INVASION BASE

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 31, 6 August 1945, Page 5

INVASION BASE

RIUKIUS UNDER MACARTHUR MANILA, August 4. General Mac Arthur's headquarters announced that the entire Riukiu island chain has been placed under General Mac Arthur's command as from midnight on July 31, as a base for a mighty invasion force under General Mac Arthur's primary responsibility. The statement said that all army forces in the islands, except the Bth Air Force, are now operating under General Mac Arthur's direct control. General: Stilwell's 10th. Army and General Kenny's , sth and 7th Air Forces are now moving up there. These islands, with the Philippines, form a great semi-circular base, where a mighty invasion force is being . forged under General Mac Arthur's primary responsibility, for the final conquest of Japan. General MacArthur disclosed that the 13th Air Force, which in recent months has been the main United States air force in the southern Philippines, New Guinea, and the Indies, •is moving to the Riukius. A correspondent of the Associated Press says that the shift of the 13th Air Force means that eight air forces in addition to carrier planes and bombers o_ the 7th Fleet will attack the homeland and the Japanese in China. The army air forces are the sth, 7th, Bth, 13th. and 20th in the West Pacific, the 11th in the Aleutians, and the 10th and 14th in China. For the first seven months of this year the Far East Air Force and attached units have destroyed or severely damaged 2,846,932 tons of shipping and 1375 aircraft, reports General MacArthur's communique. They flew well over 150,000 sorties, dropping 100,000 tons of bombs.