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U.S. Marine Corps. Via VMB613.com |
Wotje (170.244E
9.450N) is a large (30 miles or 50 km long and 12 miles or 20 km wide) atoll in the Marshall Islands. Wotje’s capacious lagoon had room for 2000
ships, and could
be reached by four passes (the
deepest 15 fathoms). It also
had enough land
for an airfield, making it an
excellent candidate for a naval base.
The Japanese
had constructed perhaps their strongest base in the Marshalls here by
1941, with 1050-meter (1150-yard) and 1500-meter (1640-yard) runways at
Otdia airbase, but no aircraft
were yet based there when war broke out in the Pacific. There was also
a
seaplane base, numerous antiaircraft
and coastal batteries,
and a system of roads and trenches,The atoll was garrisoned by 53 Guard Force, which arrived just before war broke out.
The atoll was
bombarded by a cruiser force
under Spruance on 1
February 1942 and by an Allied
battleship force on 29 January
1944, during the Marshalls
campaign. Thereafter the atoll was bypassed,
and though it was repeatedly bombarded by air and sea, it remained in
Japanese hands throughout the war. Two night evacuations of the native population were
carried out by the Allies, in September 1944 and March 1945, which
brought out over 1100 civilians.
References
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