New Britain campaign
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| New Britain campaign |
|---|
| Arawe – Cape Gloucester – Wide Bay – Open Bay |
| New Guinea campaign |
|---|
| 1st Rabaul – Mo – Coral Sea – Kokoda Track – Milne Bay – Buna-Gona – Wau – Bismarck Sea – Salamaua-Lae – Cartwheel – Wewak raid – Finisterres – Huon Peninsula – Bougainville – Rabaul carrier raid – New Britain – Admiralties – Western New Guinea |
The New Britain Campaign was a World War II campaign fought by the Allies between December 1943 and the end of the war in August 1945, to secure and protect air bases on the island of New Britain. The campaign was part of — and followed on from — Operation Cartwheel, which aimed at containing Japanese forces concentrated in Rabaul, the capital of New Britain and the major Japanese base for the New Guinea and Solomons campaigns.
The campaign was a clear cut Allied victory. United States, Australian and New Guinean forces, assisted by local civilians, were always a division-level command or smaller: the U.S. "Director" Task Force (effectively a regimental combat team) and the U.S. 1st Marine Division handed over to the 40th Infantry Division, which in turn handed over to the Australian 5th Division.
These relatively small Allied forces held the attention of more than 100,000 Japanese military and civilian personnel on New Britain and a smaller nearby island, New Ireland.[1] These were centred on the Eighth Area Army: the 17th Division (11,429 personnel at the end of the war); the 38th Division (13,108); the 39th Brigade (5,073); the 65th Brigade (2,729); the 14th Regiment (2,444); the 34th Regiment (1,879) and the 35th Regiment (1,967). By the end of the war, these Japanese forces were restricted to Rabaul and the surrounding Gazelle Peninsula.
The main battles of the campaign were:
- Battle of Arawe
- Battle of Cape Gloucester
- Battle of Wide Bay
- Battle of Open Bay
[edit] References
- Miller, John, Jr. (1959). CARTWHEEL: The Reduction of Rabaul (English). United States Army in World War II: The War in the Pacific 418. Office of the Chief of Military History, U.S. Department of the Army. Retrieved on October 20, 2006.
- The Pacific: Guadalcanal to Saipan August 1942 to July 1944 (Army Air Forces in World War II)
- The Final Campaigns (Australian Army)
- Air War Against Japan, 1943–1945 (RAAF)
- Hough, Frank O., and John A. Crown (1952). The Campaign on New Britain. USMC Historical Monograph. Historical Division, Division of Public Information, Headquarters U.S. Marine Corps. Retrieved on December 4, 2006.
- Shaw, Henry I.; Douglas T. Kane (1963). Volume II: Isolation of Rabaul. History of U.S. Marine Corps Operations in World War II. Retrieved on October 18, 2006.
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