The Pittsburgh Press (February 21, 1944)
Jap Army and Navy heads fired for losses at Truk
Americans sink 19 ships destroy 201 planes in sea victory
New American victories were scored against the Japs in three places, at Eniwetok Atoll (1) in the Marshalls, where U.S. invasion forces were battling across the next-to-the-last Jap-held island; at Truk (2), where U.S. forces sank 19 Jap ships and shot down 201 planes, and at Rabaul (3), bombed against by U.S. fliers, who destroyed 15 more Jap planes.
Japan reeled today under the impact of American blows which had had main outer defenses crumbling from Eniwetok in the Marshalls, through Truk in the Carolines to Rabaul and Kavieng, on the flank of Australia and the Dutch East Indies.
The spreading U.S. offensive in the Pacific produced these results:
Tokyo revealed the effect of the defeats on land, sea and in the air by removing the chiefs of staff of both the Imperial Army and Navy, Field Marshal Gen. Sugiyama and Fleet Adm. Osami Nagano.
In the attack on Truk by a mighty American task force, the Japs lost at least 19 ships and more than 200 airplanes. Seven other ships were listed as âprobably sunk.â
The conquest of Eniwetok Atoll was rapidly nearing completion. U.S. forces held all the islands except Parry and the eastern part of Eniwetok.
In the Southwest Pacific, U.S. airmen hit Rabaul with 123 tons of bombs in the 16th consecutive day of aerial assaults on the base, making a total of 1,352 tons since Feb. 3, with the destruction or probable destruction of 252 Jap planes.
Atoll invaders crush enemy
By William F. Tyree, United Press staff writer
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii â
U.S. invasion forces battled their way across the next-to-the-last enemy-held island in Eniwetok Atoll today as front dispatches indicated a battleship bombardment may have aided carrier-based planes in sinking 19 ships in last weekâs smashing raid on Truk.
Adm. Chester W. Nimitz, commander of the Pacific Fleet, announced in a communiqué late yesterday that Marines and Army troops had captured the western half of Eniwetok Island and occupied all other islands in the atoll except Parry, which was isolated by the landing on Eniwetok.
Casualties light
Adm. Nimitz said:
Although the Americans are meeting opposition, casualties continued to be light.
The invaders were expected to complete the conquest of the atoll, 750 miles northeast of Truk, within a matter of days, bettering even their eight-day victory on Kwajalein earlier this month.
Speculation that the 16-inch guns of the U.S. battleships may have contributed to the destruction at Truk last week stemmed from official reports that all aerial opposition had been wiped out in the first day of the assault, leaving the way clear for warships to approach within gun range.
7 probably sunk
Altogether, the powerful U.S. task force sank 19 Jap ships, probably sank seven others, destroyed at least 201 enemy planes and wrecked shore installations last Wednesday and Thursday on the greatest naval victory numerically since the Battle of the Bismarck Sea in March 1943, when U.S. planes sank an entire convoy of 22 enemy ships.
The successful attack cost the U.S. armada only 17 planes lost and âmoderate damageâ to one warship.
Adm. Nimitz said in his triumphant communiqué yesterday noon:
The Pacific Fleet has returned at Truk the visit made by the Japanese Fleet to Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, and effected partial settlement of the debt.
Jap losses listed
He listed Jap losses specifically as follows:
SUNK: Two light cruisers, three destroyers, one ammunition ship, one seaplane tender, two oilers, two gunboats and eight cargo ships.
PROBABLY SUNK: One cruiser or large destroyer, two oilers and four cargo ships.
SHOT DOWN IN COMBAT: 120 planes.
DESTROYED ON THE GROUND: 74 planes; shore installations.
DAMAGED ON THE GROUND: More than 50 planes; airdromes.
George Jones, United Press correspondent who accompanied the task forces in the Truk attack, said in a dispatch sent before the raid that the warships included a number of battleships and added, perhaps significantly:
We might see our surface strength make a bold thrust into the outer edges of Trukâs intricate shorelines for an audacious bombardment⊠Aircraft will make the initial assault and they will carry the responsibility of inflicting the initial damage on which other surface craft can capitalize.
The attack, carried out under the overall command of Adm. R. A. Spruance with RAdm. M. A. Mitscher, former commander of the USS Hornet, in charge of the carrier raid, temporarily neutralized Japanâs biggest naval base outside home waters and prevented the Japs from sending reinforcements to Eniwetok.
Combat teams from the 22nd Marine Regiment swarming ashore after a three-day air and naval bombardment had literally leveled enemy defenses, captured their initial major objective in Eniwetok Atoll, Engebi Island at the northern end, in six hours and five minutes Friday.
Bombardment kills many
Hundreds of the defenders were killed in the preliminary bombardment, which included 1,000 tons of aerial bombs. Richard W. Johnston, United Press correspondent with the invasion forces, said not a single building was left standing and even the âskeletons of the defenders were hammered down.â
Mr. Johnston wrote:
The island looked as though it had been run over by a giant lawnmower that sheared off palm tops a few feet from the ground.
The occupation of Engebi and 10 small flanking islands, the latter without the loss of a single American life, wiped out enemy opposition at the northern end of the atoll and paved the way for the assault on the southern end, where Eniwetok Island was the key objective.
Seize half of island
Elements of the Army 106th Infantry Regiment, supplemented by Marines, smashed ashore on Eniwetok against opposition and in a quick thrust wrested possession of the western half of the island from the Japs.
Although obviously doomed, the Japs continued to fight stubbornly as the invaders hammered them back toward the eastern corner of the island with tanks, flamethrowers, grenades and bayonets, backed up by the big guns of covering warships.
Parry cut off
The only other island left in enemy hands, Parry, was cut off from all hope of supply and reinforcement by the landing on Eniwetok and presumably will be mopped up at leisure.
With Engebi, the Americans gained an airfield with a 5,000-foot runway only 350 miles from the intermediate base of Ponape in the Eastern Carolines, as well as 750 miles northeast of Truk.
The occupation of Eniwetok Atoll as a whole will give the Navy a good anchorage for future operations and cut off Wake Island, 600 miles to the northeast, from all supplies except those carried by ships or submarines under constant threat of attack by U.S. air and naval forces.
Raid Kusaie
Four-engined Liberators of the 7th Air Force penetrated the Eastern Carolines Friday for a raid on Kusaie Island, 450 miles south of Eniwetok. Docks were bombed and a small enemy vessel sunk.
Other Liberators, along with Army Warhawks and Navy Venturas, scored hits on ground installations, an airfield and a radio station in attacks on four atolls in the Eastern Marshalls.
Premier TĆjĆ takes over
By the United Press
Japan removed her chiefs of staff of the Imperial Army and Navy today on the heels of the U.S. raid on Truk and the successful invasion of Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands.
Though the announcements of the shifts in command made no mention of either Truk or the Marshalls, Japanese Imperial Headquarters almost simultaneously issued a communiquĂ© acknowledging that U.S. task forces had sunk 18 ships, only one fewer than claimed by U.S. Pacific Fleet headquarters, and destroyed 120 planes in the raid on Truk, the Jap âPearl Harbor.â
The official DĆmei Agency said that Premier Gen. Hideki TĆjĆ had taken over the additional post of Chief of the Army General Staff and Navy Minister ShigetarĆ Shimada the additional post of Chief of the Naval General Staff.
Both Field Marshal Gen. Sugiyama, former Army Chief of Staff, and Fleet Adm. Osami Nagano, former Naval Chief of Staff, were ârelievedâ of their posts, DĆmei quoted War and Navy Ministry announcements as saying.
Hirohito names TĆjĆ
No new appointments were reported for either officer.
Emperor Hirohito âpersonallyâ installed TĆjĆ in his new post and âpersonallyâ appointed Shimada to the naval command, DĆmei said.
In addition to being Premier, TĆjĆ is War Minister, head of the Munitions Ministry and governor of the Imperial Rule Association, Japanâs mass totalitarian party.
Follows warnings
The radio announcements of the shifts in command, recorded by the United Press, followed recent propaganda warnings from Jap radio spokesmen that the war situation had âincreased with unprecedented, grave seriousness.â
One broadcaster said:
Various conditions indicate the symptoms that the desperate enemy counteroffensive will increase in furiousness from the coming of spring toward the summer, and further from summer towards autumn.
First ârealâ admission
The Imperial Headquarters communiqué reporting the attack on Truk marked the first time that Japan had admitted anywhere near her real losses in a major engagement.
The text of the communiqué was as follows:
Imperial Army and Navy units successfully repulsed an enemy task force which attacked the Truk Islands. In these operations, Imperial Army and Navy units sank two enemy cruisers, of which one might have been a battleship, and heavily damaged one aircraft carrier and one warship of unidentified category, as well as shooting down more than 54 planes.
Our losses consisted of two cruisers, three destroyers, 13 transports and 120 planes in addition to sustaining some damage to our ground installations.