Battle of Driniumor River
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The Battle of Driniumor River, also known as The Battle of Aitape, July 10-August 25, 1944, was part of the Western New Guinea campaign of World War II. Japanese forces attacked United States forces on the Driniumor River, near Aitape in New Guinea. The battle should not be confused with Operation Persecution, which included amphibious landings near Aitape in April 1944, or the Aitape-Wewak campaign, which began in November. The Japanese referred to the Driniumor as the Hanto.
The river is approximately 20 miles (32 km) east of Aitape. The landings at several key points around Hollandia on 22 April had cut off the Japanese 18th Army, which was retreating westwards towards the Japanese Second Area Army in Dutch New Guinea. When US troops landed and seized Aitape on 22 April, a covering force comprising the 32nd Infantry Division and 112th Cavalry Regiment was sent east approximately twenty miles to guard Aitape's eastern flank on the line of Driniumor River. The 18th Army, which had not been reinforced after severe losses in the Lae, Huon Peninsula and Finisterre Range campaigns, was commanded by Lieutenant-General Hatazo Adachi. Its main fighting units were the 20th and the 41st Divisions.
Ultra intelligence derived from codebreaking as well as other sources indicated that the Japanese 18th Army was approaching the Driniumor with 20,000 troops with the intention of breaking through and retaking Aitape. Unfortunately the Allied intelligence picture was confusing and contradictory, with the result that the initial Japanese assault caught the defenders by surprise.
On the night of 10/11 July, an assault force of perhaps 10,000 Japanese attacked en masse across the Driniumor. Despite suffering appalling casualties from machine guns and artillery, the Japanese pressed on and forced a major breach in the American line. After a harrowing fighting withdrawal through the jungle that night, the defenders managed to regroup where possible and by the 13th were counterattacking to try and seal the breach. Valuable fire support was provided by Australian and US fighter bombers and by Task Force 74, comprising two Australian cruisers and two US destroyers.
The remainder of July saw heavy fighting west of the river as platoon and company size units clashed in the jungle. Heavy pressure was maintained upon some pockets of American troops still clinging to their positions at the river as they became encircled by Japanese troops, determined on wiping them out.
By the beginning of August however, the Japanese drive was spent and they were flung back over the Driniumor. By 4 August Adachi ordered a complete withdrawal although fighting lasted until around 10 August as US troops continued their annihilation of the Japanese force. The remnants retreated further east to Wewak and the battle was officially declared over on 25 August.
Four US soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor (all posthumously), for acts of outstanding valor during the battle; Private Donald R. Lobaugh and Staff Sergeant Gerald L. Endl of 32nd Division, and Second Lieutenants George W. G. Boyce, Jr. and Dale Eldon Christensen of 112th Cavalry Regiment.
All told the Americans suffered almost 3,000 casualties including 440 killed while the Japanese lost 8,000-10,000 men. The four-week Battle of Driniumor River was one of the costliest of the campaigns in Papua and New Guinea, second only to the bloody head-on Allied assaults of the Japanese strongholds at Gona, Buna and Sanananda from November 1942 to January 1943.
[edit] Sources
- Defending the Driniumor: covering force operations in New Guinea, 1944 by Dr Edward J. Drea (1984). Available online in html format at [1]or in Pdf format via [2]
- Southern Cross, a Japanese account of the New Guinea campaigns, by the Chief of Staff of the 18th Army, Lt Col Yoshiharu Kane, Chapter 19, The Aitape engagement. Available online via the Australian War Memorial website [3]
- New Guinea by Edward J. Drea. Available online [4]
- The US Army in World War II: the approach to the Philippines (Chapters V to VIII) by Robert Ross Smith (1953). Available online [5]
