Softening the Marshalls

Almost every day U.S. Army Liberators bombed the Marshalls; once they paid two visits between dawn and dusk. The big bombers pummeled Wot je's drome, tore up Taroa's runways, buildings and anchorage, damaged Jaluit's shore defenses, all secretly installed since the Japs took over this mandate from the unsuspecting League of Nations in 1920.

To the enemy the drumbeat cadence of the attack could mean only one thing. Now that the Gilberts had fallen, the Marshalls were next. The stern, long march to Tokyo had barely begun. But it had been started.

Atolls of War. The Marshalls group has more than twice as many atolls (33) as the Gilberts (16), but in total land area they are slightly smaller. Their 160 sq. mi. (half as large as New York City) of sand, coral and coconut palm are scattered over 150,000 sq. mi. (as large as Montana) of blue water.

They are strung in a double chain: the Radak, or Sunrise, group on the east; the Ralik, or Sunset, group on the west. They are run-of-the-Pacific, tropical atolls: low, narrow coral formations studded with is lets, enclosing calm lagoons where volcanic cones may once have jutted (see map, p. 26). Twenty years ago, when the Japs settled down to prepare for World War II, the islands had a population of 10,000 Kanakas, lazygoing, brown-skinned Micronesian fishermen and boatmen.

Today the Japs are the only ones who know the true strength of the Marshalls' defenses. U.S. reconnaissance, dating from tlie Navy's first raid on the islands in January 1942, has put the main Jap works on five atolls:

> Kwajalein, world's largest atoll, an 80-mile string of islets, is the hub of the Marshall fortifications. It has a major airfield (on Roi Island), a seaplane anchorage, submarine facilities. In its tremendous lagoon, raiding U.S. planes (TIME, Dec. 20), have caught cruisers, carriers, seagoing merchantmen and many varieties of inter-island craft.

> Wotje, 31 miles long, a cluster of 60 wooded islands, has important runways, hangars, a radio tower, docks for small ships.

> Maloelap, 32 miles long, densely populated, has a naval anchorage, an airfield (on Taroa island) big enough for bombers.

> Jaluit, 33 miles long, administrative center, has an airfield and a big-ship harbor.

> Mili, 23 miles long, a nest of 100 islets, has a strongly garrisoned airfield, a lagoon that provides good anchorage for surface vessels.

To these key atolls, and perhaps to others, the Japs have been hauling tons of cement and steel. As at Tarawa, they have fashioned pillboxes of coconut logs, concrete, metal and many feet of sand. Under palm trees are coastal batteries.

Offshore reefs are strung with barbed wire and tank blocks. Beaches are covered by machine-gun nests. Even if the Jap Navy does not come out, even if Jap air power is scotched, a U.S. landing force will find the Marshalls no pushover.

Atolls of Empire. Until World War II, history brushed by the Marshalls. Portuguese and Spanish sea dogs noted them in the 16th Century, quickly forgot them. In 1788 two British merchantmen, the Charlotte under Captain Thomas Gilbert and the Scarborough under Captain John Marshall, skirted and named for each other the Gilbert and Marshall atolls.

After the Englishmen came Russian explorers, Yankee whalers and missionaries, German traders. In 1885 German warships dropped anchor off Jaluit, claimed possession of the Marshalls for the Kaiser. Later Germany agreed that Britain should have the Gilberts. The German Navy dreamed of basing a fleet on Majuro atoll (north of Mili), and in World War I Admiral Graf von Spee stopped there on his way to the Falklands. Then in 1914 the Japs seized the Marshalls, along with the neighboring Marianas and Carolines, now site of the Truk powerhouse; they remained in possession with League blessing. From then on the Japs knew what to do. The U.S. would have to spend many a man now to undo his works.

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