Landing on Emirau

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Landing on Emirau
Landing on Emirau
Landing on Emirau
date March 20, 1944
place Emirau , St. Matthias Islands
output Allied occupation of the island
consequences Enclosure of Rabaul closed
Parties to the conflict

United States 48United States United States

Japanese EmpireJapanese Empire Japan

Commander

Douglas MacArthur ,
William Halsey ,
Lawrence F. Reifsnider ,
Alfred H. Noble

Troop strength
3,727
Battle of New Guinea (1942–1945)

The landing on Emirau in the Bismarck Archipelago , as part of Operation Cartwheel during the Pacific War in World War II, carried out on 20 March 1944th It served to isolate the strategically important Japanese base Rabaul .

prehistory

General MacArthur's plans for Operation Cartwheel were to isolate and bypass Rabaul. This was intended to neutralize this strong base of the Japanese, so that from there no further danger for the subsequent operations in the Southwest Pacific would arise.

In the late summer of 1943, General MacArthur's staff were preparing plans for the operations that would follow Bougainville and Cape Gloucester and complete the encirclement of the main Japanese base in New Britain .

planning

For the first of March 1944 the plans were to conquer Kavieng and the Admiralty Islands by means of troops, planes and ships.

Newly established Allied airfields in Finschhafen and Cape Gloucester made it possible that landings on the Admiralty Islands could be adequately covered by land-based fighters, but the Kavieng operations required air support. Even an increase in the range through airfields at Cape Torokina would not be sufficient to provide effective escorts and to combat patrol flights by the Japanese over Kavieng.

The offensive in the Central Pacific began with the operations around the Gilbert Islands at the end of November 1943. The resulting high demands on shipping resources and logistics for the Pacific Fleet meant that D-Day for Kavieng was postponed until May 1, 1944. But in light of the six-month "gap" that then emerged in the advance through the South Pacific and the resulting loss of surprise, Admiral Halsey consulted General MacArthur, who gave "his full approval" to the plan for an interim operation "to keep the offensive going would provide another useful base and keep the pressure on the enemy ” .

Halsey ordered his staff to prepare plans for the conquest of the Green Islands , which he selected as an intermediate destination. At the same time, he instructed them to examine the possibility of conquering Emirau in the St. Matthias Islands as an alternative to Kavieng. This would accomplish essentially the same goal as the proposed large-scale Kavieng attack, but at a significantly lower cost. In late 1943, General MacArthur seemed convinced of this idea, since it would accomplish his goal of enclosing Rabaul. At a coordination conference on January 27, 1944 in Pearl Harbor , however, SWPA representatives decided to prepare a simultaneous attack on Kavieng and the Admiralty Islands. The preliminary target date was April 1st.

On March 12, shortly before the end of operations in the Admiralty Islands , the Joint Chiefs of Staff issued a new policy for future operations in the Pacific. The conquests of Hollandia and Emirau were ordered, Kavieng and Hansa Bay annulled. Emirau should be occupied as soon as possible. General MacArthur immediately gave orders to halt preparations for the attack on Kavieng and instructed Admiral Halsey to capture Emirau instead with a minimum of ground combat forces. The commander of the amphibious armed forces , Admiral Wilkinson , was assigned to reach the new target by March 20, and recommended the 4th division of the Marines to be used as a landing unit. The message from Halsey in Nouméa to Wilkinson in Guadalcanal came in the early morning of March 15th, when the loading for Kavieng had already started.

The landing was to be commanded by Commodore Lawrence F. Reifsnider . Brigadier General Alfred H. Noble , Assistant Commander of the 3rd Division of the Marines, took command of the landing forces . He was also designated as the commander of the island base. Marine Colonel William L. McKittrick was to take over the air command unit. The 4th Division was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Alan Shapley .

Emirau is located in the south-eastern part of the St. Matthias Group, about 40 km from Massau , the other main island. It is 145 km northwest of Kavieng and was considered suitable for building a base for fighters , bombers and torpedo boats . All intelligence reports indicated that the Japanese had not occupied the islands to any significant degree, and a photo reconnaissance mission flown by VD-1 on March 16 revealed no trace of hostile activity or installations.

The landing

Landing of US units on Emirau

The landing units took off from Guadalcanal on March 17th . They were supported by Task Group 31.2 with 19 destroyers and by an association with the cruisers Santa Fé , Mobile , Biloxi , Oakland , Cleveland , Columbia and Montpelier , the aircraft carriers Enterprise and Belleau Wood and the escort carriers Coral Sea and Corregidor . The 4 landing ships of the 4th Marine Division reached Emirau on March 20, 1944.

As a diversion, the US battleships New Mexico , Tennessee , Idaho and Mississippi under the command of Rear Admiral Charles D. Griffin fired more than 13,000 rounds on Kavieng on the same day. The air security of the unit was carried out by the escort carriers Manila Bay and Natoma Bay and another escort by 15 destroyers.

Supplies and equipment are brought ashore

The unloading of supplies began at around 11:00 a.m. General Noble's 3,727-strong force was supposed to hold the island. The soldiers learned from natives that only a handful of Japanese who had left the island about two months ago had landed on Emirau. Secret service reports suggested that there were hostile fuel and food depots on Massau. In addition, a radio station should exist there. On March 23, destroyers shelled these areas. Residents later reported that the Japanese then withdrew to Kavieng.

On March 25, the first supply unit with equipment and men of a battalion of the 25th Marine Construction Regiment landed . Three more battalions of the Marines arrived five days later. Before the end of March, locations for two 2.1 km long runways for bombers and one 1.5 long runway for fighters were found and measured. Construction work began on March 31.

A marines patrol in the jungle on Emirau

Major General James T. Moore , Commander General of the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing since February 1, 1944 , arrived in Emirau on April 7. With him the Marine Aircraft Group 12 was stationed on Emirau. The 4th Division of the Marines was replaced by the 147th Infantry Regiment on April 11th . At noon the next day, General Moore officially assumed command of all ground forces on Emirau on the orders of Admiral Wilkinson as the operation in command.

consequences

From mid-May, Emirau was fully integrated into the containment ring around Rabaul. The further advance towards the west via northern New Guinea was thus largely protected from attacks from Rabaul. Within three months, in which most of the destruction of above-ground facilities was carried out, an average of 85 tons of bombs per day were dropped on targets in and around Rabaul.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c HyperWar: USMC Operations in WWII: Vol II - Isolation of Rabaul, page 507. Retrieved June 26, 2020 (English).
  2. ↑ a b HyperWar: USMC Operations in WWII: Vol II - Isolation of Rabaul, page 518. Retrieved June 27, 2020 (English).
  3. ^ The Official Chronology of the US Navy in World War II - 1944, 20th March. Retrieved June 26, 2020 (English).
  4. ↑ a b Prof. Dr. Jürgen Rohwer: Sea War 1944, March 20. Württemberg State Library, accessed on June 28, 2020 .
  5. ↑ a b c HyperWar: USMC Operations in WWII: Vol II - Isolation of Rabaul, page 521. Retrieved June 28, 2020 (English).

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