War Against Geography

The capture of Kwajalein tore open the Jap's far-flung outer defense, already punctured at the Gilberts and ruptured in the south. Allied forces pressed against Japan's inner ocean frontier. Now, with the initiative completely in their hands, Allied strategists had to decide: What next?

Kwajalein, even more than the Gilberts, had shown the capabilities of the now mighty Pacific Fleet. Navy officers had once worried about mooring warships in Pearl Harbor. In a bold and disdainful gesture last week the Navy moored its ships inside Kwajalein's landlocked lagoon, 375 miles from Jap-held Kusaie and less than half that distance from bases which the Japs still occupy in the Marshalls group. The Navy, with its new carrier strength and antiaircraft fire (see p. 65), was no longer nervous about land-based aircraft.

A new chapter in Pacific strategy had opened up. How would that strategy develop?

Kwajalein is only one of several Marshall strongholds. But Kwajalein is in the heart of the group. Some of the other islands can be left to wither. Submarines and aircraft can choke them off and pin them down, render them useless to the enemy and no longer a threat. If it is necessary, U.S. troops can clean out enemy garrisons. Wake to the north and Nauru to the south will also have to be taken or knocked useless by air power.

The Next Blow. Where the next big blow will fall is the Jap's as well as the U.S.'s problem. But the Jap must think hardest, for he is on the defensive, and he is facing overwhelming forces. Only the barrier of distance is decisively on his side.

The next blow might come in the south, and the enemy knows it. During the recent period of spectacular Central Pacific operations, Allied forces have never stopped applying steady, increasing pressure in New Guinea and the Solomons. Japan's vital Rabaul base has been savagely battered by Army & Navy air power based in the South Pacific. The next few weeks might well see a shifting of U.S. naval strength to that area.

But the Jap can never be sure. Against the crushing sea power being built up against him, he must try to be ready at any point on his long line. A U.S. surface task force impudently rammed that fact home last week by slipping in to bombard the Paramushiro naval base in the Kuril Islands, northernmost of the island chain the Japs consider their home territory.

At whatever point the next big blow is pointed, the next objective now is Truk. The Navy may intend to occupy nearby islands like Kusaie and Ponape, by-pass Truk. The Pacific Fleet, supported by island-based fighters and bombers, might be able to neutralize Truk. But one way or another Truk, base for the Jap fleet and a base the U.S. could use, must be canceled out.

Map Ally. As Allied strategists conferred, Tokyo also had a decision to make. It should have been plain to the enemy last week that he has no clear hope of keeping the Allies from battering their way to the Philippines, even if he sends his reluctant, outgunned fleet out to fight. But he has distance between him and ruin. Geography is still his ally.

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