SECRET STRENGTH OF TRUK TO BE TESTED

Press, Volume LXXX, Issue 24187, 21 February 1944, Page 4

SECRET STRENGTH OF TRUK TO BE TESTED

PACIFIC OFFENSIVE

Until the crews of two Liberator bombers flew over the vasi .}f^ n f 3l Truk on reconnaissance before tne American air assault, few white men, if any, had ever seen the defences of one of the strongest naval bases in the world What the airmen saw—huge concentrations of ships, heavy coastal guns, palatial living quarters, and one island covered with airfields had been jealously hidden from the outside world for more than 20 years. Ever since the League of Nations gave Japan a mandate over all the foimer German islands in the Pacific north of the Equator, which she had seized in 1914, she has treated them as full Japanese property, Truk and the hundreds of islands and islets in what Japan calls the Nanyo were served only by Japanese shipping lines: and foreigners who tried to go there had all sorts of difficulties placed in their * Until about 1935 Japan regularly issued an annual report on what she was doing in her mandated territory. Defence works were forbidden under the mandate; but the costs for harbour works set out. in these reports to the League of Nations were out of all proportion, although vast economic development was taking place. When Japan withdrew from the League there was even less information about her activities, and after 1938 the islands were closed to all white men. American’s Visit One of the very few men to visit Truk since the Japanese mandate was the American author, Willard Price, who had spent several years in Japan. He was given a passage there by the Japanese in answer to the charge by the League of Nations that no white man was allowed to land on the island. Price was not allowed to land when he arrived, but he slid down the anchor chain and was an enforced guest on the> island for a week while his ship sailed to another island in the Carolines. He claims that he foiled one attempt on his life. He was more fortunate than two United States Navy officers who tried to see the defences of the Japanese islands. They disappeared “in an accident.” Japan notified the United States, but refused to return the bodies. In 1935, when Price visited what he described as “the paradise of the Carolines,” it was not yet the biggest Pacific naval base outside Pearl Harbour; but he was able to .confirm some of the strange rumours that had come to the outside world, and saw enough to convince him,- even as a layman, that Japan was preparing for war. Just what he saw is known only to United States naval intelligence officers, for he wisely wrote nothing about it. As Japan’s main base for her swift penetration into the south Pacific, the name of Truk is better known now; but it is still so shrouded in mystery that many people think of it as a single island—a Pacific Gibraltar. But there is nothing like Truk anywhere else in the world. It is a vast triangular lagoon 32 miles across at the widest point and surrounded by a coral rampart 120 miles long and rising to 35ft above sea level. Inside the reef, which has only four navigable openings, the extremely deep, calm water of the lagoon could hold every ship in the Japanese fleet. But the lagoon contains also dangerous coral reefs sharp enough to rip the bottom out of any battleship. The location of these reefs is known only to the Japanese. The lagoon js studded by 245 islands or islets, of which only 11 are large enough for the Japanese to use as naval and air bases. One group has been given names meaning the seven days of the week; another group is named after the four seasons. The naval establishment and fleet anchorage are in the Four Seasons Islands; the Seven .Days of the Week Islands are believed to be used for huge quantities of naVal stores. Islands Transformed The larger islands originally were all of a pattern—a central volcanic peak rising to 1000 ft or 1500 ft with a smaller cone at either end and a dense growth of palm trees and mangroves. But the Japanese, using natives and slave labour from occupied China and with a complete disregard of human life, have transformed the islands in the last 25 years. Mountains have been hollowed out for aeroplane hangars, and at least one island, 300 ft high in parts and three-quarters of a mile long, is reported to have been levelled down to form a colossal airfield 10ft above the water. Dry and graving docks, foundries, and all the other facilities for repairing the largest units of the Japanese fleet have all been built in the Four Seasons Islands; and even on the many small islands there are anti-air-craft batteries, searchlights, and predictors. In addition oil tanks have been sunk in the lagoon and camouflaged so cunningly that from above they look like the coral reef.

The rampart of Japan’s mighty base is also well defended, for the coral polyp has provided fortifications which the Japanese could not equal. The outer edge of the reef is 15ft to 20ft higher than the inner edge, and behind the rampart are emplacements for artillery of the most modern type. Inside the coral shelters for submarines have been tunnelled, and the lout navigable passes through the reef are guarded by submarine booms, nets, and mines. Two of the passes are narrow and could be blocked easily. There are about 16 more gaps in the reef, caused

(Specially Written for "The Press.”) [By JAMES CAFFXN.]

by fresh water streams which kill thft coral polyp, but they are believed be well guarded like the main entrances. No Food Problems Food problems are not likely to worry the garrison of Truk, which ii believed to number 45,000 men. Jap, anese agricultural experts have intro, duced many kinds of fruits, grains, and vegetables to their island territories and have acclimatised them in the rich volcanic soil, which also produces atype of yam that grows to a length of 4ft. The lagoon of Truk abounds ip excellent fish. One of the largest in. dustries in the Carolines is the pro. duction of sun-dyied bonito, which keeps for years. To the east only 400 miles from Trufc is the Japanese base of Ponape, one ol the four centres of control for the islands and islets of the Caroling which stretch over 2000 square milej; Aircraft from bases at Ponape hav| been used to interfere with American operations in the Marshalls; but the ' outside world knows little of thiii? marvellously fertile island on which •< the Japanese have acclimatised 23J1 kinds of fruits, grains, vegetables, and The largest island in the Japanese territories. Ponape has an area of 13J square miles, and is believed to be almost as strongly defended as Tftflt It is mountainous, with heavy forest, and is surrounded by a similar vastlagoon with 50 islets behind the reel, The lagoon provides a basin for ships! Besides, six excellent harbours are cut ‘ into the island, which is guarded by, the great fortified rock Jokaj, nearly 900 ft high. Far to the west is the island of Palau; the third most powerful naval basi'; in the Carolines, as carefully guarded, as Truk and Ponape. Palau is about ’ 20 miles long and five miles wide, and has been described as the Japanese Singapore. More than 100 islandsbarri. cade a magnificent fleet base, which, is the headquarters of the entire Jap.' anese administration in the South Seas, Here ship basins have been dredged deep channels widened, a canal cin through a mountainside, and island* levelled to provide airfields. Industries have been developed and Japanese agricultural experiment station* have made vast improvements on th# primitive methods of the natives. Rich Empire ‘ Japan is sure to fight desperately fo hold these secret bases. Truk, Ponape;.. and Palau bar the way to Tokyo. Hiey- 5 also guard the richest portion of the island empire. From the Carolines and, the Marianas, which Japan has exploited even more vigorously than the Germans did before 1914, come pro-* ducts of immense importance to* Japan’s economy in war and peace, .Thousands of tons of phosphate are.; shipped from Angaur in the Palau group; the Marianas furnish sugar, alcohol, copra, and dried fish; and from the Carolines come large quantities of the sun-dried bonito which the Japanese use in many dishes. When Japan took complete posse*- , sion of what is commonly known a* Micronesia it became the only selfsupporting mandate in the world except for military costs. copra, sugar, and alcohol were th# principal exports; , but the fertile,, islands also produced coffee, rro, pineapples, corn, tobacco, oranges, tapioca* .> potatoes, and cotton. In 1938 there were 60,000 Japanese in the islands and.; slightly more than 50,000 natives. The Japanese immigrants were thriving in. a climate where the temperature wa* 92 degrees and the rainfall 118 inches-! all the year round. If the United States had had visions ; of empire nearly 50 years ago she, and , not Japan, might have held all the ? islands of Micronesia instead of keeping only Guam, the largest in the Marianas. Spain had held the Caro -. lines, the Marianas, and the Marshall# ;• for more than 200 years; and when the Spanish-American War ended,-the United States had all Spanish Mletflv; nesia and the Philippines on her hands. She kept the Philippines-and. handed back the rest of the islands to Spain. The Germans, who had hoisted their flag at Yap in the western Carolines in 1885, were hungry for foot*, holds in the Pacific, and gained deft-' nite trade rights in Micronesia In spit# of vigorous Spanish protests. Their , influence grew considerably and, rapidly. Finally negotiations began for - the transfer of the islands. In 1899 ~ Spain ceded the Carolines, the Marianas, and the Marshalls to Germany; for a payment of £840,000. The Germans carried out a vigorous colonisa-. tion policy; and the economic progress of the islands was rapid. Then Japan sent an expeditionary force in . 1914 to seize the islands in the nara# ‘ of the Allies. Under the Treaty of : Versailles Japan was given the mandate to govern all the former German possessions north of the Equator. t Civil: administration began in 1922. ■ Under the Class C mandate, whicll is the nearest thing to outright poisession, the League of Nations forbdde : Japan to place any defences on the islands, which, if properly fortified, were the key to control of a greater part of the Pacific. But the Japanese did not listen to the League. Admiral Nobumasa Suetsugu said: “These islands are made to order for Japan, In fact the Pacific equilibrium can be maintained only when Japan hold* them.”