What Japan had won in the happy time of victories at the beginning of 1942, by the beginning of 1944, was slipping like sand through our fingers. In the southwest Pacific, by the end of September 1943, General Douglas MacArthur's forces had cleared New Guinea, New Britain, and a number of other islands of the enemy. Admiral Chester Nimitz operated in the central Pacific, where Japanese resistance was particularly fierce on the direct route to the heart of the empire. Their strongholds, Rabaul and Truk, were neutralized. The US 5th Fleet advanced its forward positions more than 2,200 miles west of Pearl Harbor, captured the Gilbert and Marshall Islands and launched a powerful attack on the important base in Palau, destroying almost all enemy aircraft there and thereby securing its flank. Japanese communications were attacked by submarines and aircraft.