Looking at the Pacific today, we see a vast difference between the current situation and
that which we were accustomed to seeing in the last year, with the roles of the Japanese
and the Allies being completely reversed by now. To the surprise of everyone in Tokyo, the last
couple of months had seen a long string of defeats by the Japanese forces in the South Pacific.
Just last week, the Evacuation of Guadalcanal had been successfully completed with the rescue
of all units on the island, under the noses of an American enemy that enjoyed ground, naval and
aerial superiority; yet the Guadalcanal Campaign had ended in a complete and decisive defeat,
with the Empire of Japan draining their resources to the limit just to end up with
an elaborate withdrawal operation. The loss of the Buna-Gona area and the defeat at the Kokoda
Track had also been a great shock for Japanese commanders at Tokyo, as their position in New
Guinea had much more strategic significance than a small island in the Solomons. Thus,
as Operation KE was unfolding, the Japanese decided to embark on a new offensive in New
Guinea to secure their important position in the Lae-Salamaua area. Welcome to our
video on the direct aftermath of the Battle of Buna-Gona and the start of the Battle of Wau.
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As we’ve been discussing, the major reverses suffered at Guadalcanal and Buna-Gona provoked a
huge change in the Japanese strategic thinking for the South Pacific region at the beginning of 1943.
Complementing Operation KE, the evacuation of Guadalcanal,
General Imamura had decided to strongly reinforce the Japanese presence in New Guinea,
envisioning to establish two new future landing points, with the 2nd Special Naval Base Unit and
a battalion of the 21st Regiment being earmarked to land on Wewak while the other two battalions
of the 21st Regiment were to land at Madang and secure a new airfield construction site.
Additionally, a road construction unit was sent to occupy Tuluvu in Cape Gloucester and a force
of SNLF marines was sent to secure a landing site at Finschhafen . By the start of the new year,
these places had been successfully occupied and the construction of the new airfields had
been started. Furthermore, Imamura also planned to bring two army divisions to reinforce New Guinea,
the 20th and 41st Divisions, as well as extra air units once the new airfields had been constructed.
Meanwhile, General Adachi was sending considerable reinforcements to Lae, planning to secure the area
with the recently-arrived 51st Division. Back on January 5, a Japanese convoy had departed
Rabaul for Lae carrying the Okabe Detachment, a regimental group of the 51st Division under
Major-General Okabe Toru, which mainly comprised the three battalions of the 102nd Regiment of
Colonel Maruoka Kohei and the 2nd Battalion of the 14th Artillery Regiment. Escorted by the
five destroyers of Captain Kitamura Masayuki, the convoy was spotted by American aircraft
near Gasmata at 10:35 on January 6 . An immediate air strike with 16 P-38s would then be launched,
although it would only get to claim nine enemy planes and only one possible bomb hit.
During the night, however, a night attack by an Australian PBY Catalina would manage to sink one
of the transports, successfully killing 456 Japanese soldiers and wounding another 85.
As the survivors were picked up by the Maikaze, the convoy then continued on to Lae,
though another air strike would manage to severely damage a transport ship during the final approach.
At last, the Japanese convoy reached Lae during the afternoon of January 7,
immediately starting the unloading with haste. Despite the 416 enemy sorties [that many?] that
ended up destroying two transports, the majority of the Okabe Detachment, almost 4000
men, would successfully land on New Guinean soil. They would then move down the coast to Salamaua,
from where the Okabe Detachment planned to launch an assault on the town of Wau. In the meantime,
the guerrilla Kanga Force of Lieutenant-Colonel Norman Fleay was not going to sit idly by either.
After their successful raids on Salamua back in late June, 1942, the Australians had been ordered
to lay low and protect the air installations at Wau, with the secondary task of keeping an
eye on the Japanese garrison in the Lae-Salamaua area to report on their strength and movements.
By late August, however, after reports of Japanese forces approaching Mubo, Fleay had decided to
scorch the Bulolo Valley and withdraw towards Winima and Kudjeru to hold the important Bulldog
Track, which held his line of communication with the New Guinea Force at Port Moresby.
Furthermore, General Blamey was planning to use this track for an overland drive on Lae
after the Kokoda Track and the Buna-Gona area could be secured. Thus, Wau would be
abandoned and the Japanese would capture Mubo with force on August 31. Weeks then passed,
however, and the Australians realized that the enemy was not planning to advance any further.
During the next few months, Kanga Force would continue to acquire valuable information and
to raid the Japanese presence at Mubo. Reinforced with the 2/7th Independent Company of Major Thomas
MacAdie in late October, Fleay would also decide to reoccupy Wau and start a reconstruction program
of the Bulolo Valley. A major raid on Mubo was also planned for January 11, with MacAdie leading
180 Australian commandos to seize Vickers Ridge while Captain Winning and 150 commandos secured
Mat Mat Hill and Observation Hill. From there, under a pouring rain, the Australians launched
a series of concerted attacks on Mubo that lasted for three days and killed many Japanese soldiers.
Then, MacAdie withdrew back to the Saddle, where 350 soldiers from the
recently-arrived Okabe Detachment launched a strong counterattack on January 16.
As the attack pressed on heavily, the Australians began to fall back in a well-controlled movement,
so nightfall would find them settled at House Banana. At the same time, knowing that the
Japanese had landed a substantial force on Lae and that they might attack Wau, Blamey decided
to send the 17th Brigade of Brigadier Murray Moten to take over the defense of Wau and prepare for an
overland offensive against the Lae-Salamaua area. Meanwhile, after the January 16 engagement,
General Okabe decided to advance on Wau down an old and long-disused track running through
difficult country which was parallel to the Black Cat Track. Because of this, the two sides
then lost contact, which allowed the Japanese to gain tactical surprise for their attack on Wau.
Yet the advance would also be very difficult and take longer than expected, something that left
the invaders short on food and that allowed the Australians to bring the bulk of the 2/5th and
2/6th Battalions by January 27. As Okabe’s men negotiated the climb up to Waipali and then the
precipitous descent back down into the Bitoi gorge, Australian patrols roamed the Wau-Mubo
area to find the precise axis of the Japanese thrust towards Wau. By January 26, however,
the track that the Japanese were using had been discovered, so Brigadier Moten decided to send the
2/6th Battalion with commandos attached to destroy all the Japanese forces between the Black Cat and
House Copper. But before the Australians could commence their offensive, Okabe’s forces finally
fell on the Australian positions at Wandumi during the early hours of January 28; positions that
were manned by the A Company of Captain Wilfred Sherlock. As the Japanese attacked with ferocity,
Sherlock calmly decided to move his company onto a nearby spur to the southwest. Reinforced with
a platoon of the 2/5th and some commandos, the Australians would tenaciously resist until the
late afternoon, employing cool and well-directed Australian fire to break up the enemy attacks.
Sherlock himself would lead a bayonet charge to repel Japanese infiltrators and restore
some lost positions, allowing his men to hold on through the night even though his ammunition was
running short and the Japanese were ferociously encroaching. Moten would immediately react by
sending a recently-landed company of the 2/5th to reinforce the defenders. They would arrive
during the night to help Sherlock withdraw to the Bulolo River, where they would attempt to
delay the enemy advance long enough for the remaining reinforcements to land on Wau.
Meanwhile , Winning’s commandos were also sent from Black Cat to reinforce Sherlock, although
they would end up retreating to Wau as the sounds of fighting were leading in that direction.
Similarly, the bulk of the 2/5th would be ordered to move with haste to reinforce Wau’s defenses. At
the Bulolo, however, Sherlock would be killed as he attempted to cross the raging river;
yet his forces would nevertheless continue to resist before completing their retreat behind
the river, successfully delaying the Japanese advance for an entire day and forcing Okabe to
divert his forces to the flanks. As such, some Japanese units of the 2nd Battalion would get to
cross the river near the Black Cat Track, the detachment headquarters would move to capture
Kaisenik and its supplies, and the 1st Battalion would get lost in the dark as it advanced south
towards Crystal Creek. The soldiers of the 1st Battalion would finally end up near Ballam’s,
so the unit would have to circle back, arriving at Crystal Creek by
07:00 on January 29. Their confusion would allow the 2/5th to safely arrive at Wau.
With the dawn of January 29, Okabe had wasted the element of surprise that was gained through the
difficult march on the Jap Track, but Moten also knew that he needed to be reinforced immediately
if he hoped to succeed. Luckily for him, the conclusion of the Battle of Buna-Gona allowed
General Blamey to deploy most of his aircraft for the defense of Wau. Thus, the last company
of the 2/5th Battalion and the bulk of the 2/7th would successfully land on Wau by early afternoon.
By that time, the vanguard of the Okabe Detachment was also reaching the outer
defenses of the airfield, although the defenders would manage to stop them at Leahy’s Farm.
Yet the Australians would have to wait for the next Japanese attack until 04:00 on January 30,
as two companies assaulted the Slaughter Yards and the Racecourse. In both places,
the Japanese attack would be soundly defeated by the resolute defense of the 2/7th’s men and
Winning’s commandos ; and by the next morning, two 25 pounder guns were also landed and
immediately employed to shell the enemy, with Australian Beaufighters being sent to fire on
the Japanese forces as well. The recent attacks also forced Moten to request more reinforcements,
so the 2/3rd Independent Company of Major George Warfe would be flown on January 31,
with a machine-gun company also arriving the following day. This left Moten confident
enough to claim that “the situation at Wau was now well at hand”. Similarly,
Okabe now knew that he was facing a large enemy force, so he decided to suspend any major assault,
with his forces instead engaging the defenders in a series of skirmishes for the next few days.
Looking further south, after the collapse of Japanese resistance in the Buna-Gona area,
the remnants of the once proud South Seas Detachment and of the reinforcements that
had arrived to relieve them began a difficult withdrawal towards the Lae-Salamaua area.
Colonel Tsukamoto , having withdrawn his forces back on January 12, arrived at Barumbari near
the mouth of the Kumusi almost eleven days later. Major Koiwai, who led the retreat of
the ragtag soldiers of the Central Sector, also began to arrive at Barumbari on January 28.
Finally, around 4000 men, including sick and wounded, had broken out from Giruwa, although
850 of these would not make it to Barumbari. The rest arrived individually or in small groups,
some barely able to walk and some still remarkably fit, and then started to be ferried up to Mambare.
By February 7, the entire Buna Detachment had assembled at Mambare, where landing
vessels - around 20 barges brought down from Lae were being prepared to carry them north to that
town. Two companies of the Okabe Detachment also came from Lae with the barges to carry
out clearing operations up the Mambare River and to establish a holding camp by the Ampolo
River for units withdrawing overland, where they would actually hold off several attacks
by Allied pursuit parties. On February 11, the Japanese survivors would finally start their last
journey towards the Lae-Salamaua area, although progress would be agonizingly slow because they
could only move safely during the night. By late April, the South Seas Detachment was finally
evacuated to Rabaul, where the 18th Army finally dissolved one of the most famous detachments
of the Imperial Japanese Army, reabsorbing it into the 55th Division then fighting at Burma.
Returning to Wau, action restarted on February 2, as Major Warfe was ordered to attack Woody Island
in front of the Racecourse; yet the Japanese troops were well dug in behind a steep-banked
creek, and so, the Australian commandos would suffer many losses and would have to withdraw.
After the failure of the attacks on the previous two days, however, Warfe prepared
to launch a major assault on February 4, as he now knew the layout of the Japanese defense
positions and would ensure that support fire was directed to the right places. With artillery,
mortar and machine-gun fire targeting key enemy positions, the Australians charged with bayonets
fixed with such ferocity that the Japanese had to abandon their positions, withdrawing back to the
Bulolo River by February 6. At the same time, as the Japanese regrouped at Crystal Creek and
prepared for a possible withdrawal, Moten ordered the 2/5th and 2/7th Battalions to launch a major
attack against the enemy and open up a supply route with the forces trapped at Skindiwai.
Dug in among difficult terrain, however, the Japanese offered determined resistance,
only getting pushed a few miles towards Crystal Creek. Finally, February 6 also saw the Japanese
launch their first and only major air attack on Wau, which ended in favor of the Allies.
The following day, the 2/5th continued to attack the main Japanese positions on Crystal Creek,
putting much pressure on a force that was already on the brink of starvation. For the next two days,
the Australians would continue to hammer the enemy defenses with infantry assaults
and artillery bombardments, gradually pushing back the invaders, although at a high cost.
A major breakthrough would finally come on February 9, as B Company, 2/5th Battalion,
managed to push through towards Kaisenik and then continued on to Skindiwai. Meanwhile,
many of the Japanese remnants were taking to the hills towards Wandumi , where Okabe had finally
determined that his best option was to withdraw back to Mubo before his forces got annihilated.
But as the Japanese commenced their final retreat, a surprise was awaiting them on the Jap Track.
The 2/6th Battalion of Lieutenant-Colonel Frederick Wood had effectively cut off the
track, successfully harassing the desperate enemy soldiers and inflicting several casualties on the
retreating Japanese. Yet the action would end with Wood getting shot in the head and the Australians
pulling back, so Okabe’s men would finally be able to continue their retreat unopposed.
Furthermore, to ensure the orderly withdrawal of the Okabe Detachment, the Japanese command
at Mubo was sending fresh men into the area to engage the Australian pursuers under
Major Warfe and to push back the commandos operating around Waipali. By February 21,
however, Okabe’s forces had successfully reached Mubo, signaling the end of the Battle of Wau.
During the abortive action to capture Wau, the invaders had lost over 1000
men, while the Australians suffered around 350 casualties. The actions of Captain Sherlock and
his forces had been the decisive point of the battle, as the Japanese advance was delayed
long enough for the Australians to rapidly reinforce their defenses. This, however,
was only the start of a larger and longer campaign to push back the Japanese from Mubo to Salamaua.
Next week, we’ll return to the CBI theater to cover some new developments during the months of
January and February, including new operations in China and the start of the First Chindits
Expedition, so make sure you are subscribed and have pressed the bell button to see them.
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