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Pacific Islands WWII Stories
 Nopuko's Japanese Gun Cave on Moen Is., Truk.
 
Wreck of WWII Japanese Midget Tank, Lelu Harbour, Micronesia Photographic Print Elk III, John Buy at AllPosters.com |
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The islands of Micronesia saw many ferocious battles during World War II. The names of such island-battles as Kwajalein, Truk, Guam, Saipan and Pelilieu will never be forgotten.
In what is now the Federated States of Micronesia (Pohnpei, Chuuk or Truk, Kosrae and Yap), the largest single battle was the February 1944 attack by the U.S. Navy on the Imperial Japanese Naval fleet anchored in the Truk Lagoon, which virtually destroyed the Japanese Fourth Fleet. Truk, A Brief History will give you some history and a description of the attack - "Operation Hailstone" and WW2 History gives some history of the Pacific Theater as a whole.
More good books on Operation Hailstone can be found here.
Significant Imperial Japanese Navy and Army units were on Kosrae, Pohnpei and Yap as well as Truk, but after the success of the February 1944 attack on Truk, the U.S. decided to leapfrog those islands. You can read about the Pacific Theater of WWII and the island campaigns here.
We are publishing stories and articles about World War II in the islands in these pages. If you or any of your relatives or friends saw action in the islands, and you have their story to tell, please email us. We would like to add their stories. Or, if you have old newspaper articles, we would apprecae you sharing them with us. And check back often -- we are adding stories regularly.
In their video collection, Google has one of the old "Victory At Sea" episodes covering the war in the Gilberts, Marshalls and Eastern Caroline Islands, including Truk, here and youtube.com has a 1944 Universal Newsreel entitled We Blast Truk, Jap Fortress.
 Fenton, NT. c. November 1945. An informal group portrait of the crew from a Consolidated B24 Liberator bomber aircraft of No. 24 Squadron RAAF in front of a tent. Flight Lieutenant (Flt Lt) Bob Hirst DFC captained the aircraft previously in the first raid on Truk Island. This crew took part in the highly successful raid on Kendari in the Celebes. Left to right: back row: Flying Officer (FO) J. P. Roberts of Sydney, NSW (co-pilot); Pilot Officer A. De Marchi of Melbourne, Vic (Navigator); Sergeant (Sgt) P. Ryan of Melbourne (gunner); Flt Lt Bob Hirst; FO Brian Buzzard of Perth, WA (wireless operator). Front row: Sgt C. R. Flood; Flight Sergeant (Flt Sgt) F. Hartigan of Sydney, NSW (gunner); Flt Sgt G. J. Woods of Brisbane, Qld (Bombardier), and Warrant Officer B. Dando of Melbourne, Vic (gunner).
 The Globe and Mail - Toronto - Canada 3 May 1943
 This detachment of young Marines was formed out of the 3rd Marine Division in 1945 and spent 13 months on Moen, Truk. If anyone recognizes any of these men, we would like to hear from you.
 Japanese Memorial to Those Killed at Truk in WWII, Located on Weno Island, Chuuk (Truk).
 Copyright 2006 nopukob.com
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