To these key atolls, and perhaps to others, the Japs have been hauling tons of cement and steel. As at Tarawa, they have fashioned pillboxes of coconut logs, concrete, metal and many feet of sand. Under palm trees are coastal batteries. Offshore reefs are strung with barbed wire and tank blocks. Beaches are covered by machine-gun nests. Even if the Jap Navy does not come out, even if Jap air power is scotched, a U.S. landing force will find the Marshalls no pushover. Atolls of Empire. Until World War II, history brushed by the Marshalls. Portuguese and Spanish sea dogs noted them in the 16th Century, quickly forgot them. In 1788 two British merchantmen, the Charlotte under Captain Thomas Gilbert and the Scarborough under Captain John Marshall, skirted and named for each other the Gilbert and Marshall atolls. After the Englishmen came Russian explorers, Yankee whalers and missionaries, German traders. In 1885 German warships dropped anchor off Jaluit, claimed possession of the Marshalls for the Kaiser. Later Germany agreed that Britain should have the Gilberts. The German Navy dreamed of basing a fleet on Majuro atoll (north of Mili), and in World War I Admiral Graf von Spee stopped there on his way to the Falklands. Then in 1914 the Japs seized the Marshalls, along with the neighboring Marianas and Carolines, now site of the Truk powerhouse; they remained in possession with League blessing. From then on the Japs knew what to do. The U.S. would have to spend many a man now to undo his works. Copyright 2006 nopukob.com