CINCPAC Press Releases December 1944
This article contains official CINCPAC press releases issued during December 1944.
CINCPAC Press Release No. 663, December 8, 1944
Behind the brilliant story of the victory of Vice-Admiral Marc A. Mitscher’s carrier task force over the Japanese fleet in the Second Battle of the Philippine Sea lies another story no less dramatic in its implications - that of the workmanlike job performed by oilers of the Service Force of the Pacific, under the command of Vice-Admiral William L. Calhoun, in feeding the fighting ships and planes their lifeblood: gasoline and fuel oil.
Today Admiral William F. Halsey, Commander, Third Fleet, announced that during September and October these oilers had supplied the carrier task force considerably more than one hundred million gallons of fuel. This fuel was for the carriers and the planes in Mitscher’s forces. It was enough gasoline, based on present rations, to keep all the “A” card auto owners of a major United States city supplied with gasoline for an entire year; and the fuel oil supplied Admiral Mitscher’s fleet would keep the oil burning furnaces in 76,000 average American homes under normal conditions, going the year ’round.
Nor was this merely a story of a routine fueling job, performed in a quiet harbor under ideal conditions. After the oiler has made its long trip to an advance base, through waters where the danger of air and submarine attack is always present, its most dangerous job may still lie ahead. Once the battle is joined, much of the fueling of the fighting ships must of necessity be done at sea, and fueling at sea is one of the most difficult and dangerous jobs. In rough weather, it requires the utmost skill in seamanship to accomplish the job at all. Fuel and mooring lines may snap; men may be killed or maimed for life; the two ships may even collide with damage to both.
So difficult, so intricate and important is this task that Admiral Halsey has already commended the oilers for their “magnificent job” in supplying the fleet with gasoline and oil prior to and during the Second Battle of the Philippine Sea.
Not many an oiler will ever be able to paint a Jap flag, for planes downed or ships sunk, upon her bridge - but every man in the task force is aware of, the importance of the contribution of these service ships.
CINCPAC Press Release No. 685, December 14, 1944
ADMIRAL NIMITZ TO ESTABLISH AN ADVANCED HEADQUARTERS
The capture of the Gilberts, Marshalls, Marianas, Ulithi and Palau has permitted moving the center of gravity of the operations of the ground, sea and air forces of the Pacific Ocean Areas far to the westward.
To improve the effectiveness of the control of these forces as their operations converge on Japan, the Commander in Chief, U. S. Pacific Fleet and Pacific Ocean Areas, will soon establish an advanced headquarters in the forward area.
Main headquarters will remain at Pearl Harbor.
CINCPAC Press Release No. 692, December 19, 1944
COMMANDER IN CHIEF BRITISH PACIFIC FLEET CONFERS WITH ADMIRAL NIMITZ
A series of conferences is in progress at Pearl Harbor between Fleet Admiral C. W. Nimitz, Commander in Chief, U. S. Pacific Fleet and Pacific Ocean Areas, and Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser, GCB, KBE, Commander in Chief, British Pacific Fleet, and their respective staffs.
CINCPAC Press Release No. 693, December 19, 1944
ADMIRAL NIMITZ ASSUMES RANK
Admiral C. W. Nimitz, USN, Commander in Chief, U. S. Pacific Fleet and Pacific Ocean Areas, has assumed the rank of a Fleet Admiral of the United States Navy, from 19 December 1944.
CINCPAC Press Release No. 706, December 29, 1944
Following is the text of a recording by Fleet Admiral C. W. Nimitz, Commander in Chief, U. S. Pacific Fleet and Pacific Ocean Areas, broadcast December 26, 1944 over an Office of War Information program originating in Saipan, and beamed to the Japanese homeland.
“As Commander in Chief of the United States Pacific Fleet, it is my privilege to reveal to you certain facts from the records of the war in the western Pacific.
“In the past year the United States has advanced over 2,000 miles westward from the Gilbert and Marshall Islands, and 1,500 miles northwestward from New Guinea, to the Philippines.
“Guam, Saipan, Tinian, the Solomons, the Admiralties, New Guinea and Halmahera have fallen to the combined efforts of the Allied forces of all services. Peleliu, Angaur and nearby islands of the Palau group have been occupied. Former major Japanese bases at Yap, Truk, Palau, Rabaul and Kavieng have been neutralized. Remaining units in these ports have been isolated. Enemy survivors are bombed and shelled daily by our planes and ships with no hope of getting support or supplies from the harassed Japanese Navy.
“United States task forces have made repeated attacks on the Kuriles, the Bonins, Mindanao and Luzon in the Philippines. Ships and fleet air units have shelled and bombed Celebes, Borneo, Java and Sumatra in the East Indies. Our surface ships are making more frequent attacks on Formosa, the Ryukyus, the Kuriles and the Philippines.
“The United States Fleet is now the strongest in the world. The largest and fastest battleships and aircraft carriers ever built are being added to our naval units. United States industrial technique is building even larger and faster ships and planes in quantities the Japanese cannot hope to match with their present industrial limitations.
“Every day the war draws closer to the Japanese homeland. From bases captured and established by Marine, Army and Naval Units, airfleets of B-29 Superfortresses are bombing industrial targets in Tokyo and other sections of Japan and Manchuria, just as Allied aerial warfare reduced the productive capacity of Germany.
“Important Japan supply lines from her Empire outposts are being severed. Intensified U. S. submarine operations are continuing to sink more Japanese merchant ships loaded with supplies and materials desperately needed either at the front or in the home islands. Carrier based planes are adding to this shipping toll.
“Our progress in the Pacific campaigning has been so successful and uninterrupted that even high Japanese officials have indicated concern. The preponderance of U. S. ships, war materials and manpower portends increased casualties and hardships for Japan’s military, increased destruction and suffering for her industrial sectors.
“As the blockade of Japan tightens, as the bombing of Japan is steppedup, as United States productive capacity is enlarged it is inevitable that Japan will be defeated.
“Until the day that Allied victory is complete, the United States Navy is determined to carry the fighting to the very vitals of Japan.”
Posted: February 28th, 2007 under World War II.