May 1944 (1)

 

Japanese gun on Ponape Island

1 May – Ponape (Pohnpei) Island was bombarded by the battleships of the 5th Fleet and supported by carrier aircraft.  Numerous buildings, the seaplane base and the wharf were destroyed.  The Air Force TF-13 hit Woleai and Eauriprik Atolls, all in the Caroline Island group.

On New Guinea, 180 B-25s, A-20s and fighters of the 5th Air Force hit the Wewak and Hansa Bay areas.  Airfields, villages, antiaircraft gun positions, barges and offshore islands were bombed.

Location of Jaluit Island

4-15 May – a US naval and air base were established on Majuro Atoll in the Marshalls.  Six days later, the naval base on Eniwetok island operational.  On the 12th, naval air bases were up and running at Ebeye and Roi-Namur, in the Kwajalein Atoll.  During 13-14 May, land-based bombers heavily attacked Jaluit in the Marshalls.

Today – an IMEJ-battleship rusts slowly in the Jaluit Lagoon.

6 May –  the Gato-class submarine, USS Gurnard (SS-254), attacked an enemy convoy in the Celebes Sea.  She sank the troop-carrying army cargo ships, Aden Maru, Amatsuzan Maru, and Tajima Maru, en route to New Guinea.

13th May – the 13th Air Force was busy sending out over 50 aircraft to attack the coastal areas at Ratsua, Porton, Chabai and Tarlena.  Over 30 fighter-bombers hit supply areas, the Hahela Mission and villages along the Numa Numa Trail in Indonesia.  New Britain and New Ireland continued to be bombed.

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The following is a direct quote from the US Army Military History books.

By April of 1944, under the impact of General MacArthur’s two-pronged offensive against the Japanese forward line in the southeast area and the parallel enemy thrust into the outer defense rampart of the Central Pacific mandated islands, the operational center of gravity in the Pacific theater of war was moving relentlessly closer to the line which the Army-Navy Central Agreement of 30 September 1943 had defined as the boundary of Japan’s “absolute zone of national defense.”¹

In drafting this agreement, Army and Navy strategists recognized that the continuous attenuation of Japan’s fighting potential made it unwise, if not impossible, to attempt a decisive defense of the existing Pacific front line under the increasing weight of Allied offensives. Therefore, the mission of the forces in Northeast New Guinea, the Bismarcks, Solomons, Marshall and Gilbert Islands was limited to one of strategic delay, and plans were laid to build a main line of resistance along a restricted perimeter from the Marianas and Carolines to Western New Guinea and the Banda and Flores Seas.  These were to be flanked by the Bonins and Kuriles to the north and the Sundas to the west.

To give an idea of size discussed – the U.S. map is superimposed over just the SW Pacific area.

The essential points of the Army-Navy Central Agreement embodying this vital revision of Central and South Pacific war strategy were as follows:³

1. Key points in the southeast area, extending from Eastern New Guinea to the Solomon Islands, will be held as long as possible by destroying enemy forces whenever they attack.⁴

2. With a view to the rapid completion of counteroffensive preparations, the following missions will be accomplished by the spring of 1944:

a. Defenses will be strengthened, and tactical bases developed, in the areas of the Marianas and Caroline Islands, Western New Guinea, and the Banda and Flores Seas.

b. Bases will be developed in the Philippines area for strategic and logistic support.

c. Ground, sea, and air strength will be built up in preparation for counteroffensive action.

3. In the event of an enemy approach toward the areas mentioned in paragraph 2a, powerful com-

 

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ponents of all arms will be concentrated against his main attacking front, and every means will be employed to destroy his forces by counteroffensive action before the attack is launched.

4. After the middle of 1944, if conditions permit, offensive operations will be undertaken from the area including Western New Guinea and the Banda and Flores Seas. Separate study will be made to determine the front on which such operations should be launched, and necessary preparations will be carried out accordingly.

The deadline fixed by Imperial General Headquarters for the completion of preparations along the new defense perimeter was based upon the estimate that full-scale Allied offensive operations against either the Western New Guinea or Marianas-Carolines sectors of the line, or possibly against both sectors simultaneously, would develop by the spring and summer of 1944. Although a six months’ period was thus allowed for execution of the program, its actual start was somewhat delayed. Moreover, the scope of preparations envisaged was so vast that it was problematical whether the nation’s material and technical resources would be equal to the task.

Primary emphasis in these preparations was placed upon the development of air power. After the bitter lessons taught by the southeast area campaigns of 1942-43, Army and Navy strategists unanimously agreed that the air forces must be the pivotal factor in future operations, whether defensive or offensive. To successfully defend the new “absolute defense zone” against the steadily mounting enemy air strength, they believed it imperative to have 55,000 planes produced annually. At the same time a large number of air bases, echeloned in depth and mutually supporting, had to be built and equipped over the widely dispersed areas of the new defense zone.

Click on images to enlarge.

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To view my Air Force Birthday post – Please click – HERE!

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Military Humor – 

Ooh – those pesky budget cuts!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Farewell Salutes – 

Lillard Brown – Ft. Thomas, KY; US Army, WWII, PTO, Americal unit, Bronze Star

Larry Chavez – Albuquerque, NM; US Army WWII, Purple Heart

Bill Edwards Jr. – Durham, NC; US Army Air Corps, WWII, ETO, B-24 top turret gunner

James Hayes – Ariton, AL; US Army

Irene Michak – Lexington, MA; USO, WWII

Hugh O’Brien – Rochester, NY; USMC; WWII, PTO, (beloved actor)

Charles Pranio – Edison, NJ; US Army, WWII

Brian Rix – Cottingham, UK; RAF, WWII, ETO, (beloved actor)

Louis Roth – St. Augustine, FL; US Army Air Corps, WWII, PTO, Co. E/188th/11th Airborne Division

Joseph Stewart – Olathe, KS; US Navy, Korea, USS Boxer, Corsair “Bitter Bird” pilot

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