Pacific News-Review
May 16: Allied armies in Italy have maintained their pressure against the southern sector of the Gustav Line, and the Eighth Army’s break-through of the line across the Rapido River has been extended.
May 16: Chinese forces in their large scale offensive in the Yunnan Province, have penetrated eight miles into enemy territory, towards Eastern Burma.
May 18: The German front in Italy is collapsing. Cassino is now isolated and the enemy’s only escape route is under Allied fire. All enemy positions in the Gustav Line, south of Liri River, have been over-run. The Fifth Army is near ing the Adolf Hitler Line.
May 19; Allied Headquarters in the SW Pacific report that co-ordinated attacks by American, British, Dutch, Aus tralian and French aircraft were made on the Japs in Sourabaya (Java) on May 17. Complete surprise was achieved; 10 ships were sunk; two floating dry-docks were damaged; the Wonokromo oil refin ery was destroyed; the Braat engineering works were demolished; and 21 planes destroyed.
May 19: Allied forces have secured the Wakde airstrip (Dutch New Guinea), 100 miles west of Hollandia.
May 23: Canadians of the Eighth Army have penetrated a section of the Hitler Line (in the Liri Valley area, in Italy).
May 25; Patrols from the Fifth Army bridgehead at Anzio, in Italy, have now linked up with the Fifth Army front on the west coast.
May 29: Violent battles are in progress for positions in the German defences.
Their fall is believed imminent.
May 29: American troops landed on Biak Island (Schouten Group) off the coast of Dutch New Guinea, at the entrance of Geelvink Bay.
This, according to the Allied communi que, marks the virtual end of the New Guinea campaign. There will be further fighting, here and further west, in Dutch New Guinea, but that will be part of the Japanese defence of the Netherlands Indies. The Japs have virtually aban doned all their men and equipment now isolated in Australian New Guinea, New Britain, New Ireland and Bougainville.
May 29: Allied forces, in a surprise advance from the Anzio beach-head, are now only 17i miles from Rome.
May 30: Over 2,000 planes—heavy bombers and escorting fighters—con tinued the renewed Allied air offensive over Europe, which began four days ago.
It is believed to presage the Invasion.
May 30: American troops have ad vanced six miles towards the airstrip on Biak Island (Dutch New Guinea). The Japanese are resisting fiercely.
May 31: British troops are established in strength 15 miles due south of Rome.
The Americans are on the outskirts of Villa Crose, about 20 miles south-east.
June 1; The battle for Biak Island (Dutch New Guinea) has developed into the first tank battle in the South-west Pacific area. Further Allied landmgs— with the object of blocking enemy escape routes —have been made off Tanahmerah Bay.
June 4: Australians on Friday, without opposition, landed on Kar-kar Island, on the north coast of New Guinea, near Madang. US troops landed on two more small islands in the Schouten Group (Dutch New Guinea).
June 4: Allied forces this morning entered Rome, with little opposition, and were deliriously welcomed by P 0 P“" lace. The city was left intact by the retreating Germans, who now are being
pursued rapidly on the north side of the Tiber River. 7 June 5: The Allied air attack on Ger man communications throughout western Europe continues on a vast scale, June 6: Last night and early this morn ing the Allied Expeditionary Force launched a huge sea and air borne inva sion of the Normandy coast of France.
Four thousand ships and several thou sand smaller craft were used, supported by 11,000 front-line aircraft.
Air-borne troops, “on a scale far larger than ever seen before,” have been landed behind the enemy’s lines in France.
June 7: The grim “second front” battle for Normandy has begun. Men and supplies are pouring in to reinforce the Allies, whose progress is officially regarded as satisfactory, although the Germans are counter-attacking strongly.
Allied forces have penetrated as much as 12 miles inland from their beach-heads, which extend 40 miles northwards from the base of Cherbourg Peninsula.
June 8: Great infantry and tank battles are raging in France, as Allied Invasion troops push resolutely inland. Bayeux has been captured, and the road between Bayeux and Caen (15 miles from coast) has been crossed at several points.
June 8: In Italy, the Fifth Army has continued its advance and is now 40 miles north-west of Rome, in pursuit of the Germans. The Eighth Army has taken Subiaco and also is advancing in the Adriatic area.
June 12: The Americans in Normandy have bitten deeply into the German defences in the centre of the Allied bridge-head, and at some points they are 25 miles inland. On the western end of the bridge-head, they are within 17 miles of Cherbourg. Heavy fighting is taking place with German armoured units around Caen (eastern end of beach head).
June 12: The Russians have launched an offensive against Finland. Red infan try and tanks are pouring through a 25miles gap and have advanced 15 miles towards Viipuri, key-town of the Karelian Isthmus.
June 12: Allied armies in Italy now are approaching Orbetello —on the west coast. 75 miles north of Rome. The whole Allied front across Italy is in motion.
June 12; Allied carrier-based aircraft from a powerful task-force heavily raided on June 10 Japanese positions at Saipan, Tinian and Guam (Mariana Islands).
June 13: That there has been no major German counter-attack in Normandy yet is regarded as an indication of German confusion, and inability to calculate the Allies’ real intentions. The Allies are steadily consolidating their beach-head, now 80 miles long, and over 20 miles deep, in places. .
June 13; Allied carrier-based aircraft again raided the Marianas on June 11 and 12. , ..
June 14: There has been a marked Brit ish advance in Northern Prance and there is now possibility of a decisive Allied break-through in the centre of the Allied bridge-head. But the Germans are intensifying their counter-blows.
June 14: Thirteen enemy ships were sunk and 16 damaged, and 141 aircraft destroyed in the American raids on the Marianas on June 10, 11 and 12 June 14; Allied forces are now 100 miles north-west of Rome. , June 15: American forces have landea on Mariana Islands of Saipan and Tinian.
The Japanese are resisting bitterly.
This is one of the most important and dramatic moves of the Pacific War. it (a) places Americans within 1,000 miles
Notes And Comment On
The Progress Of The War
From May 16 To June 16
of Philippines (west) and 1,250 miles of Japan (north); (b) isolates the great Jap bases at Truk, Ponape and Kusaie, in the eastern Carolines (south); and (c) places the Americans, who started their drive north-westwards in November, half way to the China coast.
June 16: American super-Fortresses, from bases in South-east Asia, have bombed cities in Japan.