`` the airstrike on Truk Island '' ) , 17–18 February 1944 , was a massive United States Navy air and surface attack Attack on Truk Lagoon conducted Action as part of the American offensive drive Self_motion against the Imperial Japanese Navy ( IJN ) through the Central Pacific Ocean during World War II .

`` the airstrike on Truk Island '' ) , 17–18 February 1944 , was a massive United States Navy air and surface attack Attack on Truk Lagoon conducted Action as part of the American offensive drive Self_motion against the Imperial Japanese Navy ( IJN ) through the Central Pacific Ocean during World War II .

Prior to Operation `` Hailstone '' , the IJN had used Using Truk as an anchorage for its large Combined Fleet .

The coral atoll surrounding Surrounding Truk 's islands created Creating a safe harbor where the few points of ingress and egress had been fortified Cause_change_of_strength by the Japanese with shore batteries , antiaircraft guns , and airfields .

American estimates of Truk 's defenses and its role as a stronghold of the Japanese Navy led Causation newspapers and military men to call Name_conferral it the `` Gibraltar of the Pacific '' , or to compare Statement it with Pearl Harbor .

Truk 's location in the Caroline Islands also made it Causation an excellent shipping hub for armaments and aircraft moving Motion from Japan 's home islands down through the South Pacific Mandate and into the Japanese `` Southern Resources Area '' .

By early 1944 , Truk was increasingly unsustainable as a forward base of operations for the Japanese .

As a result , the Japanese Navy had to relocate Military_operation the Combined Fleet 's forward base to the Palau Islands , and eventually to Indonesia , and the Fleet had begun Process_start clearing Emptying its major warships out of Truk before the `` Hailstone '' attack Attack struck .

Nevertheless , the `` Hailstone '' attack Attack on Truk caught Hold a good number of Japanese auxiliary ships and cargo ships in the harbor , as well as some warships .

Truk remained Presence effectively isolated for the remainder of the war , cut off Having_or_lacking_access and surrounded Surrounding by the American island hopping campaign in the Central Pacific , which also bypassed Departing important Japanese garrisons and airfields in the Bismarck Archipelago , the Caroline Islands , the Marshalls , and the Palaus .

Kim originated Coming_to_be as a weak tropical disturbance that formed to the northeast of Truk during the second week of October .

They decided Deciding to deport Removing the majority of Nauru 's indigenous population to the Truk islands , hundreds of miles away , where mortality was extremely high .