Imperial Valley press., 1944-01-24

SHOWN To-Day III Ine southern
Pacific, where the Japs are being
forced out of one locality after
another by seizing airports which
are then used by U. S. planes TO
cut off Jap supply lines and thus
make their bases untenable.
The first major operation of this
kind was conceived by Lieut.-Gen.
George c. Kenney in the Buna-
Coma, New Guinea operations last
March. There the U. S. troop car
rier command flew in a complete
striking force from Australia
men, equipment and food. In one
troop movement, 5000 troops were
brought from Australia to Port
Moresby and in another 5000
a whole division-was flown from
Moresby over the high Owen STAN
ley Mountains to the air strips
near Buna.
Supplies moved in at the rate of
more than a thousand tons
week. 1t included construction
equipment, steel mats and even
asphalt. A four-gun battery of
l05-mm. howitzers was ferried over
in a BIT. The only way ground
forces could be supplied was by
air At first there were no para
chutes. 1t was a straight air drop
and it was never more than a
fifth of the supplies which landed
where they could be recovered and
used.
y * *
AirfielGS ilvIe we're oIJen built
within firing range of the enemy
AS soon as the job was completed,
troops and supplies moved in by
air. IN the offensive on Lac, en-
eral Arnold reveals, three air strips
were built in the mountains
within range of the Japs. First a
party of American engineers made
long overland journey to reach
the sites. With the help of natives
they cleared enough ground for
transports to land. Then CAT
transports ferried in an airborne
engineer battalion. 1t took 100
plane loads for this transfer, and
lin addition, an airborne anti-air-
craft company had to be brought
in for protection of the field. This
Marilinan airfield.
Marilinan was later one of the
bases which provided fighter cover
for the great paratroop landing at
Nadzab, an operation which was
to end 'palm-tree-topalm-tree''
fighting and set the pattern for
warfare at 200 miles an hour.
The Fifth airforce landed 1700
American paratroops fully sup
piled, plus 38 Australian artillery
men and guns, at Nadzab.
"These operations in the Mark
ham valley are worthy of note,
writes eneral Arnold I'm front, 4f
medium bombers opened the fight
by strafing Jap positions. They
were followed by six attack planes
that laid smoke screens to cover
the landing of paratroopers from
the 96 transports. Above these flew
five Flying Fortresses carrying ma
teriel and three more Fortresse.
with Generals Macarthur ant
Kenney and their staffs. A fighter
escort of 146 Lightnings ant
| Thunderbolts covered the fligh
at various attitudes while foul
more Fortresses and "a more me-
dunn bombers straffed Jap posi-.
tions.
Five weeks after the landing a
Nadzab, the U. S. Air Force
raided Rabaul, sinking 122. ships
destroying or damaging 1874 plane
at a cost of only four U. S. plane
Similar operations were carried
cut in the u. S. invasion of Ital.
at Salerno. On the morning o
Sept. 13, says General Arnold, tn
commanders Of our airborne troop
were notified that air reinforce
ments were required by the U. S
Fifth Army within "a hours. A
8:45 am. on the same day, Path
] finder units of the airborne tasl
| force took off on from Sicily
reaching the drop zone at 11:14
Twenty minutes later the frs
tparatroopers arrived and in the fol
j lowing hour and a half 80 aircraf
sdropped 1900 paratroopers anc
their equipment in an area lesl
than a mile long and half milt
wide. BY in the morning these
paratroopers were completely or.
ganiezd and marching into posi-
/ zion I'm the front line