“A cheery note comes from Wake,” he informed Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox, “and the news is particularly pleasing at a time like this.” Most of Wake’s defenders were US Marines, and the commandant of their corps, Major General Thomas Holcomb, promptly publicized that fact. Early on December 11, the atoll’s garrison repulsed an attempted amphibious assault, sinking two enemy warships. Three days later, however, American newspapers surprised their readers with jubilant headlines announcing a victory at Wake Island-a small, undermanned outpost situated 2,000 miles west of Oahu. The reports from Guam and Wake and Midway islands are still confused, but we must be prepared for the announcement that all these three outposts have been seized. Our forces in the Philippines, which include the brave people of that Commonwealth, are taking punishment. We have suffered a serious set-back in Hawaii. In a somber “Fireside Chat” on December 9, FDR confessed: Roosevelt’s administration endeavored to conceal the full extent of the US Pacific Fleet’s losses, no amount of censorship could conceal the fact that Japan had gained the upper hand. The stunning Japanese carrier raid of Decemon Pearl Harbor turned out to be just the first in a succession of blows that threatened to sweep the American military out of East Asia and the Central Pacific. When World War II abruptly gripped the United States in its deadly embrace, a people seething with anger struggled to avoid being sucked into a vortex of gloom. Image courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration. The roads and installations built by Contractors Pacific Naval Air Bases are clearly visible, including the triangular airfield at the apex of the main islet at lower right. Top Image: The PBYs of VP-22 took this composite aerial photograph of Wake Island during a brief visit on December 3, 1941-just five days before Japanese bombers first pounded the atoll.
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