New Guinea campaign
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It has been suggested that Organization of Japanese fortifications in New Guinea area be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)

January 7, 1943. Australian forces attack Japanese positions near Buna. Members of the 2/12th Infantry Battalion advance as Stuart tanks from the 2/6th Armoured Regiment attack Japanese pillboxes. An upward-firing machine gun on the tank spray treetops to clear them of snipers. (Photographer: George Silk).

An Allied A-20 bomber attacks Japanese shipping during the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, March, 1943.

April 22, 1944. US LVTs (Landing Vehicles Tracked) in the foreground head for the invasion beaches at Humboldt Bay, Netherlands New Guinea, during the Hollandia landing as the cruisers USS Boise (firing tracer shells, right center) and USS Phoenix bombard the shore. (Photographer: Tech 4 Henry C. Manger.)

Two dead Japanese soldiers in a water filled shell hole somewhere in New Guinea

v • d • e New Guinea campaign Rabaul (land battle) – Rabaul (1942 air raids) – Mo – Coral Sea – Kokoda Track – Milne Bay – Buna-Gona – Wau – Bismarck Sea – Salamaua-Lae – Cartwheel – Wewak raid – Finisterres – Huon Peninsula – Bougainville – Rabaul (1943 air raids) – New Britain – Admiralties – Western New Guinea

South West Pacific theatre Philippines 1941–42 – Dutch East Indies 1941–42 – Portuguese Timor – Australia – New Guinea – Philippines 1944–45 – Borneo 1945

The New Guinea campaign (1942–45) was one of the major military campaigns of World War II. The island of New Guinea was split between the Australian League of Nations mandate Territory of New Guinea (the north-eastern part of the island of New Guinea and surrounding islands), the Territory of Papua (the south-eastern part of the island of New Guinea, an Australian colony), and Dutch New Guinea. It was strategically important because it was a major landmass to the immediate north of Australia. Its large land area provided locations for large land, air and naval bases.

Fighting between Allied and Japanese forces commenced with the Japanese assault on Rabaul on January 23, 1942. 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. Fighting in some parts of New Guinea continued until the war ended in August 1945.

General Douglas MacArthur as Supreme Commander, South West Pacific Area, led the Allied forces. MacArthur was based in Melbourne, Brisbane and Manila. The Imperial Japanese Army's 8th Area Army, under General Hitoshi Imamura, was responsible for both the New Guinea and Solomon Islands campaigns. Imamura was based at Rabaul. The Japanese 18th Army, under Lieutenant General Hatazō Adachi, was responsible for Japanese operations on mainland New Guinea.

Major battles and sub-campaigns

• Operation Mo (1942)
• Battle of the Coral Sea (1942)
• Kokoda Track campaign (1942)
• Battle of Milne Bay (1942)
• Battle of Buna-Gona (1942-43)
• Battle of Wau (1943)
• Battle of the Bismarck Sea (1943)
• Operation Cartwheel (1943)
• Salamaua-Lae campaign (1943)
  • Battle of Nassau Bay
  • First Battle of Mubo
  • First Battle of Bobdubi
  • Battle of Lababia Ridge
  • Second Battle of Bobdubi
  • Landing at Nassau Bay
  • Second Battle of Mubo
  • Battle of Roosevelt Ridge
  • Battle of Mount Tambu
  • Operation Postern
    • Landing at Lae
    • Landing at Nadzab
• Bombing of Wewak
• Finisterre Range campaign (1943-44; including a series of actions known as the Battle of Shaggy Ridge)
  • Ramu Valley campaign
  • Battle of Johns' Knoll-Trevor's Ridge
  • Battle of The Pimple
  • Battle of Cam's Saddle
  • Operation Cutthroat
    • Battle of Faria Ridge
    • Battle of Prothero I and II
    • Battle of McCaughey's Knoll
    • Battle of Kankiryo Saddle
• Huon Peninsula campaign (1943-44)
  • Battle of Scarlet Beach
  • Battle of Finschhafen
  • Battle of Sattelberg
  • Battle of Jivevaneng
  • Battle of Sio
• Bougainville campaign (1943-45)
• New Britain campaign (1943-45)
• Admiralty Islands campaign (1944)
• Western New Guinea campaign (1944-45)
  • Operations Reckless and Persecution
  • Battle of Wakde
  • Battle of Lone Tree Hill (1944)
  • Battle of Morotai
  • Battle of Biak
  • Battle of Noemfoor
  • Battle of Driniumor River
  • Battle of Sansapor
  • Aitape-Wewak campaign

References

Books

• Dexter, David (1961). Volume VI – The New Guinea Offensives, Australia in the War of 1939–1945. Canberra: Australian War Memorial. Retrieved on 2006-12-16. 
• Drea, Edward J. (1998). In the Service of the Emperor: Essays on the Imperial Japanese Army. Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0-8032-1708-0. 
• Gailey, Harry A. (2004). MacArthur's Victory: The War In New Guinea 1943-1944. New York: Random House. ISBN. 
• McCarthy, Dudley (1959). Volume V – South–West Pacific Area – First Year: Kokoda to Wau, Australia in the War of 1939–1945. Canberra: Australian War Memorial. Retrieved on 2006-12-16. 
• Taafe, Stephen R. (2006). MacArthur's Jungle War: The 1944 New Guinea Campaign. Lawrence, Kansas, U.S.A.: University Press Of Kansas. ISBN 0700608702. 
• Zaloga, Steven J. Japanese Tanks 1939-45. Osprey, 2007. ISBN 978-1-84603-091-8.

Web

• Hank Nelson. "Report on Historical Sources on Australia and Japan at war in Papua and New Guinea, 1942-45". Retrieved on 2006-12-13.
• U.S. Army Center of Military History. "Japanese Operations in the Southwest Pacific Area, Volume II - Part I". Reports of General MacArthur. Retrieved on 2006-12-08. 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 Pacific War.
• National Archive Video of Hollandia Bay, New Guinea Invasion VIEW ONLINE

Notes