Man with Answers

Back to his post in Pearl Harbor went Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, commander of the mightiest fleet and amphibious force in world history. For more than a week he had been in Washington, planning, conferring. Before he left, Navymen whispered, some of the U.S.'s weightiest war decisions were made. The war against Japan depended no longer on European developments.

In the Pacific, U.S. air power thundered through the islands. Land-based Liberators bombed Truk for the first time. Long-range, Aleutian-based Army and Navy planes pecked at the Kuriles. One lone Army Liberator swung past Paramushiro all the way to Matsuwa, 1,100 miles north of Tokyo.

Far to the south Douglas MacArthur's troops tightened up their hold on the Admiralties, moved ever closer to Rabaul. The 37th and Americal divisions fought off fierce counterattacks from the Japs trapped on Bougainville, killed them on the barbed wire and in the jungles at the rate of 10-to-1.

This week Mili Atoll in the southeastern Marshalls, less than 100 miles southeast of U.S. positions on Majuro, was plastered by carrier-based bombers, shelled by battleships. It was the first time the battleships had unlimbered their guns since Eniwetok last month.

All this was but the tuning-up for the great overture about to begin. Chester W. Nimitz sat down in his headquarters, with his score before him.

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