U.S. troops take Wakde Islands in Pacific.

U.S. troops take Wakde Islands in Pacific. American soldiers inch their way forward behind a tank to capture Wakde Islands of New Guinea in the Southwest Pacific after a furious four-day battle against the Japanese. The Wakde airstrip is 1,000 miles from the Philippines and makes a base for attacks on the Japanese naval base of Pulau to the north and against enemy installations in the Dutch East Indies to the west. The drive on Wakde formed the southern prong of the Three-armed Allied attack against the Japanese in the Marianas and Burma.