World Battlefronts: BATTLE OF THE PACIFIC: The Calm Before

It was perhaps the quietest week of the year in the Pacific. While the world’s eyes were on Europe, there were nothing but routine operations from Brisbane to Adak. Truk was bombed, and so was the phosphate-producing island of Nauru, which is isolated south of the Marshalls. In Dutch New Guinea, General Ma-Arthur’s troops killed 398 more Japs and captured 173. It was announced that Thirteenth Air Force P39 Airacobras and dive bombers are now equipped with rocket guns, had sunk 40 supply barges in Rabaul harbor with the new equipment presumably mounted in clusters of three under each plane’s wings.

But this lull fooled no one, especially the Japanese. Premier Hideki Tojo last week praised the Japanese for producing “undreamed-of” quantities of ships and airplanes, then warned them that the British and Americans were becoming impatient “to end’ the war in a short time.” Said he: “The time to decide the destiny of our empire has come.”

In San Francisco the Navy’s three four-star top dogs, Admirals King, Nimitz and Halsey, met to touch up their plans regarding that destiny.