500-Mile Hop

"Their situation reverses Bataan."

With this statement General Douglas MacArthur this week charged off the 142,000 Japs still alive (out of an original estimated 250,000) in the Southwest Pacific.

The General's statement appeared in a communique announcing that Allied troops had made another landing on the coast of New Guinea, for which MacArthur has been fighting 18 months. But the three-pronged landing (at Hollandia, Aitape and Tanahamera Bay) appeared more important than the early captures of Buna, Lae, Salamaua and other key points on the tortuous New Guinea coast.

It was a 500-mile leap which seemed likely to cut off most supplies for Japanese troops to the east, including (according to McArthur's figures) 60,000 on New Guinea, 50,000 on New Britain, 10,000 on New Ireland and 22,000 on Bougainville. Some of these had already been announced as partially cut off by previous Allied landings on the Admiralty and Green Islands.

Seizure of Hollandia, with its three excellent airfields which have accommodated as many as 300 Jap planes at a time, means that MacArthur would gain a base 960 miles southeast of the great Jap base at Palau (whose seizure may be necessary before landings can be made in the Philippines) and 1,200 miles southeast of Mindanao, second-biggest island in the Philippines.

It was the first landing on Dutch territory since the East Indies fell. Hollandia is just over the border in Dutch New Guinea, which comprises the western half of the island of New Guinea.

It was also the first big-scale merging of MacArthur's forces with those of Admiral Chester Nimitz. Admiral Nimitz issued a separate communique from Pearl Harbor saying that his cruisers, aircraft carriers and destroyers shelled and bombed the three bases before MacArthur's troops waded ashore.

Landing. The surprise achieved by MacArthur was complete. The large force had feinted toward Palau, then reversed itself at night to steam southward into Hollandia. Other feints had been made toward Madang and Wewak, Jap-held bases in Australian New Guinea, where enemy forces had been concentrated, perhaps in expectation of the attack.

There was little opposition as U.S. and Australian troops, veterans of Salamaua and Buna-Gona, hit the beaches. Jap soldiers at Hollandia, evidently numbering considerably fewer than the 10,000 expected there, dashed into the jungle, leaving uneaten breakfasts. Beachheads were secured as easily at the other two points.

General MacArthur watched the landings from a light cruiser, then went ashore in a landing boat. The Jap's fate was certain, he said, but "his invested garrisons can be expected to strike desperately to free themselves and time and combat will be required to accomplish their annihilation."

Significance. The landings at Hollandia were hardly "the Pacific equivalent of the Second Front," as one delirious reporter acclaimed. But the operation was a notable step. Once the bases have been cleared of Japs and put into U.S. operation, they will be invaluable in the long, weary road back to the Philippines.

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