The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia
|
| Previous: Milagra Ridge | Table of Contents | Next: Military Police |
Mili (171.732E
6.088N) is an atoll in the
southern Marshall Islands. Twenty miles (30 km) long and ten miles (16 km) across, it
possessed a sizeable lagoon, with an area of 293 square miles (759 km2). By
September 1943 the Japanese had
completed an airfield with two
1200-meter (1310-yard) runways. This was the only Japanese airfield within fighter range of the Ellice Islands, and fighters from Mili escorted some of the Japanese strikes against the Ellices.
The atoll was bypassed by the Allies after their capture of Kwajalein in February 1944.
Thereafter a few supplies
arrived by submarine, but at
the cost of I-32 and I-184. By the time of the surrender, the 4700 men stranded on
the atoll suffered 1600 deaths
from disease, starvation, or food poisoning, and another 900 were
killed or died of wounds received in air raids.
References
The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia © 2008, 2010 by Kent G. Budge. Index
