The New Guinea campaign began with the swift occupation of the strategic anchorage of Rabaul and the northern New Guinea coast by Japanese forces in early March 1942. An attempt to follow up these successes in May with a seaborne invasion of Port Moresby was stymied by the battle of the Coral Sea which gave the Australians a much-needed opportunity to bolster Papua’s defences. Despite this setback the Japanese decided to try again in July with an ambitious two-pronged attack: a force under the command of Major General HORII landed on the northern coast of Papua and began to march over the Owen Stanley Ranges towards Moresby; while another naval expedition was sent to seize Samarai Island before mounting a seaborne attack against Moresby in conjunction with HORII’s troops. The subsequent discovery that the Australians had established a base at Milne Bay caused the Japanese to alter this plan by diverting the naval force to attack this new threat to their proposed line of communications before going on to Samarai and Moresby. In the event it was the Australians who prevailed at Milne Bay and again the Japanese had to abandon their plans for a seaborne attack against Port Moresby.
Meanwhile HORII’s men continued their advance along the Kokoda Trail towards Moresby, albeit at great cost and in the face of dogged Australian resistance. Despite getting within sight of his objective in mid-September, HORII was forced to halt and then retreat as it became the Australians’ turn to go on the offensive. By November the Australians and a newly arrived American infantry division had positioned themselves to eliminate the Japanese bridgeheads of Buna, Sanananda and Gona on the northern Papuan coast. Unbeknown to the Allies the Japanese had heavily fortified their positions in the swampy terrain around these villages and, as a result, the ensuing battles to capture them were among the bloodiest of the entire Pacific War. It was not until late January 1943 that the last Japanese resistance was finally overcome.
That same month the Japanese launched a counterattack against a small Australian outpost at Wau in south-eastern New Guinea. The Allies, now boasting an airlift capability the Japanese could only dream of, flew an entire infantry brigade into the besieged town and forced the Japanese to break off their attack. Further Japanese attempts to shore up their position in south-eastern New Guinea by shipping in reinforcements from Rabaul were effectively halted with the annihilation of one of their troop convoys in what became known as the battle of the Bismarck Sea. After spending the first few months of 1943 disrupting Japanese plans and building up their strength the Allies resumed major offensive operations in June. A series of bold amphibious landings and airborne assaults by Australian and American forces led to the capture of Lae and Salamaua in September 1943. The Allies immediately followed up these successes by embarking upon campaigns to clear the Huon Peninsula and Ramu Valley of Japanese forces. These largely Australian operations were finally concluded some four months later and after much bitter fighting. During this period the Americans carried out amphibious landings at Cape Gloucester on New Britain and seized the Admiralty Islands, thus completing the isolation of Rabaul.
The Japanese forces in New Guinea were now in a precarious position. Those surviving Japanese troops that still confronted the Australians were ordered to retreat across the Finisterre Range to the Japanese coastal base of Madang. This resulted in a nightmarish ordeal for men who were already racked with tropical diseases and badly malnourished. Thousands of Japanese died in the struggle to reach safety. Indeed, the losses were so heavy that Madang had to be abandoned and the pursuing Australians entered it unopposed on 27 April 1944. Japanese attempts to turn their remaining bases in New Guinea into heavily fortified redoubts also proved fruitless as the Americans simply bypassed them with amphibious landings at Aitape and Hollandia in July 1944. This led to a desperate attempt by the Japanese to break through the American lines around Aitape and escape into Dutch New Guinea. After a month’s heavy fighting around the Driniumor River the American line was still intact and the Japanese were reduced to a spent force incapable of further large-scale offensive operations.
At this point the Americans withdrew their forces in preparation for the liberation of the Philippines and handed over all responsibility for Allied operations in New Guinea to the Australians. This led to the final and most controversial phase of the war in New Guinea. The Australians were faced with either containing or mopping up the now isolated Japanese garrisons of Aitape–Wewak, New Britain and the island of Bougainville. They chose the latter course of action. Thus the fighting continued at an intense level, particularly around Aitape and in Bougainville, right up until the end of the war in August 1945.
Campaign overview:
Overview text Smokey DawsonRelated theme/s:
Japanese occupation