World War II
1944
U.S.
troops capture the Marshall Islands
On this day, American
forces invade and take control of the Marshall Islands, long occupied by the
Japanese and used by them as a base for military operations.
The Marshalls, east of
the Caroline Islands in the western Pacific Ocean, had been in Japanese hands
since World War I. Occupied by the Japanese in 1914, they were made part of the
“Japanese Mandated Islands” as determined by the League of Nations. The Treaty
of Versailles, which concluded the First World War, stipulated certain islands
formerly controlled by Germany–including the Marshalls, the Carolines, and the
Marianas (except Guam)–had to be ceded to the Japanese, though “overseen” by
the League. But the Japanese withdrew from the League in 1933 and began
transforming the Mandated Islands into military bases. Non-Japanese, including
Christian missionaries, were kept from the islands as naval and air bases–meant
to threaten shipping lanes between Australia and Hawaii–were constructed.
During the Second World
War, these islands, as well as others in the vicinity, became targets of Allied
attacks. The U.S. Central Pacific Campaign began with the Gilbert Islands,
south of the Mandated Islands; U.S. forces conquered the Gilberts in November
1943. Next on the agenda was Operation Flintlock, a plan to capture the
Marshall Islands.
Adm. Raymond Spruance led
the 5th Fleet from Pearl Harbor on January 22, 1944, to the Marshalls, with the
goal of getting 53,000 assault troops ashore two islets: Roi and Namur.
Meanwhile, using the Gilberts as an air base, American planes bombed the
Japanese administrative and communications center for the Marshalls, which was
located on Kwajalein, an atoll that was part of the Marshall cluster of atolls,
islets, and reefs.
By January 31, Kwajalein
was devastated. Repeated carrier- and land-based air raids destroyed every
Japanese airplane on the Marshalls. By February 3, U.S. infantry overran Roi
and Namur atolls. The Marshalls were then effectively in American hands–with
the loss of only 400 American lives.
COURTESY: HISTORY.com
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