Evening star., 1944-06-17
Navy Hos Conquered
Poetic. Says Writer
Marianas Islands Are Seen a
Gateway to Japan and China


Marianas Islands Are Seen n
Gateway to Japan and China
By David Laurence
Sometimes events creep up 50 slowly,
unfolding only little at q time, that
the general public scarcely realizes what
the whole picture means. For the fact
is that sensational step has Just been
taken. Stated briefly. 1t is that the
United States Navy has actually con-
quered the Pacific Ocean.
To conquer an ocean as vast as the
Pacific in the short space OF two and q
half years, against q first-class naval
power which had all the advantage OF
previously prepared positions and stra.
tegic islands. is feat without parallel
in world history.
For more than 40 years students of
theoretical war in the Pacific have
studied maps and distances, supply
problems and tactical games, but all
these studies have come back to one
central thought-the Marianas Islands
are the key to the Pacific Ocean in any
war with Japan.
Long before air power was dreamed Of,
long before big aircraft carriers or land
based planes could be seriously consid-
cred as a part of offensive or defensive
power, the United States Navy strate-
gists looked upon the Marianas Islands
as the absolutely essential location that
forms the gateway to Japan, to China.
to the Philippines, to the Netherlands
East Indies, and to the Aleutian Islands.
With air power added and the Japanese
feet forced back to the homeland, con-
quest of the Pacific has come sooner
than expected.
Strategy Out in Open.
The Marianas have not yet been estab-
lished as a base Hard fighting lies
ahead. There are many islands to be
captured and airf1elds as well as supply
depots to be constructed
But 1t Is no secret now-the strategy
Of the United States is out in the open
where the japanese as well as everybody
else In the world can see. Our naval
and Army air forces can come down
from the north and up from the south,
and they can strike straight across the
Pacific toward the west. The domina-
tion of the Pacific Ocean Is now COM
plete.
This achievement has been made pos
sible not merely through surface ships,
but through powerful instruments Of
war below the surface as well as above.
The submarines, always less spectacular
than the airplanes. have Whitfield away
the cargo ships of the Japanese Navy
and made the supply problem for her
feet precarious. The airplanes, both
those launched from aircraft carriers
and from islands taken by our task
forces, have done consistent bombing
day in and day out, thus really carrying
through on the openings made by the
warships and aircraft carriers.
This has been an omnibian Job. The
Army, the Navy and the Marine Corps,
the Air Forces and the submarine
forces-in fact, all branches Of the
armed services have participated. II
called the task force"-which has been
another way of merely saying that the
functional jurisdictions are not so i'm
portant just so long as everything that
is needed to perform q particular task
Is assembled at the right time tn one
place and under one command. -
Our System Of supply.
The mobile task force. however, Is
not the same today as 1t was thought
of three and four years ago. It is not
just a collection Of battlesfips and
cruisers and destroyers. 1t is more
than just warships 1t contains its own
system of supply which moves along
with the fleet. It contains enough air.
craft carriers so that literally hundreds
of planes can be launched from the
decks Of the ships in consistent and re-
peated attacks.
Indeed, our task forces have reached
the proportions now that it would not
be at all surprising If some day they
were big enough or bold enough to
stand few miles of the coast of Japan
and deliberately lombard her cities and
towns. The Japanese, of course, have
not only antiaircraft fire but land-based
planes in such large numbers as to be
able to infiict heavy losses on task
force. But the time will come when the
land bases of the Japanese will be
severely impaired by attacks such as
our Super Fortresses-the B-29s-have
just begun from bases in China.
The Japanese military mind evidently
thought that when it attacked us at
Pearl Harbor, we we're to be deprived
of offensive power in the Pacific for
all time. The Japanese believed when
they went into the Netherlands East
Indies they could entrench themselves
with sufficient air bases to keep us
fighting for decades against hopeless
odds. They thought, too, that China
was out of the war or could soon be
put out of the war and that bases from
China were impracticable for us. They
didn't count on American industrial
skill or the bravery of our fighting men.
For American inventive genius. Amer
lean designers, American engine makers,
American managers and American
workers have all combined to give our
daring soldiers, sailors and marines
tools such as no nation has ever had.
We are winning the war in the Pacific.
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