'MacArthur and the War Against Japan' 
Bypassing 60,000 Japs, 
MacArthur Sped 500 Miles 
! 
(How General MacArthur 
seized the Admiralty Islands 
and then advanced his front 
almost 500 miles by capturing 
Hollandia and bypassing 60,000 
Japanese troops i$ described in 
the following article, final 
installment of a series con¬ 
densed from the book, '‘Mac¬ 
Arthur and the War Against 
Japan,” by Frazier Hunt, 
famous war correspondent and 
intimate friend of General Mac¬ 
Arthur.) 
By FRAZIER HUNT 
(Copyright by Charles Scribner’s Sons) 
It had been MacArthur’s orig¬ 
inal plan to make his next strike 
at the Jap base at Hansa Bay, 
some 120 miles up the coast from 
the last American-Australian out¬ 
post at Saidor in - New Guinea. 
Part way up the shore line from 
our base at Saidor stood Madang, 
guarded by 5,500 Japanese troops. 
To the north west . from Madang a 
motor road led to Hansa Bay. 
Along this road was probably a 
full enemy division which could 
be rushed to meet any attack in 
this area. Besides this, at Hansa 
Bay itself were some 10,000 to 
15,000 Japanese troops. 
This meant that if MacArthur 
by-passed Madang and struck at 
Hansa Bay he would at best ad¬ 
vance his line a scant 120 miles— 
and still have to face initially 
someN5,000 determined Japs. This 
was not his type of strategy. 
Farther on to the northwest 
from Hansa Bay, up the Guinea 
coast, stood the great enemy base 
of Wewak. Here it was estimated 
there were not fewer than 16,000 
Japanese troops. MacArthur might 
hit this advanced point and by¬ 
pass both Madang and Hansa 
Bay, but it would be costly, and 
he was utterly opposed to a bloody 
frontal assault when avoidable. It 
is an astounding fact that Mac¬ 
Arthur’s total losses in the first 
two years of fighting after he took 
command in Australia have been 
fewer killed in action than Amer¬ 
ica lost in the single operation for 
the beaches of Anzio. 
Some 200 miles west of Wewak 
was the base of Hollandia, on 
beautiful Humboldt Bay. This 
was being used as a staging area 
by the Japanese and was being 
developed into a major supply 
and air base. From here rice, 
bullets, and oil were transshipped 
by barges along the Guinea coast 
to the bases at Madang, Hansa 
Bay, and Wewak. 
Japs Strengthen Defenses 
Intelligence reports indicated 
the Japanese were hurriedly 
strengthening their defenses at 
both Hansa Bay and Wewak. This 
meant they had concluded we 
would attack at one or the other 
of *th ese points — and they were 
ready. 
To choose the daring alterna¬ 
tive of Hollandia, almost 200 miles 
beyond the last obvious objective, 
would demand boldness and a 
confidence almost beyond com¬ 
puting. And there was one 
stumbling block that argued defi¬ 
nitely against the great move — 
under no circumstances would 
MacArthur attempt landing in 
areas dominated by Jap air power. 
He called in Kenney. “George, 
can you take out the three Jap 
airfields in the Hollandia area, 
and all those in between?” he 
asked. Kenney bobbed his head 
and grinned. Sure he could do it. 
He’d take out the Jap Air Force 
in this entire area by D-Day. New 
model, longer range P-39 fighters 
would arrive from the States in 
March. He’d set them up and then 
secretly install belly tanks in his 
old ones and bring them up to the 
same gas capacity as the new ones. 
Carefully he had stopped fighters 
from flv ing fart her than Tadji, so 
to furnish ample naval vessels and 
carrier-based air support. The 
two men saw eye to eye, and their 
personal meeting was to be of in¬ 
estimable value. 
MacArthur had plans prepared 
to “lift” not only an Army of 
50,000 men but as well a great city 
with its stores, garages, hospitals, 
power plants, fire departments, 
post office, and a hundred and one 
items of daily need. The troops 
would be gathered at Goodenough 
Island and at another great base. 
The armada would pnove in three 
groups to the Admiralties, and 
there at dawn of April 20 join and 
openly head northwest. Japanese 
reconnaissance planes and their 
own intelligence agencies would 
probably discover the armada 
moving northwest and would de¬ 
cide it was headed for Palau. But 
there would be a quick cutback to 
the New Guinea coast, blissfully 
unprepared and suspecting. 
At dawn on March 30 our Air 
Force struck Hollandia with the 
fury of a Kansas cyclone. Ninety 
heavies, each carrying 52 clusters 
of fragmentation bombs, cut to 
pieces more than 100 Japanese 
planes. The following day they 
struck again. On April 3 they let 
loose a low-level attack of deadly 
B-25s with their eight .50-caliber 
guns. Photographs showed that 
in the three attacks the Japs had 
a total of 351 planes either de¬ 
stroyed or rendered useless—and 
later actual count proved that, in¬ 
cluding those shot down in com¬ 
bat, they had destroyed a Jap Air 
Force of 450 planes. 
Plans Co-ordinated 
Meanwhile the plans for the 
ground forces were being co-ordi¬ 
nated. Lieutenant-General Bob 
Eichelberger, one of the heroes of 
the terrible Buna campaign, was 
given a corps made up of most of 
the units of the 24th and 41st 
United States Infantry Divisions 
—along with such special artillery 
and auxiliary troops as were 
needed. 
Early on the morning of D-Day 
the three groups of the great ar¬ 
mada executed the cut-back and 
each group headed straight for its 
separate mission. Toward Aitape 
the escort carriers went with the 
vessels they were guarding. They 
would attend to the preliminary 
beach bombing there. 
For the Hollandia and the Tan- 
ahmerah landings air protection 
would come from the fast carriers 
of the task forces. 
At 6:20—H-Hour minus 75 min¬ 
utes—the ships of war that had 
accompanied the convoys opened 
their preliminary bombardments. 
Again the surprise was complete 
and unmeetable. The few Japa¬ 
nese troops at each of the landing 
beaches fled in terror. 
Bomber Line Advances 
Two days later our fighters were 
landing on the strips the bulldoz¬ 
ers had leveled off; in a few days 
more the heavy bombers were 
dropping in. The bomber line haji 
been advanced 500 miles. And 
here in the coconut plantations 
and jungle a great advance base 
was already building. Before long 
tens of thousands of troops, mil¬ 
lions of pounds of supplies and 
equipment—a vast Army in being 
—would be centered here. 
The advancing bomber line 
would coincide with the advancing 
staging area. Hollandia, the sleepy 
little Dutch native village, long 
forgotten and neglected, would 
mushroom into a vivid, busy port, 
with hundreds of ships riding in 
its harbor. 
Within a month the first of these 
advancing arms of steel would 
shoot out from Hollandia. From 
those newly captured fields our 
bom bers and fighters would first 
Freedom Sought 
For Refugees 
OSWEGO, N. Y., June 2 (AP)— 
Asserting that the Fort Ontario 
refugee shelter had “taken on the 
psychological aspect of a prison,” 
the Oswego Citizens Advisory 
Coffimitte today asked President 
Truman and Congress to “give our 
guests their freedom.” 
The committee, a liaison group 
formed at the request of the War 
Relocation Authority after esta¬ 
blishment of the shelter last 
August to house 984 European 
refugees as “duration guests,” 
made these specific recommenda¬ 
tions in a memorial: 
“THE REFUGEES who would, 
except for their present peculiar 
circumstances, be eligible under 
our existing immigration quotas 
should be permitted, should they 
so desire, to become citizens of the 
United States. 
“THOSE WHO desire to return 
to their homeland or any portion 
of the world should be given the 
opportunity as soon as conditions 
permit.” 
2 Die in New England 
Auto Accidents 
PORTSMOUTH, N. H., June 2 
(AP)—An Army nurse and a sev- 
en-year-old boy were killed in 
separate auto accidents in this 
city and nearby Eliot, Me., today. 
Lieutenant Sally Salman, sta¬ 
tioned at Fort Devens, was killed 
and three other persons were in¬ 
jured when their auto crashed 
into a telephone pole and tree in 
Eliot. Her next of kin was list¬ 
ed as a sister, Miss Catherine 
Salman of Lowell, Mass. 
Paul Curtis Woods of Ports¬ 
mouth died of injuries suffered 
when he was struck by an auto 
here. 
Bataan and Corregidor, of Manila, 
and a hundred native barrios— 
all would in the end be avenged. 
THE END. 
t * * * 
(Since this story was com¬ 
pleted by Mr. Hunt, General 
MacArthur has thrust his way 
hack to the Philippines and lib¬ 
erated many of his former com¬ 
rades imprisoned by the Japa¬ 
nese.) 
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