Battle for New Guinea

Allied advance on the north coast of New Guinea

date	January 23, 1942 to September 13, 1945
place	Dutch New Guinea - Papua Territory - New Guinea Territory
output	Allied victory
consequences	Capture of strategically important airfields and elimination of the Japanese forces in New Guinea

Parties to the conflict
United States 48 United States Australia Netherlands United Kingdom New Zealand Australia Netherlands United Kingdom New Zealand	Japanese Empire Japanese Empire
Commander
United States 48 Douglas MacArthur Chester W. Nimitz Thomas Blamey George H. Brett Herbert F. Leary United States 48 Australia United States 48 United States 48	Japanese Empire Imamura Hitoshi Adachi Hatazō Abe Heisuke Japanese Empire Japanese Empire
losses
Papua: 3,095 dead, 5,451 wounded, 21,000 sick (of them malaria cases ) West New Guinea: 3601 dead, 16,636 wounded	Papua: ≈ 12,000 killed Western New Guinea: 40,135 killed, 3,212 wounded

Overview - Pacific War

v. l. To the right: Frank Forde (Australian Minister of War); General Douglas MacArthur; General Sir Thomas Blamey; Lieutenant General George C. Kenney ; Lieutenant General Edmund Herring ; Brigadier General Kenneth Walker ; Taken in October 1942 on Seven Mile Drome (Jackson Airfield) near Port Moresby

The Battle of New Guinea in the Pacific War during World War II began on January 23, 1942 with the capture of Rabaul on New Britain by Japanese troops and lasted until August 1945. It was one of the strategically most important battles in the Southwest Pacific Battle Area (SWPA) .

prehistory

After the Japanese had begun to take control of the Southeast Asian region (→ Japanese invasion of Southeast Asia ), the Allied forces found themselves in a precarious position, as they could hardly offer adequate defense against the rapidly advancing Japanese units. In particular the case of the Philippines , which were under American protection, the capture of Rabaul, which was developed into a central base for the Japanese, and the conquest and establishment of airfields on the north coast of New Guinea and the Solomon Islands seemed to form an impenetrable barrier for the Allies .

Strategic and tactical planning and execution

In April 1942, the United States and its allies established a Southwest Pacific High Command under the leadership of General Douglas MacArthur . This command united land, air and sea-based forces, the command of which was subordinate to the two main allies in this combat area:

General Sir Thomas A. Blamey , Australia - Land Forces
Lt. Gen. George H. Brett , United States - Air Force
Vice Admiral Herbert F. Leary , U.S. - Naval Forces

Together with the Australians, MacArthur developed an assessment of the current situation of the war, which led to the conclusion that the Japanese expansion would continue, so that the supply lines via Australia and Australia itself would be threatened. The best defense was seen in a direct confrontation with the Japanese in New Guinea . Port Moresby , a port on the southeast coast of Papua, appeared to be the best starting point to attack New Guinea. Therefore, in April 1942, it was decided to arm the small Australian garrison there.

course

Even the Japanese had developed a strategy in the run-up to the Pacific War that saw Port Moresby as one of the most important ports for their advance into Southeast Asia. The final planning included a landing near Port Moresby on May 10, 1942. The incoming fleet could, however, be intercepted by American aircraft carriers (→ Operation MO , Battle of the Coral Sea ).

The Japanese still did not give its plan to capture Port Moresby and ended on July 21 at Basabua near Buna on the north east coast of New Guinea (→ Operation RI ) with an advance party of the South Seas - detachments , a specially prepared military association from parts of the 55 Division and other units under the command of Major General Horii Tomitarō existed and had previously participated in the battles for Guam and Rabaul . This came as a shock to the Allies, especially because the Japanese had managed to make an amphibious landing without any air support. The other Japanese plan was to reach Port Moresby by land. To do this, the South Seas Detachment had to take the difficult route over the Owen Stanley Mountains . The resulting Kokoda Track campaign only ended in mid-November with a complete withdrawal of the Japanese with heavy losses, including Major General Horii.

While there was still fighting on the Kokoda Track , the Japanese attempted a landing in Milne Bay at the southeastern end of New Guinea in late August . The Australian troops stationed there were able to push back the Japanese in the Battle of Milne Bay until the beginning of September and thus inflict their first defeat in a land battle against the Allies.

After heavy fighting over the Japanese landing heads at Buna , Sanananda and Gona , the Allies also succeeded here in forcing the Japanese to retreat completely by early 1943. At Wau they were able to repel Japanese supply units landed at Salamaua as a result of Rabaul . Another supply convoy was wiped out in the battle of the Bismarcksee in early March 1943.

Cartwheel

In the meantime, the SWPA was working on the cartwheel plan with further campaigns in New Guinea. MacArthur, who had promised to return to the Philippines on his arrival in Australia, at the same time drafted a comprehensive master plan under the code name RENO , which included the conquest of airfields on the northwest coast of New Guinea, in order to then advance via the Vogelkop Peninsula to the southern Philippines to be able to.

In the last weeks of March 1943, the Japanese made intensive efforts in several waves to gain air sovereignty over New Guinea. Although these attacks flared up again in mid-May and again in June, their extensive war involvement, which stretched from New Guinea to the Solomon Islands , quickly reached their limits. From around April 1943 the Allies showed a qualitative and also numerical superiority, which they not only maintained but also expanded over the further months and years. By means of this air superiority achieved in this way, the Allies saw themselves in a position to begin the first landing operations from June 1943.

The cartwheel operations began on June 23, 1943 with simultaneous attacks on Woodlark , east New Guinea, and on New Georgia in the Solomon Islands. During the Battle of New Georgia a large Japanese garrison opposed the attackers. The terrain was also very impassable. The battle lasted until August and the planned attack on Bougainville was delayed until November.

Australian landing units off Lae on September 4, 1943

Scarlet Beach on the Huon Peninsula, New Guinea on September 22, 1943, shortly after Australian troops occupied the beach.

As early as April 1943, the Australians repeatedly invoked Japanese positions in the Mubo area . The attack on Lae and Salamaua was supported from the land side in early September by a combined air and sea landing at Lae, and on September 15, Lae was captured. The Australian New Guinea Army then fought its way along the Finisterre Mountains towards Madang , which fell in April 1944. The landing forces landed again on September 22nd at Finschhafen , which they captured in January 1944 (→ Battle of the Huon Peninsula ).

With the landing near Cape Torokina north of the Kaiserin Augusta Bay , the battle for Bougainville began on November 1, 1943. The fighting on Bougainville did not end until the Japanese surrendered on August 21, 1945.

The landing in New Britain during Operation Dexterity was carried out by the US 6th Army. The landings took place on December 15, 1943 at Arawe on the south coast and on December 26 at Cape Gloucester . By February 1944, the Japanese withdrew from the western part of the island.

In order to protect the eastern flank of New Guinea and to intercept approaches of Japanese fighter planes from Rabaul early, US troops landed on Los Negros in the Admiralty Islands at the end of February 1944 . There they set up a base for sea and airborne combat troops, which could be used operationally from March 10th. Other Japanese occupiers were fought on Manus in the following years (→ Battle of the Admiralty Islands ).

RENO

US landing forces on Wakde Beach

LSTs on their way to landing at Cape Sansapor

Wewak on September 13, 1945: Lieutenant General Adachi Hatazō, Commander in Chief of the 18th Army, presents his sword to the Australian Major General HCH Robertson as a sign of surrender.

With the landings at Hollandia and Aitape (→ Operation Reckless , Operation Persecution ) on April 22, 1944, the implementation of General MacArthur's RENO plan to capture Japanese airfields and bases in western New Guinea began. This largely isolated the 18th Japanese Army at Wewak . This jump over 645 km along New Guinea's north coast was made possible by the isolation of Rabaul, which had been completed by then. The Allies in the South Pacific had taken Green Island , north of Buka , and Emirau north of Kavieng (→ landing on Emirau ). Together with the conquest of the Admiralty Islands, Rabaul became strategically insignificant for the Japanese. That this was recognized by the Japanese leadership shows the permission to relocate all combat aircraft from Rabaul to Truk and not to station any other aircraft there.

In mid-May, American landing forces went ashore on Wakde and secured the island within three days. In order to protect the strategically important airfield near Sarmi - northwest of Wakde - Japanese troops controlled Maffin Bay from a hill. American units fought this position from June 14th and could only take the airfield near Sarmi on September 1st (→ Battle of Wakde-Sarmi ).

Since the airfield near Hollandia did not allow heavy bombers to take off due to the short runway, the next operation was directed against Biak . The Mokmer airfield located there offered exactly the possibilities envisaged by the Allies. Especially since the bombers were planned as cover for the Battle of the Mariana Islands . The Japanese Defense Plan for New Guinea for the Sea and Air Forces (KON Plan) was withdrawn in favor of the defense of the Mariana Islands , so that only the land forces could fight the Americans at Biak . The last resistance subsided on July 2, 1944.

Three more airfields could be taken at about the same time on Noemfoor . The Japanese withdrew to the interior of the island and performed until August 31. 1944 resistance with guerrilla tactics (→ Battle of Noemfoor ).

The US troops landed at Aitape were confronted with a massive attack by the Japanese on July 10th, when about 10,000 soldiers of the pushed back 18th Japanese Army tried to force a breakthrough on the Driniumor River . The attack was stopped by means of Australian and American bombers and fire from the sea. However, it took around four weeks until the Japanese had completely withdrawn (→ Battle of the Driniumor ).

The aim of the subsequent landing operation near Sansapor in the northwest of the Vogelkop Peninsula on July 30, 1944 was a further westward shift of the front by around 320 km. The undiscovered units went ashore at Cape Damari and the offshore islands of Amsterdam and Middleburg . In the aftermath of the capture of Sansapor, three more airfields were built.

The Allied final operation in the Battle of New Guinea was the landing on Morotai in the Moluccas on September 15, 1944. It was timed with the Battle of Peleliu of the Central Pacific Forces. With the establishment of an airfield on Morotai, the southern Philippines, Celebes and the east of the Dutch East Indies could be reached by long-range bombers for the Allies . This supported the subsequent operations, in particular the musketeer plan for landing in the southern Philippines .

Allied Operations in Western New Guinea and the Leap in the Philippines

Although the Allied operations in New Guinea were essentially concluded, the Japanese units, some of which were trapped and cut off from supplies, continued to fight, especially in northeast New Guinea, and offered bitter resistance until the end of the war. Especially in the area around Aitape-Wewak, the Australian 6th Division fought from around the end of November 1944 against the remnants of the 18th Japanese Army (→ Aitape-Wewak Campaign ). These battles continued until the end of the war .

Web links

Commons : Battle for New Guinea - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

^ Samuel Milner: United States Army in World War II - The War in the Pacific - Victory in Papua, pp. 371/372 . Retrieved August 21, 2013.
^ ^A ^b Robert Ross Smith: United States Army in World War II - The War in the Pacific - The Approach to the Philippines, pp. 577/578 . Retrieved August 21, 2013.
↑ ^a ^b PAPUA - US Army Brochure, CMH Pub 72-7, US Army Center of Military History, p. 4 . Retrieved August 21, 2013.
^ The Campaigns of the Pacific War - Chapter VIII, The New Guinea Campaign, p. 175 . Retrieved August 24, 2013.
^ ^A ^b The Campaigns of the Pacific War - Chapter VIII, The New Guinea Campaign, p. 179 . Retrieved August 22, 2013.
^ The Campaigns of the Pacific War - Chapter VIII, The New Guinea Campaign, p. 181 . Retrieved August 24, 2013.
^ The Campaigns of the Pacific War - Chapter VIII, The New Guinea Campaign, p. 182 . Retrieved August 24, 2013.

[ibiblio01-1] Samuel Milner: United States Army in World War II - The War in the Pacific - Victory in Papua, pp. 371/372 . Retrieved August 21, 2013.

[ibiblio02-2] A ^b Robert Ross Smith: United States Army in World War II - The War in the Pacific - The Approach to the Philippines, pp. 577/578 . Retrieved August 21, 2013.

[armymil01-3] PAPUA - US Army Brochure, CMH Pub 72-7, US Army Center of Military History, p. 4 . Retrieved August 21, 2013.

[ibiblio05-4] The Campaigns of the Pacific War - Chapter VIII, The New Guinea Campaign, p. 175 . Retrieved August 24, 2013.

[ibiblio04-5] A ^b The Campaigns of the Pacific War - Chapter VIII, The New Guinea Campaign, p. 179 . Retrieved August 22, 2013.

[ibiblio06-6] The Campaigns of the Pacific War - Chapter VIII, The New Guinea Campaign, p. 181 . Retrieved August 24, 2013.

[ibiblio07-7] The Campaigns of the Pacific War - Chapter VIII, The New Guinea Campaign, p. 182 . Retrieved August 24, 2013.