Western Pacific (English Edition)

By the summer of 1944 American forces in the Pacific had established two routes of attack in their drive toward Japan. In the Central Pacific Navy and Marine Corps units, with Army assistance, were “island-hopping” westward from Hawaii, taking the Gilbert Islands in a costly campaign in November 1943 and the Marshall Islands in January–February 1944. In the South and Southwest Pacific Areas, Army units, with Navy and Marine Corps support, had taken Guadalcanal and Bougainville in 1942–43 and, operating with Australian forces, had cleared northeast New Guinea and the Hollandia area of Netherlands New Guinea by May 1944. These vic-tories brought American forces to the inner defense line of the Japanese Empire. In deciding where to breach that line, the Allies looked for a place that would not only puncture Japanese confidence but provide anchorages for naval support of subsequent operations and air bases for strikes against enemy industrial and military instal-lations. The best islands for these purposes lay in the Western Pacific: the Marianas and the Palaus.