Allies Now Only 600 Miles of Truk

Manawatu Times, Volume 69, Issue 67, 23 March 1944, Page 5

Allies Now Only 600 Miles of Truk

Big Battleships Batter Kavieng Base (By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Special Australian Correspondent.) Received Wednesday, 9.55 p.m. SYDNEY, March 22. American Marines from Solomons bases on Monday morning seized two islands in the St. Matthias group, 85 miles northwest of Kavieng (New Ireland). They landed on Emirau and Elomusao islands. At the same time powerful Allied naval forces, including battleships, in a terrific three-and-a-half hours’ battering poured about a thousand tons of shells into the Japanese base of Kavieng. AVhole sections of the town were razed, ammunition dumps blown up and shore bat teries silenced. Announcing the landings General MacArthur’s communique today says: “This has completed the isolation of all the enemy bases in the Bismarck archipelago and places us in bombing range of Truk.” Truk; the key Japanese base in the Central Pacific, is within 600 miles of Emirau. Little opposition was encountered by the United States invasion forces who went ashore Under strong naval and air cover. The first wave of Marines reached the beaches at about 8.30 a.m., the opposition was quickly overcome and both islands occupied, while the Japanese radio station was captured. Emirau, which is the larger of the two islands seized, has no airfield, but the country is suitable for the development of a number of airstrips. Blomusao is just southeast of Emirau. The two islands lie astride of the Japanese line of communication from Truk to the Bismarck area and are therefore strategically placed to aid in cutting off supplies and reinforcements or escape for the enemy forces beleaguered in the Solomons, New Britain and New Ireland. Emirau is 55 miles closer to Truk than Lorengau, the former Japanese base on Manus Island in the Admiralties, which have been occupied by other American forces. The shelling of Kavieng which accompanied the landing was made in daylight, but our attack ing nayal force's suffered no losses. The use for the first time of battleships in the Bismarck archipelago area strikingly indicates the extent of the Allied sea-air domination. Some Japanese shore batteries opened up against our naval forces, but these were quickly silenced by the pulverising fire from the big ships. In the preliminary bombing attacks Catalinas and Liberators Striking on Saturday night and Sunday morning extensively damaged Panapai and Namatanai aerodromes near Kavieng. The newly-occupied * St. Matthias islands lie 230 miles northwest of Rabaul (New Britain), 390 miles from Madang, 400 miles from Lae and 570 miles from Port Moresby (New Guinea).