Operation Roadmaker

'Roadmaker' was the US overall designation of naval operations against Japanese installations in the Caroline islands group (1944).

This islands group was largely bypassed by the Allied counter-offensive of 1944/45, but the major base at Truk atoll was effectively smashed by repeated raids, starting with 'Hailstone', between February and April 1944. Peleliu and Angaur in the Palau islands group (part of the Caroline islands group) were taken in September and October 1944 after bloody struggles in 'Stalemate II', and Ulithi was occupied without opposition on 22 September. The islands of the central and eastern Caroline islands group were wholly bypassed and left 'to wither on the vine' until they surrendered at the end of the war.