With the seizure of air-base sites in the Palaus and on Morotai,
the Allied forces of the Pacific theaters completed the
strategic and tactical steps of the approach to the Philippines;
they were now poised to move on into those islands. Eleventh-
hour changes in plans concerning the date and place for the
invasion of the Philippines were consistent with the strategic
concept upon which the approach had been based. The occupation
of Morotai and the southern Palaus fulfilled the concept of two
drives--one westward across the Central Pacific and the other
northwestward up the north coast of New Guinea--toward the
Philippine Islands. One phase of the war in the Pacific was
ended. Another was soon to begin.1 Since April 1944, forces of
the Central Pacific Area, in their part of the drive, had moved
1,625 nautical miles westward from the Marshalls to the Palaus
and were about 3,250 nautical miles southwest of Hawaii.2 During
the same time, the forces of the Southwest Pacific Area, in a
rapid succession of seven maj