Word: halmahera
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Dates: during 1944-1944
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While Kenney's air force in the south pounded the Celebes and Halmahera, oil-rich Balikpapan in Borneo and the supply center of Zamboanga in the southern Philippines, a detached force of Pacific Fleet battleships steamed north to tiny (740 acres) Marcus Island, little more than 1,100 miles southeast of Tokyo. After a full day of bombardment, Marcus' two air strips were out of commission...
...Veterans. They added Ulithi, Min danao, Morotai, Halmahera and Manila to their battles and scores of enemy planes to their tally. They fought now with confidence born of experience, shepherded the bombers with cool, cocky precision...
Liberators and PBYs from General MacArthur's command struck repeatedly at Davao, capital of Mindanao. U.S. carriers, of which more than 50 now roam the Pacific, hammered Halmahera, the Jap island stronghold which MacArthur bypassed in occupying Morotai. Still other carrier planes ranged 325 miles behind Palau to strike the Jap base...
Morotai. One attack hit Morotai, a 695-sq.mi. mountainous, jungled island north of the larger island of Halmahera. On Morotai MacArthur's Sixth Army troops swarmed ashore under cover of heavy air and sea bombardment. Much as at Tarawa, troops had to leave their landing boats at a reef, wade through waist-deep water before they hit the beach...
...Japanese there was no choice but to wait, and wonder where the next amphibious assault would strike. It might be Halmahera, as Tokyo had nervously predicted, or it might be the Philippines. Or it might be a swift lunge across the Empire's marine artery which would set marines and soldiers down on Formosa or the China coast...