ENIWETOK ATTACKED

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 124, 21 February 1944, Page 5

ENIWETOK ATTACKED

New Landing In Marshall Islands AIR BASE CAPTURED BY AMERICANS (Bv Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Received February 20, 10 p.m.) LONDON, Feb. 20. The Allies continue to press their attacks in the Pacific. On Thursday morning, following the air strike on Truk, American forces made landings on the Eniwetok Atoll, the most westerly erf the Marshalls Group. A later message from Washington quotes a Pacific Fleet communique announcing excellent progress on the atoll with American casualties light.

The communique stated : American forces have captured the Japanese air-base on Engebi Island and several other islands in the northern part of the Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Preliminary reports indicate that our casualties were light. Assaults on other parts of the atoll are proceeding according to schedule.

The Associated Press’s Pearl Harbour correspondent says the capture of Engebi gives us an airfield for landbased planes further west than any yet taken. Resistance has virtually ended in the northern part of the island, though minor resistance from snipers can be expected during mopping up

operations. Supplementing the major attacks on Truk and Eniwetok, American forces continued to neutralize other enemy bases in the Central Pacific area, the Pacific Fleet communique also stated. Army Liberators, Dauntless dive-bombers and Warhawk fighters attacked four atolls in the eastern Marshalls last Wednesday. Warhawks blew up a fuel dump at one base, damaged a small cargo vessel and sank three small craft. Search planes of the fleet air wing bombed' installations on two other atolls. Army Liberators on Thursday bombed warehouses and docks at Ponape and harbour installations at Kusaie. American warships repeatedly shelled important enemy positions in the eastern Marshalls between February 14 and 18. Tokio radio reports that a United States carrier task force attacked Taroa and Maloelap last Wednesday, while other forces were carrying out operations against Truk and Eniwetok. TRUK~ATTACK

Most Important News Since Pearl Harbour SYDNEY, February 19. The. Japanese must risk a major fleet action or give up all their possessions south of Truk, naval observers believe. The dramatic announcement of the attack on Truk is regarded in Australia as the most important news ,of the Pacific war since the — bombing of Pearl Harbour. Truk was the main base for the swift Japanese penetration into the southern Pacific. Success at Truk would bring the end of the Pacific war within sight, declares the Sydney “Telegraph” editorially. Once captured. Truk could provide a base from which Allied planes and ships could operate right to the coast of Indo-China, cutting the Japanese Philippines, Malaya, and Dutch East Indies supply lines. The Japanese forces in the Solomons, Rabaul, and New Ireland would have. to withdraw or be annihilated. “While it is too early to say what the attack may portend, it shows at the very least that Admiral Nimitz is determined to capitalize .his gains in the Marshalls at the earliest possible moment,” says a “Sydney Morning Herald” military correspondent. “Since Truk is the centre of the Japanese defence organism in the Central Pacific, there could be no better expression of the power of the United States Navy to penetrate deep behind the enemy’s lines, notwithstanding the challenge of land-based aircraft and the potential striking power of the elusive Japanese Navy.” Despite the absence of American confirmation, there is a strong disposition here to accept the Japanese reports of a landing on Truk as correct. It is pointed out that Tokio radio was the first to announce the landing of United States forces in the Marshall Islands

on January 31. The breath-taking audacity of the American enterprise is generally commented on. Confident in

the mighty strength it has built up since Pearl Harbour, the American navy appears to have departed from the cautious strategy which dictates that each base gained shall be carefully consolidated before the next forward move is made. Truk, which the Japanese believed to be impregnable, is 3450 miles south-west of Pearl Harbour and 2100 miles from Tokio. Its coast defences are of the most modern type, and the Japanese garrison there is believed to number three divisions (45,000 men). Pearl Harbour observers believe that United States carriers, probably seven or eight in number, released the attacking pjanes hundreds of miles from Truk. The first flight probably concentrated on Param Island, which contains a number of airstrips’. Though it is not yet officially disclosed, ’’ it is believed that American warships then moved in to participate in the bombardment. Truk is an archipelago composed- of eleven volcanic islands and more than eight small coral islands. All Rife islands are surrounded by a coral reef rising to 35 feet above sea level, and forming a triangular lagoon 32 miles across at the widest point. The Allied attack is believed to have been centred against the four main islands of Truk —.Eten, Param, Dublon and Fefan. The four

channels leading from the ocean into the great lagoon are spacious. The best anchorage adjoins Eten Island, which is also the site of a big air base. The islands are thickly wooded, with peaks rising 560 to 700 feet. The Japanese took Truk, along with the other Germanheld Carolines, Mariannes, and Marshall Islands a few weeks after the outbreak of the first world war. and kept them under the League of Nations Mandate. TWO YEARS’ RAIDS (Received February 20, 10.50 p.ni.) SYDN,EY, February 20. In the past two years, the Japanese have raided Darwin 64 times, losing 129 out of about 1000 attacking aircraft. A further 41 are claimed as probably destroyed and 56 damaged. .Only 49 Allied planes have been lost in combat over the Darwin area and many of the pilots have been saved. -The first Japanese attack on Darwin was made on February 19, 1943. . Fifty of the enemy raids were made in the following 12 months, while the latest attack, the 64th, was on November 13. 1943. More than 100 aircraft took part in the first great raid on Darwin, when several ships in the harbour were sunk or damaged and five enemy planes were shot down and five others probably destroyed. British and Australian. Spitfire squadrons which first went into action at Darwin on March 2, 1943, have shot down, probably destroyed, or damaged more than 100 enemy aircraft. Seven have been destroyed by Australia s greatest fighter pilot. Wing Commander Clive Caldwell, D. 5.0.. D.F.C. and Bar and Polish Cross, who has 27} Axis planes to his credit. Caldwell is now instructing fighter pilots at an advanced training school in Australia.