only about half mile wide and one mile long. Ulithi, about 900 miles east of the Philippines is a small group of islands in the Western Pacific that belongs to the Western Caroline group. There are 6 or 8 of these islands but we used only 3 or 4 of the larger ones.
Expecting the Japanese to still be on these islands, the American Forces, as customary, blasted them thoroughly with shells and bombs before invading. After going ashore we found that the enemy had moved out before our arrival - no doubt in a hurry as they left so much of the equipment behind. Ironically, one piece of this equipment (an old Aircompressor) had been made in the United States. We also learned that we had killed a number of natives. One of these regretfully was the daughter of King Ueg, the Chief of this group of islands. This tragedy was hard for the Chief to endure and still befriend us. He and his natives were moved to Fassarai, a near-by island, as we needed this group of islands, along with the well protected harbor for a Naval Supply Base. The Chief, paralyzed from his waist down, was carried around in a wheelbarrow by the natives.
These islands and the coral reef connecting them formed a circle of about 15 miles in diameter. There were only two places deep enough for ship passage into the harbor. Those were kept closed by nets (under water) when not being used. At low tide one could almost walk from one island to another.
This atoll made an ideal harbor, but we were only 200 miles from Yap and 400 miles from Palau and Guam, right between the latter two. For a while we had some enemy planes fly in under radar and give us a scare. One plane dived into the mess hall on the next island. We did confiscate a two-man submarine inside the harbor before it did any harm. The submarine ended up as a display on the beach.
The first five or six days on Asor, the flies and mosquitos were so thick there would be half a dozen flies on every bite of food before you could get
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