Status - John Skinner - USS Daly:
USS Daly (DD-519) -New Guinea
April 21st: Patrolling all day until late evening, when Daly joined Task Force 77.2, the main attack group for the landings at Hollandia. Temperatures 80s, light winds.
April 22nd: Reached Humboldt Bay (Hollandia) and executed both land bombardments and firing on Japanese ships and barges until about noon. Patrolling outside the bay in the afternoon. Altogether fired 571 5-inch shells in various bombardments in the morning. At 6 PM left the invasion area for Seeadler Harbor in the Admiralty Islands. Temperatures 80s, light winds with some breezy periods.
April 23rd: Entered Seeadler harbor and moored next to a tanker to receive fuel, completing fueling at 5 PM. Moored for the rest of the day. Temperatures 80s, light winds.
April 24th: Remained in Seeadler Harbor all day. Temperatures 80s-90s, light winds.
The
invasion at Aitape and Hollandia was completed with less than the expected resistance. Hollandia (modern-day Jayapura) was intended to be a main Japanese base and a large amount of supplies were captured. This location instead became an important staging area for the US push west across New Guinea.
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In the Central Pacific, the main focus is aerial photography of the islands of Guam, Saipan, and Tinian in the Marianas. As with most of the Pacific islands, maps were outdated and locations of reefs and other obstacles had to be defined before invading.
Fighting continues in Italy at Anzio and at Monte Cassino.
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More Information:
- Official Navy Chronology, pp. 473-475.
- New Guinea and the Marianas, Samuel Eliot Morison, pp. 58-90, 157-169.
- War at the End of the World, James P. Duffy, pp, 281-306.
- Events of April, 1944
- Logbooks of the US Navy at the National Archives, USS Daly, DD-519, April 1944
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