The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1944-02-06
interpreting
The War
BY KIRKE L. SIMPSON
Associated Press War AnaIys

ASSVSA"'Cu IICSS war Analyst
The relative ease with which
Uncle Sam thrust ajar the Mar
shall islands doorway to an attack
on Japan itself is bound to have
upset the enemy's once tranquil
thoughts of security.
The battle front in the Pacific
has been carried 1000 miles west
ward in single stride. An island
hopping campaign has expanded to
the beginning of group-by-group
American advance carried out with
such overwhelming power as to
leave no doubt in Tokyo that ia
pans Pacific island outpost screen
is utterly vulnerable.
KWajalein atoll and its vast reef
girt lagoon, now firmly consolidat-
ed as an American offensive ad-
vance base, was no imporvised de-
tense work. More than two de-
cades Of secret, treacherous jap
anese plotting had gone into its
preparation for the test. But it
took massed American power less
than a week to reduce it, destroy
its suicide garrison and begin at
once to convert the atoll into an
air-sea base of infinite menace to
Japan itself
expert Demonstration"
General Marshall, top-flight
American war strategist, hailed
Kwajalein as an expert demon
stration' of massed air-sea power
employed with perfect team
work.. The history of war prob
ably shows no parallel for the
weight of metal by air and sea
brought to bear on such concen-
t.ated targets to clear the way for
landing forces. An American casu-
atty ratio so low as to amaze the
officers in command resulted.
The contrast with the heavy cost
at TaraWa in the Gilberts was
startling. 1t shows that every bit
ter lesson in the technique of atoll
warfare learned in the Gilbe~ts or
elsewhere was successfully woven
into the Marshalls operation plan.
1t demonstrates, too, that Ameri-
can sea and air power in the Pa
cific has been brought up to
point now which, without harm to
the war effort in Europe, would
permit multiple offensives on far
separated fronts simultaneously.
1t is sufficient to strike at or by
pass any Japanese Pacific atoll
outpost. There is every evidence of
Japanese recognition of that fact
in failure of the Nipponese fleet
to take up the Marshalls challenge.
Step by step enemy sea power
that once reached out to Ameri-
can Pacific islands off Alaska, to
Pearl Harbor, is being forced back
westward into the waters of ia
pan itself and those of the Philip
pine group to hold the inner, last
defenses of the China sea an
proaches.
In the light of the stunning dis
play of massed power at Kwaja-
lein, it seems clear the Japan can
no longer count upon any other is.
land bastion in the Pacific long to
delay the American advance upon
Tokyo. How and where the follow
up will come only time will show:
but it cannot be questioned that
Kwajalein finally clinched the stra-
tegic and tactical offensive in the
Pacific in American and Allied
hands.
1t is open to question even now
whether any substantial part OF
Japan's main fleet still is based
at Truk, less than 1900 miles from
the airstrips of Kwajalein. The op-
portunity to fight for the Mar
shalls having been let pass, it
seems doubtful that Tokyo would
risk leaving major naval units
Within range of the land based
bomber attacks to be expected.
Iruk is. a natural next AMERICAN