CENTRAL PACIFIC OFFENSIVE

New Zealand Herald, Volume 80, Issue 24748, 23 November 1943, Page 3

CENTRAL PACIFIC OFFENSIVE

POWERFUL FLEET ASSISTS TROOPS B.v Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Received November 22. 6.30 p.m.) NEW YORK, November 21 United States troops have landed on Makin and Tarawa Islands, in the Gilberts. Messages from Honolulu report that Marines and soldiers, covered by forces of all types, established beachheads against moderate resistance on Makin and strong resistance on Tarawa. Liberator bombers made diversionary attacks on the Marshall Islands while the actual landings were in progress. Powerful units of the Pacific Fleet covered both landings and fighting is continuing. The move is regarded as the first blow in the long-awaited Allied Central Pacific offensive, which is seen by some commentators as one arm of a three-pronged drive against the Japanese. The second prong is being thrust from General Mac Arthur s South-west Pacific area, while the third is anticipated from Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten's South-east Asia Command. American Marines went ashore in landing barges at dawn on Saturday after the enemy positions had been shelled by American warships and heavily bombed by land-based Liberators as well as carrier-borne aircraft. Both atolls were subjected to a terrific hammering during the night before the invasion. The American land forces are under the command of Lieutenant-General Robert Richardson, Commander of the United States Army's Hawaiian Department, while the whole operation is under the direction of Admiral C. \V. Nimitz, Commander-in-Chief of the United States Pacific Fleet. It has not been disclosed from what base the Allied invasion force was despatched, but the Ellice Islands, which American Marines occupied on September 4, are only 700 miles south-east of Tarawa.