Bougainville campaign (1943-45)

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Bougainville campaign (1943-1945)
Part of the Pacific Theater of World War II

United States Army soldiers hunt Japanese infiltrators on Bougainville in March, 1944.
Date November 1, 1943 – August 21, 1945
Location Bougainville in the South Pacific
Result Allied victory
Combatants
United States
Australia
New Zealand
Fiji		 Empire of Japan
Commanders
Roy Geiger
Theodore S. Wilkinson
Oscar Griswold
Stanley Savige		 Harukichi Hyakutake
Masatane Kanda
Strength
126,000 troops,[1]
728 aircraft[2]		 65,000 troops,[3]
154 aircraft[4]
Casualties
1,243 dead[5] 44,000 dead[6]
Solomon Islands campaign
1st Tulagi – Guadalcanal – Blackett Strait – Cartwheel – Death of Yamamoto – New Georgia – Kula Gulf – Kolombangara – Vella Gulf – Horaniu – Vella Lavella – Naval Vella Lavella – Treasury Is. – Choiseul – Empress Augusta Bay – Cape St. George – Green Is. – 2nd Rabaul – Bougainville
New Guinea campaign
Mo – 1st Rabaul – Coral Sea – Kokoda Track – Milne Bay – Buna-Gona – Wau – Bismarck Sea – Cartwheel – Lae – Finisterres – Huon Peninsula – 2nd Rabaul – New Britain – Bougainville – Admiralties – Western New Guinea

The Bougainville campaign of 1943-45, was a campaign of World War II. The island of Bougainville was of strategic importance to the Allies and Japanese, in both the Pacific Ocean and South West Pacific theatres.

Bougainville at the time was part of the Australian territory of New Guinea, and is geographically part of the Solomon Islands chain. The Bougainville campaign was therefore part of both the New Guinea campaign and the Solomon Islands campaign. It was occupied by Japanese forces in 1942.

Contents

[edit] The campaign

Allied land operations to retake the island from the Japanese 17th Army began with the Battle of Empress Augusta Bay, on November 1, 1943, when the U.S. 3rd Marine Division made an amphibious landing. They were supported by the U.S. Navy. The intention was to establish a beachhead on Bougainville, within which an airfield would be built.

Protracted and often bitter jungle warfare followed, with many casualties resulting from malaria and other tropical diseases. The Marines were later followed by the U.S. Army's Americal Division. Major battles which involved U.S. forces also included Hill 700 and the Battle for Hill 260.

Air support over Bougainville was provided primarily by the Royal New Zealand Air Force.

In mid-1944, the U.S. ground forces handed over to an Australian Militia formation, II Corps, which was comprised of the 3rd Division and two independent brigades, the 11th and 23rd Brigades. The Fiji Infantry Regiment also took part.

Major battles for the Australians included Pearl Ridge, Artillery Hill, Genga River and Slater's Knoll, where Pte Frank Partridge won Australia's last Victoria Cross of World War II.

January 1944: U.S. Marine Raiders pose in front of a captured Japanese dugout at Cape Totkina on Bougainville.
Enlarge
January 1944: U.S. Marine Raiders pose in front of a captured Japanese dugout at Cape Totkina on Bougainville.

[edit] References

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Shaw, Isolation of Rabaul, p. 246, Lofgren, Northern Solomons, p. 27, & Gailey, Bougainville, p. 191. Number includes 96,000 U.S. and 30,000 Australian troops.
  2. ^ Shaw, Isolation of Rabaul, p. 185-186.
  3. ^ Gailey, Bougainville, p. 211
  4. ^ Shaw, Isolation of Rabaul, p. 185-186
  5. ^ Shaw, Isolation of Rabaul, p. 281, Lofgren, Northern Solomons, p. 32, and Gailey, Bougainville, p. 210. Breakdown of deaths by country: 727 U.S. and 516 Australia.
  6. ^ Gailey, Bougainville, p. 211. Figure includes deaths from all causes.

[edit] Books

  • Bergerud, Eric M. (1997). Touched with Fire : The Land War in the South Pacific. Penguin. ISBN 0-14-024696-7.
  • Carey, John (2002). A Marine from Boston: A First Person Story of a Us Marine in World War II - Boot Camp-Samoa-Guadalcanal-Bougainville. Authorhouse. ISBN 1-4033-6720-5.
  • Gailey, Harry A. (1991). Bougainville, 1943-1945: The Forgotten Campaign. Lexington, Kentucky, USA: University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0-8131-9047-9.- neutral review of this book here:[1]
  • McGee, William L. (2002). The Solomons Campaigns, 1942-1943: From Guadalcanal to Bougainville--Pacific War Turning Point, Volume 2 (Amphibious Operations in the South Pacific in WWII). BMC Publications. ISBN 0-9701678-7-3.
  • Morison, Samuel Eliot (1958). Breaking the Bismarcks Barrier, vol. 6 of History of United States Naval Operations in World War II. Castle Books. ISBN 0-7858-1307-1.

[edit] Web

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