Remembering the war in New Guinea
United States Navy in New Guinea (Longer text)
Module name: Campaign history (United States perspective)
This page was contributed by Mr Damien Fenton

While the US Navy focussed most of its effort upon the Central and South Pacific theatres during the Pacific War, US naval forces did provide important, albeit limited, support to American and Australian operations in New Guinea. This limitation was self-imposed to some degree by the Allied strategic command arrangements put in place in early 1942. The creation in April of that year of the South West Pacific Area (SWPA) under the command of General Douglas MacArthur and the Pacific Area under Admiral C. W. Nimitz saw some natural reluctance on the part of the latter to place large naval forces under the overall command of a soldier. More importantly however was the simple fact that the subsequent Allied campaigns in New Guinea required naval escort and amphibious forces more than they did battleships and aircraft carriers. The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and those Dutch ships that had escaped to Australia after the Japanese conquest of the Netherlands East Indies (NEI) were quite capable of carrying out these comparatively modest tasks and did their best to meet MacArthur’s needs. However they could not meet all of them, particularly once the Allied amphibious offensives gained momentum in 1943-44 and the US Navy’s contribution to SWPA gradually grew into a sizable force that would ultimately become the US Seventh Fleet.

The American element of "MacArthur’s Navy" was formed out of the remnants of the ill-fated ABDA Command in early 1942. These survivors comprised a few battle-damaged destroyers and a small number of submarines that had made it to Western Australia after the savage naval defeats inflicted upon ABDA forces during the Japanese conquest of the NEI. On 29 March Vice-Admiral Herbert Leary was appointed "Commander, Allied Naval Forces Southwest Pacific" (COMSWPAC) and set about doing his best to reorganise and build up his battered command.

The American submarines were the first to be restored to operational readiness and at the end of April were concentrated into two task forces with one ( Task Force 51) based in Fremantle, WA, and the other (Task Force 42) in Brisbane, QLD. A small number of additional boats were sent out from the United States to reinforce these formations and on 26 May Rear-Admiral Charles Lockwood took up the position of "Commander, South West Pacific Submarines" (Comsubs SWPAC) and located his headquarters in Fremantle. Twenty one fleet boats (so called because of their capability for long-range operations) were assigned to TF 51 and charged with patrolling the sea lanes around and between the East Indies and the Philippines. TF 42 was responsible for patrolling the seas surrounding the Bismarcks, the Solomons and New Guinea and was initially equipped with 11 S-boats. However as the Japanese pressure upon the Solomons and New Guinea mounted Lockwood began transferring fleet boats from Fremantle to Brisbane in response to the increased tempo of operations there.

Throughout the rest of 1942 Lockwood’s submariners constituted the only American component of "MacArthur’s Navy" capable of offensive action. Thus while the Battle of the Coral Sea (5-11 May 1942) took place inside the SWPA boundaries it was fought by carrier task forces from Admiral Nimitz’s Pacific Area with support from the RAN. In the wake of this battle and the newfound strategic importance of The Solomon Islands a subordinate command, "South Pacific Area" (SOPAC), was carved out of Nimitz’s zone of control and given responsibility for Allied operations there. Under the leadership of first Vice-Admiral Robert Ghormley and later Vice-Admiral William F. Halsey SOPAC oversaw the desperate battle for Guadalcanal and the bruising naval actions that accompanied it.

These operations, along with Nimitz’s plans for the Central Pacific, meant that requests from COMSWPAC for additional ships and equipment were given a low priority in Washington. It was not until December 1942 that Vice-Admiral Arthur Carpender (who had replaced Leary in September) received the first substantive US naval surface unit, a PT-Boat squadron, to be allocated to SWPAC since its formation. This unit was quickly sent forward to establish a base at the coastal village of Tufi on Cape Nelson in support of the Allied attacks against Buna and Sanananda. These short-range motor torpedo boats were well-suited for the close inshore work necessary to intercept Japanese coastal traffic, particularly the motorized barges favoured by the latter for night time supply runs. After enjoying some success around Buna in this role the American PT-Boats were then given the job of blockading the Huon Gulf and Vitiaz Strait during the Allied offensive against Lae and Salamaua between June and September 1943.

While the PT-Boats and their crews were engaged in this work Carpender was finally beginning to make some headway in securing more men, ships and equipment for his command. The most important addition was the creation of the "Southwest Pacific Amphibious Force" under the command of Rear-Admiral Daniel Barbey in early January 1943. Barbey set up his headquarters aboard the attack transport USS Henry T. Allen on the Brisbane River and established amphibious training centres at nearby Toorbul Point and at Port Stephens in New South Wales. Within weeks these centres were training sailors and soldiers from both the United States and Australia in the finer points of amphibious warfare. While the training of personnel was soon well in hand there were delays in the delivery of new specialised assault ships and landing craft from the United States. These ranged in size and function from the gigantic LSTs ("Landing Ship, Tank" or unofficially "Large Slow Targets" to their crews) to the more nimble LCIs ("Landing Craft, Infantry").

Nonetheless sufficient ships and landing craft had arrived in time for the now renamed "Seventh Amphibious Force" to test itself in an operation in conjunction with the American Sixth Army to seize the undefended Trobriand Islands. This mission, successfully carried out in June 1943, provided invaluable practical experience to Barbey’s men and was the first of 50 or so landing operations that the Seventh Amphibious Force would complete before the war’s end.

The name change of Barbey’s command was the result of the introduction of a new numbered fleet system on 15 March 1943. This system was applied across the entire US Navy with US fleets in the Pacific assigned odd numbers while those in the Atlantic received even numbers. Naval Forces Southwest Pacific was henceforth known as "Seventh Fleet" and thus its amphibious component followed suit accordingly. The change also applied to task force designations the first digit of which would now reflect the number of the fleet it belonged to: For example the submarines based in Brisbane now belonged to Task Force 72 instead of Task Force 42.

A month after the Trobriand operations the growing strength of the Seventh Fleet was demonstrated again when Carpender’s command carried out their first destroyer sweep and bombardment mission. Four American destroyers sallied out on the night of 22/23 August towards Finschhafen and while no enemy contacts were made at sea they subjected the coastal town to a barrage of 540 shells from their 5-inch guns before returning to base.

Three weeks later the Seventh Fleet embarked upon its biggest combat operation to date, the landing of the 9th Australian Division near Lae. The 7th Amphibious Force (which for this operation included HMAS Westralia) transported the Australian division all the way from its bases in Milne Bay and Buna to the landing beaches. This force was escorted and supported by nearly every other element of the Seventh Fleet including Lockwood’s submariners. The latter were ordered to break off their normal patrols to act as scouts and provide a forward defensive screen for the Allied invasion force. A total of 12 American destroyers, 12 corvettes, five minesweepers and 63 transports and landing craft (including 13 LSTs, 20 LCIs and 23 LCTs – "Landing Craft, Tank") took part in the invasion which was successfully carried out on 14 September. This was followed up a week later with landings at Finschhafen.

These actions set the pattern for the reminder of the Seventh Fleet’s time in New Guinea’s waters - routine escort and patrol work interrupted by a series of major amphibious operations whilst all the while increasing in strength and experience. Landings at Arawe and Cape Gloucester in December saw the addition of the first cruisers assigned to the Seventh Fleet in the shape of the USS Nashville and USS Phoenix. Next came the landing of elements of the 32nd US Infantry Division on the Rai Coast at Saidor on 2 January 1944 and in late February/early March the Admiralty Islands were seized in two separate operations.

Throughout this period the Seventh Fleet encountered no significant Japanese surface forces beyond the night time coastal traffic preyed upon by the PT-Boats and an occasionally lucky destroyer or corvette. By the time the Seventh Fleet had assembled enough strength to go on the offensive the Imperial Japanese Navy was concentrating its efforts on the Solomons and then withdrew all of its major surface ships to Truk in early 1944. Nevertheless Japanese air and submarine activity, while increasingly sporadic, remained a danger to the sailors of the Seventh Fleet. The destroyer USS Henley was torpedoed and sunk by a Japanese submarine in the Huon Gulf on 3 October 1943 and as late as the landings at Cape Gloucester Japanese bombers sunk the destroyer USS Brownson, a coastal transport and damaged a number of LSTs and other ships.

The final stage of the Seventh Fleet’s involvement in the New Guinea campaign began with the audacious landings at Hollandia and Aitape in April 1944. These operations effectively sealed the fate of the Japanese 18th Army by finally cutting off its escape route up the north western coast of New Guinea. Subsequent attempts by Japanese forces in the NEI to reinforce into Dutch New Guinea led to further American amphibious operations against the islands of Biak and Wakde in May and June. This infiltration route was finally sealed with the seizure of Noemfoor Island and landings on the Vogelkop Peninsula at the very tip of north western New Guinea in July. With the conclusion of these actions the Seventh Fleet, along with the rest of MacArthur’s American forces, transferred its remaining responsibilities in New Guinea to the Australians and embarked upon a new campaign - the liberation of the Philippines.