From: Everette (194cbteng@bellsouth.net)
Date: Sun Feb 05 2006 - 02:41:11 PST
February 3
1944 U.S. troops capture the Marshall Islands
On this day, American forces invade and take control of the Marshall
Islands, long occupied by the Japanese and used by them as a base for
military operations.
The Marshalls, east of the Caroline Islands in the western Pacific Ocean,
had been in Japanese hands since World War I.
During the Second World War, these islands, as well as others in the
vicinity, became targets of Allied attacks. The U.S. Central Pacific
Campaign began with the Gilbert Islands, south of the Mandated Islands; U.S.
forces conquered the Gilberts in November 1943. Next on the agenda was
Operation Flintlock, a plan to capture the Marshall Islands.
Adm. Raymond Spruance led the 5th Fleet from Pearl Harbor on January 22,
1944, to the Marshalls, with the goal of getting 53,000 assault troops
ashore two islets: Roi and Namur. Meanwhile, using the Gilberts as an air
base, American planes bombed the Japanese administrative and communications
center for the Marshalls, which was located on Kwajalein, an atoll that was
part of the Marshall cluster of atolls, islets, and reefs.
By January 31, Kwajalein was devastated. Repeated carrier- and land-based
air raids destroyed every Japanese airplane on the Marshalls. By February 3,
U.S. infantry overran Roi and Namur atolls. The Marshalls were then
effectively in American hands--with the loss of only 400 American lives.
Everette
Deo adiuvante
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