[21][22] Of the total force, 22,500 combat troops were assigned to the landing at Aitape; while the rest (nearly 30,000) were allocated to the Hollandia landings. [61] U.S. forces undertook mopping up operations in the area until 6 June. MacArthur was now determined to liberate the island as a stepping-stone to the reconquest of the Philippines. [58], Japanese casualties amounted to 3,300 killed and 600 wounded in combat;[59] a further 1,146 were killed or died in the area up to 27 September 1944. By the end of the day on 23 April the 186th Infantry were about halfway to Lake Sentani, while those from the 162nd had secured Hollandia and were securing the high ground around their objective, winkling out isolated pockets of resistance with aerial support. [12] General Headquarters South West Pacific Area Operational Instruction No.7 of 25 May 1942, issued by Commander-Allied-Forces, General Douglas MacArthur, placed all Australian and US Army, Air Force and Navy Forces in the Port Moresby Area under the control of New Guinea Force. As a result of immediate translation of the map, the 5th Air Force was informed and proceeded to destroy practically all of the barges. The beach quickly became congested, as it had also been the center of a Japanese supply dump prior to the assault, and engineers had to work to clear the area with bulldozers and construct a roadway to the beach's only exit. 84 dealt with The Japanese and Bacterial Warfare. Document numbers and a brief description including authority, title, date, area of reference and similar essential data were set forth under seventeen headings, such as 1) Diaries, Field; 5) Letters, Postcards; and 16) Technical Documents. When Japanese Americans on the West Coast were moved into internment camps in the late spring of 1942, the school moved to temporary quarters at Camp Savage, Minnesota. According to Morison, the Japanese "never again risked a transport larger than a small coaster or barge in waters shadowed by American planes. Red 2 beach was found to be highly unsuitable and the promised roads were non-existent. Their noses had been refitted with eight 50-caliber machine guns for strafing slow-moving ships on the high seas. There was also a small airstrip.To the west, the Cyclops Mountains rise to over 7000 feet (2100 m). In March 1944, plans were developed for ATIS to be located in closer proximity to combat operations. The timely publication of 18 of these reports afforded a wealth of information preparatory to the invasion. While military planners argued the merits of one approach over another, two main lines of attack were actually followed during 1944: (1) MacArthurs ground forces (including Army, Marine, and Navy elements) strengthened their hold in New Guinea and eventually invaded the Philippines; (2) Nimitzs naval forces drove across the central Pacific from the Gilberts to the Marianas and then covered the landing in the Philippines. Nowhere in the modern world has an armed liberation struggle persisted for so long - nearly 30 years - and with such secrecy, as the West Papuan war of resistance against the military government of Indonesia. After the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, in March 1943, an abandoned lifeboat at Goodenough Island (northeast of New Guinea) from the Teiyo Maru was recovered and found in it was The Japanese Army List, dated October 15, 1942. From there the documents were immediately sent to Brisbane for translation by ATIS personnel. The first major collection of captured Japanese documents in the Pacific Theater was made in August 1942 when the 1st Marine Raider Battalion, under Col. Evans Carlson and Lt. Col. James Roosevelt, made a harassing raid on Makin Island in the Gilberts. After the Japanese invasion of New Guinea the Americans, aided by Australian troops, organized a series of landings and other offensive actions against the Japanese in New Guinea. None of the senior officers present had been in post more than a few weeks and the senior air officer had been relieved following the destruction of his air forces at the beginning of April. Before June, between 20 and 25 P-39s had been lost in air combat, while three more had been destroyed on the ground and eight had been destroyed in landings by accident. It was occupied by the Japanese during their invasion of the Dutch East Indies in 1942, who planned to use it as a base for their expansion towards the Australian mandated territories of Papua and New Guinea. [14], Operation Mo was the designation given by the Japanese to their initial plan to take possession of Port Moresby. The story begins on March 31, 1944, when two Japanese Kawanishi flying boats were enroute to Mindanao in the Philippines. [9], The Japanese 8th Area Army (equivalent to an Anglo-American army), under General Hitoshi Imamura at Rabaul, was responsible for both the New Guinea and Solomon Islands campaigns. Over 170 were published, including many extracts from diaries and notebooks. 102103, The Japanese drive to conquer all of New Guinea had been decisively stopped. 117, Infringement of the Laws of War and Ethics by the Japanese Medical Corps, contains information on violations of the Geneva Convention on the rules of warfare and points out how, time and again, medical personnel put to death their own patients. US troops debark from LST-66 at Tanahmerah Bay Hollandia. [15] The only Allied response was a bombing raid of Lae and Salamaua by aircraft flying over the Owen Stanley Range from the carriers USSLexington and USSYorktown, leading the Japanese to reinforce these sites. I want you to take Buna, or not come back alive. Background. 1944 battle between American and Japanese forces during World War II, "Securing New Guinea: The U.S. Navy in Operations Reckless and Persecution: 2122 April 1944", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Battle_of_Hollandia&oldid=1132691020, South West Pacific theatre of World War II, Battles and operations of World War II involving Australia, Battles and operations of World War II involving Japan, Battles and operations of World War II involving the United States, Amphibious operations involving the United States, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 10 January 2023, at 02:36. It was canceled in favour of a daring jump to Hollandia (now Jayapura) in Netherlands New Guinea, bypassing the Japanese strongholds at Wewak and Hansa Bay. While MacArthur sought eight days worth of support from the fleet's powerful fleet carriers, Nimitz would only agree to commit this force for two days after the landings. 2, Alphabetical List of 40,000 Japanese Army Officer (May 1943); No. [43][44] Meanwhile, carrier-borne aircraft attacked targets around Wakde, Sarmi and Hollandia from 21 April, destroying at least 33 Japanese planes in the air and more on the ground. 8, Kanji Abbreviations, Variants, and Equivalents; No. Most Japanese troops never even came into contact with Allied forces, and were instead simply cut off and subjected to an effective blockade by Allied naval forces. On March 1, 1944, soldiers found on the body of the commander of Baba Battalion a copy of a field order issued by him in which he ordered an attack on American positions for that same afternoon. 72 was published as an accumulation of documentary evidence for the Commission Regarding Breaches of the Rules of Warfare by the Japanese Forces of the Australian Commonwealth. Except for some fairly heavy air raids, the Japanese reacted feebly to this penetration of their last defenses before the Philippines. U.S. Military forces began capturing records almost as soon as the war began and started exploiting them immediately. [1][2], Hollandia was situated on the east side of a headland separating Humboldt Bay to the east and Tanahmerah Bay, 25 miles (40km) to the west. This information was given to the 163rd Infantry Regiment of the 41st Infantry Division who used it in subsequent offensive operations. graduate Hollandia. region: "", Base ATIS received a document in March 1945 giving a complete record of the Japanese monitoring of Allied radio communications in the Philippine Islands during the period from October 1942 to December 1943. Fortunately, one American officer wrote in 1944, the enemy as a nation is addicted to keeping diaries, and converting everything into writing.. By the end of the war, ATIS had processed over 350,000 documents (or 1,680 cubic feet of records).[17]. [41] After rehearsals and loading, on 16 to 18 April the amphibious forces sailed from their bases at Finschafen and Goodenough Island; they joined up with other ships carrying troops bound for Aitape from Seeadler Harbour and then rendezvoused with the escort aircraft carriers providing air cover off Manus Island early on 20 April. On 17 September, the Japanese had reached the village of Ioribaiwa, just 30 kilometres (20mi) from the Allied airdrome at Port Moresby. [34][35] During the same period, American air and naval forces sank many of the Japanese ships which were attempting to transport reinforcements to the Hollandia and Wewak areas; these attacks were guided by intelligence gained from breaking the Japanese codes. Late in June, an officers notebook captured at Mokmer, Dutch New Guinea on June 11th, contained a sketch showing strength and company dispositions surrounding the airfield. This was the so-called Z Operation document which gave the Japanese air and naval plan of defense against Allied attacks on their South Pacific possessions, giving their solutions for the defense against Allied attacks in three sectors of the South Pacific. The US Navy had similar language programs. The translation of documents captured in the Southwest Pacific Area began with those taken in the Milne Bay operation in August 1942. In the Southwest Pacific Area, aside from the creation of the Far Eastern Air Force, there were few changes. Rabaul overlooks Simpson Harbor, a considerable natural anchorage, and was ideal for the construction of airfields. The ATIS Information Section supplied information derived from interrogations; translations; and, situation reports, intelligence summaries, maps, photos, and other outside publications. In addition, their bomb bays were filled with 500-pound bombs to be used in the newly devised practice of skip bombing. The most important find was a set of plans and specifications for some of the defenses encountered on the island. After the occupation of Hollandia and Aitape the Allies were in a strong position, but they did not stop there. Current Translation No. Often, they consisted of combined translations of several documents relating to the same subject, such as (No. They included: No. Late in the summer, Lieut. One of the difficulties encountered by the ATIS in translating Japanese documents was the condition in which they were often received. 37, No. First, they had woefully underestimated the strength of the Allied air forces. On April 29, 1944, ATIS Research Report No. I Corps, became commander of the newly formed U.S. 8th Army. The naval command in the Southwest Pacific remained unchanged. [60] A total of 7,200 Japanese troops assembled at Genjem and then attempted to withdraw overland to Sarmi; only around 1,000 reached their destination. The work contains a complete study on the collection, translation, and processing of captured documents. Gona fell to the Australians on 9 December 1942, Buna to the US 32nd on 2 January 1943, and Sanananda, located between the two larger villages, fell to the Australians on 22 January. target: "#hbspt-form-1677759698000-1549361125", Other organizations were established throughout the Pacific Theater to translate and exploit the records. On October 22, 1944, X Corps captured four sketches, one of gun positions north of Dulag, Leyte, and three of San Roque, Catmon Hill Area, Leyte, containing gun and coastal defense positions. To help ensure soldiers turned in any souvenirs of intelligence interest, the CIC established a souvenir grab bag. This contained items of no intelligence value, such as Japanese postcards, stationery, pictures, and clothing, and any soldier who handed over a souvenir needed for intelligence analysis was allowed to take an item from the grab bag in exchange. Exact tracings and translations were supplied to XXIV Corps prior to attack on these positions. The U.S. 24th Division's 19th and 21st Regimental Combat Teams (RCTs) were to land at Tanahmerah Bay. [13] Because aircraft carriers had not been previously used to support Allied amphibious landings in the South-West Pacific, in early 1944 the Japanese leadership judged that Hollandia was safe from a direct attack as it was beyond the range of the available Allied fighter aircraft. MacArthur, with a firm foothold in New Guinea, was determined to move next to the Philippines, from which he had been driven after Pearl Harbor, and from there launch the final attack on the Japanese home islands. [46] Yamamoto then turned his attention to New Guinea: 94 planes struck Oro Bay on 11 April; 174 planes hit Port Moresby on 12 April; and in the largest raid of all, 188 aircraft struck Milne Bay on 14 April. The Admiralty Islands having been seized a month ahead of schedule, MacArthur accelerated his advance. Translation of the official record by the Japanese Demobilization Bureaux detailing the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy's participation in the Southwest Pacific area of the, This page was last edited on 29 January 2023, at 09:02. During the so-called atoll campaign in the Pacific, US Navy, Marine Corps, and Army personnel captured many valuable documents on various islands. "[19] Thus was the overland threat to Port Moresby permanently removed. Copies of the documents were made in Brisbane and the original documents were returned to the aircraft crash site by another submarine. Rabaul became the forward base for the Japanese campaigns in mainland New Guinea, including the pivotal Kokoda Track campaign of July 1942 - January 1943, and the Battle of Buna-Gona. Gen. Frank D. Merrill, captured 2 tons of documents at Myitkyina, Burma. The Japanese defended Biak valiantly, even managing at one point to bring in 1,100 reinforcements, but they were finally overcome in early August. 76, Part 4, Prominent Factors in Japanese Military Psychology.. Most important of all, the bombers of MacArthur's air forces, under the command of Lieutenant General George C. Kenney, had been modified to enable new offensive tactics. hbspt.enqueueForm({ [52], Seven LSTs and the Australian transport Westralia were unloaded over the shore at White 1, landing 4,200 tonnes of combat supplies and over 300 vehicles on the first day. [13] Eventually it would grow to over 2,500 personnel, some of who served with Advanced Echelons and combat units. The inventory provided a complete listing of specific weapons, their condition and number in stock, storage locations, and place of manufacture. This translation aided materially in speeding up the execution of the subsequent attack on Saipan and other Japanese bases in the Pacific, which occurred shortly thereafter. Incidence of malaria was almost one hundred per cent. 5 captured many military documents. [3] Of these, only one was considered to be complete. The Dutch surrendered on 8 March. The Netherlands, Britain and the United States tried to defend the colony from the Japanese forces as they moved south in late 1941 in search of Dutch oil. . Task Force 74, under British Rear Admiral Victor Crutchley, consisted of the cruisers HMAS Australia and Shropshire plus several destroyers, while Task Force 75 was made up of three U.S. cruisers, Phoenix, Nashville and Boise under Rear Admiral Russell Berkey. Combat boundaries were listed. Only 30 percent of the captured documents needed no treatment; the rest needed cleaning, drying, and/or other conservation treatment. 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