: WATERPROOFED JEEP heading from ship to shore during the
Kwajalein battle. Jeeps were prepared for fording by sealing the individual
components and extending air and exhaust vents above the water level.
Artillery that was ferried ashore on the smaller islands registered its fire
on the selected landing beaches of Kwajalein and Roi, shifting fire inland two
minutes before the leading assault waves hit the beaches.]

[See Gun Emplacement: A .50-CALIBER MULTIPLE MACHINE GUN EMPLACEMENT]

[See Enemy Plane: A single-engine Japanese fighter plane found on Saipan.
Japanese aircraft markings usually consisted of a large red disc on the top
and bottom of the outer section of each wing and on each side of the fuselage.
The side marking was omitted on their Army aircraft but retained on Navy
aircraft. Occasionally the red disc was surrounded by a narrow white line.]

[See Tokyo Local: BOEING B-29 SUPERFORTRESS, the "Tokyo Local," taking off
from Saipan to bomb Tokyo. Superfortress made the first of a series of attacks
on Tokyo on 24 November 1944, operating from Saipan.]

[See Questioning the Enemy: CAPTURED ENEMY SOLDIER BEING QUESTIONED at Aitape.
The operation there gave the Allies another airstrip.]

[See Buffalo: LAKE SENTANI NEAR HOLLANDIA. Men in a "Buffalo," LVT(A) (2), are
firing a machine gun at enemy riflemen hidden in the bushes.]

[See Water Depot: WATER SUPPLY POINT set up near a beach on Leyte, 21 October;
note the collapsible water tank. By the end of the 21st, Tacloban, San Jose,
Dulag, and two airfields were captured. Heavy fighting continued at palo.]