CHRONICLES OF HEROIC ARIZONA CHINESE- AMERICAN SERVICEMEN OF WORLD WAR II   （2）

      MacArthur’s Island leaps were measured precisely by the range of his fighter-bombers. The primary task of Nimitz’s carriers was to support and defend the landing forces. As soon as the landing and islands were secured, land-based planes and personnel were brought in to free the carriers for other operations. Because he had to cover hit the landing with be land-based planes, defense was limited to 200 miles. Further, he had to build airfields as he went. As each Island was secured the 13^th Air Force moved in with their aircraft and personnel. With them came the planes, men, and equipment. Cpl. Don C. Tang was among those personnel arriving. Almost nightly, they would have bomb raids from the Japanese aircrafts. Lt. Conrad Woo was assigned to the 5th Bomb Group of the 13th Air Force, flying B-24 missions as a bombardier raiding Japanese islands, air fields airfields, and supplies.

      In November 1943, Nimitz’s island-hopping campaign began with his assaults on Tarawa Atoll and Makin, a 100 miles north. Naval gunfire and air attacks had failed to eliminate the deeply dug-in defenders and landing craft grounded on reefs offshore where they were destroyed by Japanese artillery. The 2d  Marine  Division encountered stubborn and deadly resistance.

     Like MacArthur, Nimitz determined to bypass strongly held islands and strike at the enemy’s weak points. During January 1944, landings were made in the Marshalls, at Kwajalein and Eniwetok, followed by Guam and Saipan in the Marianas during June and July. Because the

Marianas were only 1,500 miles from Tokyo, the remaining Japanese carriers came out to fight. The resulting Battle of the Philippine Sea was a disaster for the Japanese. in what U.S. Navy pilots called “the great Marianas turkey shoot”. The Japanese carrier power was effectively eliminated

      By October 1944, MacArthur was ready for a leap to the Philippines, but his objective was beyond the range of his planes. Nimitz loaned him Admiral William F. Halsey’s heavy carriers, and on 20 October 1944, MacArthur's Sixth Army landed on Leyte Island in the central Philippines. Tech 4 Fee “Barney”Ong was with Co. A, 154th Combat Engineer Battalion, on 17 Sept. 1944 at the campaign of Anguar Island, Barney was wounded while crawling to deliver a message between positions. He was awarded  the Purple Heart. Cpl. Jick Lee was with the 190th Quartermaster Gas Co. and participated in the So. Philippine campaigns. M/Sgt Jack Yue was a radio operator in the liberation of the Philippines.

The Japanese reacted vigorously. For the first time in the war, they employed Kamikaze attacks, suicide missions flown by young half-trained pilots. They used their last carriers as decoys to draw Halsey’s carriers away from the beachheads. With Halsey out of the battle and the landing forces without air cover, the Japanese planned to use conventional warships to brush aside the remaining American warships and destroy the support vessels anchored off the beaches. They almost succeeded. In the naval Battle of Leyte Gulf, the big guns of the big battle ships, not carriers planes, decided the battle. The Japanese Naval forces were decimated. Japan no longer had an effective navy. Seaman Dong M. Hom served on the USS Quiross, an oil tanker, that supplies fuel to all the fighting ships. Radio Tech Sing Yee, Jr. was aboard the Amphibious Attack Cargo Ship, the USS Athena, АКА-9.

      Sgt. James Sing was with the 345th Medium Bomb Group. The Liberty Ship SS Thomas Nelson, carrying the ground echelons of the 345th HQ, 498th , and small contingents from the 500th and 501st Squadrons had been lying in the harbor of Dulag on the Island of Leyte, Philippines for two weeks waiting to be unloaded. At 1124 hours, Nov. 12, 1944, the ship came under kamikazi attack as it roade at anchor. A Japanese fighter dropped a bomb on the No. 5 hatch, then caught a wing tip on the 30 ton main boom, ripping it loose and flinging it overboard. The plane spun to the deck and exploded spreading burning gasoline over the ship. The 345th lost 89 men, killed or died of their wounds. Sgt James Sing was among those killed in action.

     On July 5, the Philippine campaign was over. The Americans had annihilated four hundred and fifty thousand of Japan best remaining troops.

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