The solidification of these bases made a prospective invasion of neighboring New Ireland unnecessary and continued the steady strangulation of the Japanese garrison at Rabaul. In a larger sense, victory in the Admiralties accelerated MacArthur’s timetable for his next New Guinea invasion by six weeks, and provided him with a counterweight to Nimitz’s triumph in the Marshalls. This, in turn, forced the Joint Chiefs to maintain SWPA’s strategic relevance and kept MacArthur’s Philippine dreams alive. At an intelligence level, the operation validated the accuracy of the Ultra material upon which
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