BASE OF TRUK

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 7, Issue 14, 12 October 1943, Page 2

BASE OF TRUK

FORMIDABLE JAPANESE FORTRESS

The name Truk has appeared sev- j eral times in recent news,, but until the headlines, announce that Truk has been smashed and occupied by the United Nations, the cause of freedom will not be safe in the South-west Pacific. The Truk group, comprising 11 major islands: and about 100 small coral atolls, is Japan's Pearl Harbour of the South Pacific. Japan brought pressure to bear upon the British Foreign Secretary during World War 1 to procure the Marshall, Marianas and Caroline Islands. Japan obtained a Class C mandate over the groups, which they call Nanyo. This mandate positively forbade fortifications, but Japan l'orti/ied. the islands anyway. Truk is in the Carolines. It is 2200 miles from Tokio and 3500 miles from Pearl Harbour. Some of the names you will hear as America fights northward in the Pacific* and begins to bomb the Truk group on a large scale are Tol Island, Udot, Dublon,, Uman, Fefan, Moen, Tsis, Anchorage, and Eten Island. These are the larger islands in a large atoll surrounded by a coral reef, the whole of which is. Truk. The major fortress and best-equip-ped base in the Truk group is on Dublon Island. Here is a complete naval base, with repair shop, docks, loading equipment, guns and all paraphernalia needed in a wartime harbour. Guarding this base, which is sheltered in the rear by hills, is the small island of Eten. Eten is a smooth atoll that has been built into an ideal airplane base. It is; called Eten Anchorage. It is ideally situated to protect the vital harbour on Dublon. On Eten are modern runways, airplane hangars, anti-aircraft cannons and guns, re j) air shops, barracks, and complete equipment for airplanes, seaplanes and pilots. Eten major base from which warships,, troop transports and supply vessels repeatedly have ventured southward, to their eventual regret. Ringed by protecting reefs, Truk has some of the finest harbours; in the Pacific, and one of the most unapproachable naval and air bases in the world. The Marshall Islands, 1200 miles toward- Hawaii, protect Truk on one side, while the remainder of the Caroline. Islands surround Truk itself. Many smaller islands with wireless equipment, such as Ma'kin, insure the Japanese of ample warning in case of enemy approaches. Thirteen hundred miles almost straight north of Guadaleanar, the Truk group soon will be the object of increasingly heavy air assults. But naval and land assaults may be another matter. It is likely that the United States Navy will move against New Britain and New Ireland, against the Gilbert Islands (Maikin, etc.), and thus bottle the Japanese in their coral fortress..