The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-12-19

S sEAPOwER
 The message from MacArthur BFrived at oueboc at night and Ad- inirai Leahy, Admiral King. Gen. eral Arnold. and I were being en- tertained at a formal dinner by Canadian officers. It was read by the appropriate stan officers who Suggested an immediate affirmative answer. The message, with their recommendation, was rushed 10 us and we left the table for e con- terence. Having the utmost ccnh- uence in General MacArthur. Ad- Sniral Nimiiz and Admiral Halsey. it was not q difficult decision to make. Within 90 minutes after the signal had been received in Que ADec, General Macarthur and Ad- aniral Nimitz had received their in- 6tructions to execute the Leyte op- eration on the target date 20 October, abandoning the three prcViously approved intermediary landings. General MacArthur's acknowledgement of his new in- Btructions reached me while en- goute from the dinner to my quar- Gers in Quebec.
 That day the lst Marine DiU- sion of General Geiger's III Ma .fine Amphibious Corps, with a combat team of the 8lst Infantry Division in reserve, landed in SPeleliu in the Palau group Two days later the 8l Division landed tbn Angaur, an island south of !Peleliu.
 The War Department on IS i6eptember relayed to General .MacArthur a report from General lStilwell to the effect that the Jap hnese offensive in central China would soon result in capture of the eastern China airfields from which Maj. Gen. Claire L. Chen lault's Fourteenth Air Force had planned to support operations in the northern Philippines. Mac Arthur replied that Admiral Hal bey's carrier task force had so severely reduced hostile air capa- toilities in the Philippines, For inosa, and the Ryukyus that it would be possible to move directly Grom Leyte to Lingayen Gulf without the support of Chennault's tbir force. Admiral Halsey's car b'ier planes had destroyed almost 200O Japanese aircraft in the prob $ng attacks during September.
 On 9 September another com- Roat team of the 81st Division moved to Peleliu, where heavy resistance was being met. Cap- ture of this island was completed by 30 September except for a few isolated enemy groups which held put in caves for another two months. On 21 September, patrols of the 81st Division landed on plithi, meeting no opposition. The main body landed two days later.
 Islands Are Stepping Stones
 The landing on Peleliu consisted with General MacArthur's move to seize Morotai north of Halma- l1era with are 31st and 32d Divi- Sions. Despite uniformly stub- born resistance the Japanese had lost a series of islands which were important stepping stones for the return to the Philippines and the a1ntimate conquest of Japan.
 The advance of our forces vest ward across the Pacific had been accompanied by the steadily ex- banding strategic operations of &he Eleventh Army Air Force in Alacka, the Seventh Air Force in the Central Pacific, and the Fifth and Thirteenth Air Forces in the Southwest Pacific. Tn the apera- tions fleet carriers had played a vital part. During the campaigns through the Southwest Pacific and 4he western mandated islands, General Kenney's aircraft and those of the Pacific Ocean Areas swung their powerful attacks back and forth in mutual support of the various operations. At the same time the westward advance had resulted in an ability to strike from the air at the foundations of the Japanese war potential-their shipping, petroleum, nd aircraft industries.
 On le October two assault forces, the Sd commanded by Ad- miral Wilkinson and the 7th com- manded by Rear Admiral Daniel E. ,Barbey, approached the east coast of Leyte with the Sixth Army under General Krueger aboard. It was an armada of combat and assault vessels that stretched across the vast Pacific horizon. Tn the covering naval forces were the battleship Cali form ia, Mississippi, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and West Virginia with their screen of cruisers and destroyers. The troops and material with which we were to seize Leyte were -