The Wilmington morning star., 1943-11-24
SUCCESS ASSURED
Situation On Abemama Is
Reported Well In
Hand
PROGRESS IS MADE
Good Airfields Will Be.
come Available
With Capture
PROGRESS IS MADE

PEARL HARBOR, T. H.,
Nov. %. -R Success Of
the first American offensive
of the war in the central Pa
cific is assured, Admiral
Chester w. Nimitz ANNOUNCE
ed triumphantly today.
Already the 9th division
has captured Maxim atoll.
The capture of Tarawa,
where the Marines have con-
solidated their positions, is
certain. Amphibious forces
cracked the beach defenses
of both places last Saturday.
Well In Hand
The situation on Abemama atoll,
30 miles south of TaraWa, was
reported well in hand. The Ma
rines' landing there was announced
only yesterday.
An excellent bomber field with.
in striking distance of strong Jap.
anese bases in the Marshall is.
lands to the north will become
available with the capture of Tia.
raWa. Fighting on Tarawa was
believed to be confined to Betio,
island, which has air base facili.
ties. The enemy was strongly en-.
trenched on Betio, at the south.
western tail of Tarawa atoll. The
island is sand waste less than
two miles long and about a thou.
sand yards wide.
The Marines were making good
progress on Betio. where it was
indicated they had landed on the
western end of the islet and had
pushed the Nippcnese back to the
eastern portion.
In U. S. Hands
Maxim, to the north of Tarawa,
is entirely in American hands, a
fleet spokesman said. Force
there were engaged in hopping up
end in cleaning out Shippers.
The fleet spokesman indicated
there were four or five thousand
Japanese on Tarawa, where the
stiffest resistance was ENCOUNTERED
from the outset.
Approximately twice as many
as were on Attu where there
were more than 1000, and five
times as many az on Maxim" was
the way he put it.
He did not say whether all these
troops were concentrated on Betio
or whether other islands of the
atoll were garrisoned. It was obvi-
GUS, however, that the bulk of the
japanese strength in the Tarawa
atoll was on Betio.
The spokesman made no COM
nent on a statement today by Sec
rotary of the Navy Knox that the
japanese fleet was no nearer than
1ruk, it's pivotal base about 1900
nautical miles northwest of t h
Gilberts. The spokesman did say,
We're getting along all right; the
operations speak for themselves.
The importance of Tarawa to
any central Pacific bombing raids
was clearly shown in these fig
ures:
1t is only 294 nautical miles from
Tarawa to Mill, 1888 to Jaluit, 500
10 KWajalein, 525 to Vote and
approximately 1000 to Eniwetok-
enemy bases in the Marshall is-
lands to the north. Mill is at the
southern end of that group, Eni-
wetok at the northern extremity.
All of these bases are 7O4 miles
closer from TaraWa h n from
Funafuti, in the Ellice islands,
from where the Army's 7th air
force previously had bombed the
Gilberts and the Marshalls and al
so Nauru, important phosphate is
land west of the Gilberts. (This was
the first definite disclosure of the
7th air forces base.)
The communique said that raids
were being continued against the
Marshalls by carrier aircraft and
Army Liberators. These raids, at
first diversionary, also were de-
signed to pin down the enemy's
air power in that area.
Nauru, hit By Liberator bomb
ers on November 81 was reported
to be so badly damaged by recent
aerial strikes that the enemy pre-
sumably was unable to use it az
a base for the defense against the
current landings, A fleet spokes-
man disclosed today that the No.
vember 81 raid also extended to
Ocean island, southeast Of Nauru.
CONTINUED on Page Three; Col. y
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