As we said in our previous video on the New Guinea campaign, it tends to go a little under
the radar. This is especially true for the second half of the campaign, in which the Allies were no
longer on the defensive and were ready to launch an offensive of their own, an offensive that would
erode the Japanese 8th Area Army's foothold on New Guinea, Papua, and Dutch New Guinea.
Really, we can break the Allied offensive into two parts: Operation Cartwheel, which went from
June 1943 to March 1944, and the Western New Guinea campaign, which went from April 1944
to August 1945. While the Australians spearheaded the first half of the New Guinea campaign, the US
played a far more significant role in the second half, especially in Dutch or Western New Guinea.
The principal objective of Operation Cartwheel was originally the capture of the major Japanese base
at Rabaul on the island of New Britain, New Guinea. Directed by American General Douglas
MacArthur, this would be achieved through 11 sub-operations and in concert with the nearby
Solomon Islands campaign. In August 1943, however, the American Joint Chiefs of Staff
met with the US president and Winston Churchill in Quebec and decided that the neutralisation
(instead of the capture) of Rabaul was a better plan. In short, the Allies would bomb Rabaul and
seize the land and islands close to it but not actually invade Rabaul.
About four months after the start of Operation Cartwheel, the US Fifth Air Force, Royal
Australian Air Force, and Royal New Zealand Air Force started laying waste to Rabaul from the sky,
taking off from the island of Bougainville and from naval air carriers. They continued laying
waste to Rabaul throughout Operation Cartwheel, chipping away at Japanese resolve and materiel bit
by bit. But the bombings were just one element of Cartwheel, and a whole lot of land-based fighting
still went down. We're not going to delve into every sub-operation, but we'll cover a few.
Operation Chronicle is important because it was the first. Beginning on the 23rd of June 1943,
the Americans and Australians invaded the islands of Woodlark and Kiriwina almost unopposed. The
Japanese conducted a few minor defensive air raids, wounding several men but scoring no kills.
On the 30th of June, the Allies initiated Operation Toenails — yuck — or the New
Georgia campaign. A largely American force of approximately 43,000 men waged war against some
10,000 Japanese on the New Georgia Islands of the Solomons. Munda Point on the island's west
coast was a hotspot. The US 43rd Division fought tooth-and-nail to seize the Japanese
airfield at Munda, and the Japanese responded in kind. In the advance on Munda Point alone,
the 43rd suffered 90 men killed, 636 wounded, and a further 1,000 evacuated due to illness, mostly
combat stress reaction or combat fatigue. In the subsequent Battle of Munda Point, after the 25th
and 37th Divisions reinforced the 43rd to amass a force of some 30,000 men, the Japanese brought the
American casualty count up to 5,000, in exchange for a little under 4,700 Japanese soldiers killed.
American war historian Samuel Eliot Morison described what it was like on the ground:
"The Japanese attacked with bloodcurdling screams, crawled silently into American
foxholes and stabbed or strangled them. Often they cursed loudly in English named the American
commanding officers and dared the Americans to fight For sick and hungry soldiers who had fought
all day, this was terrifying. The Americans shot at everything in sight even comrades."
The Americans did take Munda Point though, and, by the 7th of October, all of New Georgia.
This was a crucial step towards another important Operation Cartwheel sub-op,
codenamed Cherryblossom. The goal of Cherryblossom was to take the major island northwest of
New Georgia: Bougainville. This was a massive campaign, incorporating some 174,000 Allied troops
and between 45,000 and 65,000 Japanese troops and lasting beyond the end of Cartwheel. From November
1943 to November 1944, the Americans landed on the Bougainville coast at the village of Torokina
and toiled for a beachhead. From then until August 1945, the Australians sought and out destroyed
the Japanese soldiers that remained on the island. Some 26,400 Japanese succumbed to
tropical diseases and malnutrition throughout the campaign, and in the end, the Aussies were
able to capture between 21,000 and 23,500 of the survivors. As we mentioned before,
Bougainville's airfields were essential to the sustained Allied bombing of Rabaul.
On the 15th of December 1943, the so-called Director Task Force, centred around the US
112th Cavalry Regiment, landed on the beaches in the swampy Arawe area of New Britain.
This was on the other side of the island to Rabaul. On the 26th, the US 1st Marine
Division also hit New Britain, at the northwest headland named Cape Gloucester. These landings,
and the battles that followed, fell under the umbrella operation codenamed Dexterity. While
the strategic value of the Arawe landing remains a topic of debate, it diverted about a thousand
Japanese soldiers from Cape Gloucester. In the end, the Allies managed to kill around
4,500 Japanese troops and chase the survivors out of western New Britain to Rabaul.
Finally, the Allied Landing on Emirau is important because it was the last of Cartwheel's 11
sub-operations. Like the very first sub-op, Operation Chronicle, Emirau was a breeze.
4,000 US Marines landed on the island, which sits in the sea to the north of New
Britain, on the 20th of March 1944. They faced no opposition.
The Japanese brought aerial reinforcements to Rabaul from the northward island of Truk
in January 1944, but that ultimately just cost them more materiel. On the 19th of February 1944,
between 70 and 120 Japanese planes withdrew from Rabaul; the Allied air raids continued,
and Operation Cartwheel saw the Japanese forces at Rabaul isolated
and, as intended, neutralised. They couldn't make offensives and couldn't be reinforced.
Rabaul was pretty much a POW camp at this point.
So that's New Guinea, Papua, and some of the Solomons covered,
but what about Dutch New Guinea or Western New Guinea?
Like Cartwheel, this campaign was made up of lots of sub-operations.
Some took place in Dutch New Guinea, some in Australian New Guinea,
and some on the surrounding islands, including as far off as Morotai.
The campaign kicked off with two simultaneous operations: Persecution and Reckless. In
Persecution, a largely American force made an amphibious landing at Aitape, New Guinea, on
the 22nd of April 1944. They brought some 22,500 men to bear, vastly outnumbering the thousand-odd
Japanese combat troops in the area. By the 4th of May, half of the Japanese defenders were dead.
The purpose of the operation was to cut the Japanese 18th Army (positioned to the east at
Wewak) off from Hollandia, which was to the west of Aitape, in Dutch New Guinea. Hollandia was the
objective of the concurrent Operation Reckless. In this operation, the US 24th and 41st Infantry
Divisions made landings at Tanahmerah Bay and Humboldt Bay, forcing the Japanese 2nd Army to
withdraw westward along the coast. Only 1,000 of the 7,200 Japanese who survived the initial attack
(and tried to retreat) survived. The Americans mopped them up until the 6th of July 1944.
On the 10th of July 1944, the Japanese 18th Army launched a counteroffensive to take Aitape back.
It started with a bombardment and then a 10,000-man-strong Japanese attack across
the nearby Driniumor River. The US XI Corps made a fighting withdrawal through the jungle, inflicting
heavy casualties on the Japanese. This continued over the next couple of weeks and involved savage
close-ranged and even hand-to-hand combat. On the 29th, the XI Corpse launched a counteroffensive
and pushed the Japanese back over the river. By the 4th of August, the Japanese were ordered to
withdraw back to Wewak, having lost between 8,000 to 10,000 of the troops they ultimately committed
to the counteroffensive. Many of these casualties were attributed to disease and starvation.
A few months later, the Australian 6th Division arrived at Aitape to tag in for the Americans.
The Australians were fresh and ready to rumble, while the Japanese had suffered defeat after
defeat and lacked food, medicine, and air and naval support. From November 1944 to August 1945,
some 13,000 Australian troops worked their way to Wewak, essentially mopping up the 30,000 to
35,000 Japanese troops in the area. Between 7,000 and 9,000 Japanese troops fell to Australian fire,
while 13,000 surrendered. Disease and starvation did most of the work, though,
claiming a further 14,000 lives. Wewak fell on the 11th of May, and the surviving Japanese withdrew
into the mountains. By August, the Aussies ceased their pursuit because they knew Imperial Japan
would soon surrender. The Aitape–Wewak campaign marked the end of the Western New Guinea campaign.
With Rabaul neutralised, the Japanese forces in Dutch New Guinea crushed, and the Japanese Home
Islands nuked, the New Guinea campaign was over. And while some deem it "arguably the most arduous
fought by any Allied troops during World War II," the campaign still tends to go under the radar.
We can only hope we were able to shed some light on this bloody pocket of the war.
But what do you think? Did you realise the New Guinea campaign was so extensive? Do you know of
any great stories from the New Guinea campaign? Are you shocked at how many soldiers succumbed
to disease and starvation? Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below.