Rescue at Wotje

Nine months after the U.S. power drive in the Central Pacific left them to "wither on the vine," Japanese garrisons on four atolls in the Marshall Islands still held out last week. Almost daily they were pounded by aircraft, often they were bombarded by surface ships.

Helpless, suffering with the enemy, were hundreds of Micronesian natives against whom the U.S. had no grudge. So U.S. warships recently steamed at night into Wotje lagoon, defying thousands of hate-filled withering Japs. Native guides who had escaped and promoted the rescue attempt were sent ashore to wake the sleeping villagers. Soon a weird flotilla of outrigger canoes was paddled to the warships. More than 700 natives were taken aboard, with their poultry and pigs. The Japs were left on the vine.

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