World Battlefronts: BATTLE OF THE PACIFIC: Around the Bismarck Sea

"The Bismarck Sea may not be mine, but it is no longer his and he crosses it at his peril," said Douglas MacArthur a year ago. It had begun to be his a few days before when his Fifth Air Force swooped down on a warship-escorted convoy off New Guinea and sank it to the last ship.

His control seemed cinched last week when 1) a horseless cavalry division made the key of the Admiralty Islands (Los Negros) theirs for keeps and 2) Marines jumped closer to Rabaul, the failing Jap stronghold on New Britain.

Cavalry. Fortnight ago MacArthur sent burly Major...

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