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Wake Island: Japan’s First Setback. The battle for a lonely outpost in the Pacific became a supreme test of wills between the island’s American defenders and the overconfident Japanese invaders. This article appears in: Spring 2021.
Battle of Wake Island, (December 8–23, 1941), during World War II, battle for Wake Island, an atoll consisting of three coral islets (Wilkes, Peale, and Wake) in the central Pacific Ocean. During the battle a small force of U.S. Marines and civilian defenders fought elements of the Imperial.
May 15, 2024 · Wake Island was probably visited by Micronesian and Polynesian settlers, and oral legends tell of periodic voyages to the islands by people from the Marshall Islands. Wake Island was uninhabited when Spanish explorer Alvaro de Mendana de NEYRA became the first European to see it in 1568 and still had no human inhabitants when English captain ...
Jun 12, 2006 · Stories. Starved and Beaten: Wake Island Prisoners of World War II. The heroic survivors of Wake Island's defense force faced nearly four years as Japanese prisoners. by HistoryNet Staff 6/12/2006. A TBD from Enterprise joins in the attack on Japanese-held Wake Island on February 1, 1942. (Naval History and Heritage Command) Share This Article.
Wake Island is actually three islands, Wake, Wilkes, and Peale, surrounding a central lagoon and encircled by a coral reef. With no indigenous inhabitants except for stunted trees and a rare species of rat, the islands are barely 20 feet above sea level at their highest and cover a scant four square miles of land.
Location: Wake Island in the Central Pacific Ocean. Generals/Commanders: American: Winfield S. Cunningham. Japanese: Shigeyoshi Inoue, Sadamichi Kajioka. Outcome: Japanese Victory. Soldiers Engaged: American: 1,100 Japanese: 2,500 infantry. Casualties: American: 120 killed; 49 wounded, 2 MIA Japanese: 820 killed, 333 wounded.
Wake Island (also known as Wake Atoll) is a coral atoll having a coastline of 12 miles (19.3 kilometers) in the North Pacific Ocean, formerly known as Halcyon Island, or Helsion Island atoll.
