Operation Cartwheel

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U.S. Marines hit three feet of rough water as they leave their LST to take the beach at Cape Gloucester, New Britain. December 26, 1943. (Source:National Archives)
U.S. Marines hit three feet of rough water as they leave their LST to take the beach at Cape Gloucester, New Britain. December 26, 1943. (Source:National Archives)

Operation Cartwheel (1943 – 1944) was the major military strategy for the Allies in the Pacific theater of World War II. Cartwheel was a twin-axis of advance operation, aimed at militarily neutralizing the major Japanese base at Rabaul. The operation was directed by the Supreme Allied Commander in the South West Pacific Area (SWPA), General Douglas MacArthur, whose forces advanced along the northeast coast of New Guinea and occupied nearby islands. Allied forces from the Pacific Ocean Areas command, under Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, advanced through the Solomon Islands towards Bougainville. The Allied forces involved were from the United States, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands and various Pacific Islands.

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[edit] Background to Operation Cartwheel

Japanese forces had captured Rabaul, on New Britain, in the Territory of New Guinea, from Australian forces in February 1942 and turned it into their major forward base in the South Pacific, and the main obstacle in the two Allied theaters. MacArthur formulated a strategic outline, the Elkton Plan, to capture Rabaul from bases in Australia and New Guinea. Admiral Ernest J. King, the Chief of Naval Operations, proposed a plan with similar elements but under Navy command. Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall, whose main goal was for a main effort in Europe and not the Pacific, proposed a compromise plan in which the task would be divided into three stages, the first under Navy command and the second two under MacArthur's direction. This strategic plan, which was never formally adopted by the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff but which was ultimately implemented, called for:

The protracted battle for Guadalcanal followed by the unopposed seizure of the Russell Islands (Operation Cleanslate) on February 21, 1943, resulted in Japanese attempts to reinforce the area by sea. MacArthur's air forces countered in the Battle of the Bismarck Sea on March 2 - March 5, 1943. The disastrous losses suffered by the Japanese prompted Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto to initate I Go ("Operation 'I'"), a series of air attacks against Allied airfields and shipping at both Guadalcanal and New Guinea, which ultimately resulted in Yamamoto's death on April 18, 1943.

[edit] Implementation of Cartwheel

The eastern part of the Territory of New Guinea, and the northern Solomon Islands; the area in which Operation Cartwheel took place, from June 1943.
The eastern part of the Territory of New Guinea, and the northern Solomon Islands; the area in which Operation Cartwheel took place, from June 1943.

MacArthur had presented Elkton III, his revised plan for taking Rabaul before 1944, on February 12, 1943. It called for an attack by MacArthur against northeast New Guinea and western New Britain, and by Vice Admiral William F. Halsey (then in command of the South Pacific Area) against the central Solomons. This plan required seven more divisions than were already in the theater, raising objections from the British. The Joint Chiefs responded with a directive that approved the plan using forces already in the theater or en route to it, and delaying its implementation by sixty days. Elkton III then became Operation Cartwheel.

The Cartwheel plan identified thirteen proposed subordinate operations and set a timetable for their launching. Of the thirteen, Rabaul, Kavieng, and Kolombangara were eventually eliminated as too costly and unnecessary, and ten were actually undertaken. These ten operations, with their dates of landing and invasion units, were:

Segi Point, New Georgia; June 21, 1943; 4th Marine Raider Battalion
Rendova; June 30, 1943; U.S. 169th and 172nd RCT (43rd Infantry Division)
Zanana, New Georgia; July 5, 1943; 169th and 172nd RCT
Bairoko, New Georgia; July 5, 1943; 4th Marine Raider Battalion
Arundel Island; August 27, 1943; 172nd RCT; 43rd Infantry Division
Arawe, New Britain; December 15, 1943; U.S. 112th Cavalry Rgt.
Cape Gloucester; December 26, 1943; U.S. 1st Marine Division
Saidor; January 2, 1944; U.S. 32nd Infantry Division

New Guinea Force, under General Thomas Blamey was assigned responsibility for the eastward thrusts on mainland New Guinea. The U.S. Sixth Army, under General Walter Krueger was to take Kiriwina, Woodlark and Cape Gloucester. The land forces would be supported by Allied air units under Lieutenant-General George Kenney and naval units under Vice Admiral Arthur S. Carpender.

In the midst of Operation Cartwheel the Joint Chiefs met with U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill at the Quadrant Conference in Quebec in August 1943. There the decision was made to bypass and isolate Rabaul rather than attempting to capture the base and attack Kavieng instead. Soon after, the decision was made to bypass Kavieng as well. Although initially objected to by MacArthur, the by-passing of Rabaul in favor of its neutralization meant that his Elkton plan had been achieved, and after invading Saidor, MacArthur then moved into his Reno Plan, an advance across the north coast of New Guinea to Mindanao.

The campaign, which stretched into 1944, showed the effectiveness of a strategy which avoided major concentrations of enemy forces and instead aimed at cutting the Japanese lines of communication.


New Guinea campaign
1st Rabaul – Mo – Coral Sea – Kokoda Track – Milne Bay – Buna-Gona – Wau – Bismarck Sea – Salamaua-Lae – Cartwheel – Wewak raid – Finisterres – Huon Peninsula – Bougainville – Rabaul carrier raid – New Britain – Admiralties – Western New Guinea
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 – Bougainville – Rabaul carrier raid – Cape St. George – Green Is.
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[edit] Sources

[edit] Publications

  • Frank, Richard B (2000). "Chapter 1, Strategy, Command and the Solomons", Guadlacanal: The Definitive Account of the Landmark Battle. New York, NY, USA: Random House. ISBN 0-394-58875-4. 
  • Griffith, Brig. Gen. Samuel B (USMC) (1974). "Part 96: Battle For the Solomons", History of the Second Wold War. Hicksville, NY, USA: BPC Publishing. 
  • Bergerud, Eric M. (2000). Fire in the Sky: The Air War in the South Pacific. Boulder, CO, USA: Westview Press. ISBN 0-8133-3869-7. 
  • Birdsall, Steve (1977). Flying buccaneers: The illustrated story of Kenney's Fifth Air Force. Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-03218-8. 
  • Boyington, Gregory "Pappy" (1958 (reissue 1977)). Baa Baa Black Sheep. New York: Bantam Books. ISBN 0-553-26350-1. 
  • Gamble, Bruce (2000). Black Sheep One : The Life of Gregory "Pappy" Boyington. New York: Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-89141-801-6. 
  • Hara, Tameichi (1961). Japanese Destroyer Captain. New York & Toronto: Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-345-27894-1. 
  • Henebry, John P. (2002). The Grim Reapers at Work in the Pacific Theater: The Third Attack Group of the U.S. Fifth Air Force. Pictorial Histories Publishing Company. ISBN 1-57510-093-2. 
  • McAulay, Lex (1987). Into the Dragon's Jaws/the Fifth Air Force over Rabaul, 1943. Champlin Fighter Museum Pr. ISBN 0-912173-13-0. 
  • 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. 0785813071. 
  • Sakaida, Henry (1996). The Siege of Rabaul. St. Paul, MN, USA: Phalanx. ISBN 1-883809-09-6. 

[edit] External links

[edit] Official histories

Australia

New Zealand

United States

[edit] Audio/visual media

  • Cannell, Stephen J. (Creator). (1976-1978) Baa Baa Black Sheep [TV-series]. U.S.A.: National Broadcasting Company. — TV series featuring U.S. Marine Fighting Squadron 214, based on "Pappy" Boyington's memoirs. Many veterans reportedly complain that this series isn't very realistic,[1] but shows F4U Corsairs in action.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ medalofhonor.com, "Pappy Boyington"
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