The Pittsburgh Press (February 11, 1944)
Clapper: Striking force
By Raymond Clapper
A series of dispatches written by Mr. Clapper during the battle of the Marshall Islands, where he lost his life, has just arrived from the Pacific by wireless. The first follows.
With the Pacific Fleet, in the Marshall Islands – (by wireless)
We hit the Marshalls with so much that I hope the Navy at Washington breaks down and lets us tell all about it.
I hope the Navy tells how many battleships are in this fleet, because it’s more than you probably thought we had out here, I hope they tell you how many carriers are involved, because it’s more than you thought we had out here. And how many cruisers and destroyers – running into a list like a page out of the telephone book, and more than Japan has in her whole navy.
I hope the Navy for once breaks down and gives out the news, because I think that when the people of Japan and of Germany know what we are hitting with out here – just with one hand, while we haul back with our big haymaker in Europe – they will begin to sober up and think about where they are coming out of this war.
No kidding, this is the biggest amount of force that was ever assembled to strike on the seas of the earth. It makes the Battle of Jutland seem like a small exercise.
Too big for mind to grasp
I have been living with the fleet at sea for days now. But no one person can take it in. There are things that the human mind cannot really grasp. They say the human mind can just about comprehend the fact that the speed of light is seven and a half times around the earth in one second. But you can’t grasp the size of a star which is 200 times the diameter of our sun. Likewise, if the Navy gave you the statistics on this battle of the Marshalls, it might not mean much to you or me.
One of the gun turrets on one of the many battleships in this fight weighs almost as much as a whole destroyer. The tonnage of metal and explosives that this great fleet throws is something that can be expressed in figures but not really grasped.
This battle of the Marshall Islands is important not alone because we need the islands. This battle also tells Japan and Germany that America is now in there swinging as a heavyweight. Probably there is more Navy out here in the Marshalls than we had altogether before Pearl Harbor.
Japan may have been master of the Pacific for a time after our opening disaster. But she knows now that domination of the Pacific is being taken into our hands. It was no idle boast when Secretary of the Navy Knox said recently that he hoped the Japanese fleet would come out for a showdown. All of our Navy men out here have hoped for that, although none of them have expected Japan to take the risk.
Weapon for victory
The sea and airpower that we have sent into the Marshalls is the weapon by which we shall spearhead across the Pacific. It is the weapon by which we shall drive the aggressors back into complete defeat. And this fleet should be the means of making known that we are ready and able to take the responsibility for keeping peace and security in the Pacific – peace for all nations, and security for ourselves.
We need no territory, in the sense of real estate, for expansion. Yet we must retain these islands for which American blood has been shed. We must retain all the islands necessary for the security of the Pacific, which means islands close enough together to provide land-based air cover all around and across, such as Japan has maintained as far east as the Marshalls.
That is just a thought I throw in at this time for future development.
This is our first big battle. This is the first territory we have taken out of the Japanese Empire; previous victories were only recoveries of points seized by Japan in this war. Now we are biting into Japanese territory, breaking through Japan’s east wall.