japanese invasion of dutch new guinea

The campaign resulted in a crushing defeat and heavy losses for the Empire of Japan. The three supporting U.S. cruisers and destroyers began their bombardment around 06:00, concentrating on targets around the entrance to Jautefa Bay and Hollandia. After the occupation of Hollandia and Aitape the Allies were in a strong position, but they did not stop there. 16 dealt with interrogation of captured American B-24 air crews; No. By 1944 the school had outgrown these facilities and moved to nearby Fort Snelling. During the early stages of the planning process MacArthur's headquarters believed that two Japanese infantry regiments may have been in the Hollandia area, but this was later discounted. [22] The cost to the Allied fighters was high. Intelligence gained from breaking the codes protecting Imperial Japanese Army radio messages led the Allies to learn that the Hollandia area was only lightly defended, with Japanese forces being concentrated in the Madang-Wewak region. Pre-landing reconnaissance efforts were hampered by the destruction of the Australian scouting party that was landed in the area by submarine in late March, and the reality of the terrain was only discovered through aerial intelligence that arrived too late. [50], Three transports were assigned to the operation, Westralia, Gunston Hall and Ganymede. [17] It proved difficult to accurately estimate the size and composition of the Japanese defenses, as attempts to infiltrate reconnaissance parties in the area failed. At Anguar Island in the Western Carolinas in early September 1944, agents from the 81st CIC Detachment, with the 81st Infantry Division, captured a large volume of records, including blueprints, books, miscellaneous documents, files, 40 pounds of mail, and Japanese currency and coins. The Japanese invaded New Guinea from November 1941 till April 1942 and occupied the Dutch part (except for Merauke) and the northern Australian part (Fakfak fell April 1, Manokwari April 12). The Eastern Fleet's British and American aircraft carriers raided Sabang on 19 April. In New Guinea, U.S. and Australian infantry were moving along the northern coast, pushing the Japanese before them. Urgent information was extracted before rushing the documents on to the Advanced Echelon where they were sorted, stamped, examined, and translated as necessary. All of these factors had to be taken into account in determining the lines of advance in 1944. Two major moves were planned for the end of June: Eventually, the Joint Chiefs of Staff realized that a landing and siege of "Fortress Rabaul" would be far too costly, and that the Allies' ultimate strategic purposes could be achieved by simply neutralizing and bypassing it. 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. [18] For more information regarding the Z Plan see my article The Z Plan Story: Japans 1944 Naval Battle Strategy Drifts into U.S. Hands, Part I and Part II in Prologue, Vol. However, using 27 tons, at 40 lbs. Subsequently, Supplements No. The Navy played a crucial role in operations to take Japanese airfields. formId: "13b57390-1d3c-43b8-b8c2-4570bb51abe4", Gen. Robert C. Richardson became commanding general of U.S. Army Forces, Pacific Ocean Area, in which capacity he remained subordinate to Nimitzs operational control. Japanese forces began to land on the island of Luzon in the Philippines on December 10. . Engineers operating amphtracks pushed forward from Jautefa Bay to the lake to carry the infantry around the Japanese positions at the lake, completing their flanking maneuver on 25 April. [36] The air and naval attacks succeeded in isolating the remaining Japanese forces in New Guinea. Todays post is by Dr. Greg Bradsher, Senior Archivist at the National Archives at College Park, Maryland. They subsequently neutralized the Japanese positions, as well as interdicted a portion of the Japanese movements, and anticipated Japanese defensive position and strengths. Two months after JICPOA was formed US forces invaded the Gilbert Islands. Horikoshi, upon arrival at ATIS, at first denied all knowledge of any atrocities but on being confronted with his diary, admitted that such things had occurred. 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. In late 1943, the Information Section was given the task of writing Briefs consisting of a summary and highlights of Enemy Publications and Current Translations. There was also a small airstrip.To the west, the Cyclops Mountains rise to over 7000 feet (2100 m). [6] See The Sinking of the Japanese Submarine I-1 off of Guadalcanal and the Recovery of its Secret Documents., [7] See A Letter from Somewhere in Burma, June 1944. Garrisons were effectively besieged and denied shipments of food and medical supplies, and as a result, some claim that 97% of Japanese deaths in this campaign were from non-combat causes. Interestingly enough, among these records was a complete listing of the Japanese Imperial Army Ordnance Inventory. He had planned to move first to Hansa Bay, but with airfields operational in the Admiralty Islands, the Hansa Bay assault was deemed unnecessary. Barbey's VII 'Phib carried out two almost simultaneous undertakings. First, with completion of the reduction of Rabaul, the South Pacific Area was closed as an active theatre, and Halsey left to take command of the U.S. 3rd Fleet. [43], The remaining destroyers with about 2,700 surviving troops limped back to Rabaul. Beleaguered, the survivors of the Japanese garrison were evacuated by submarine on the night of 26 October. The Aussies were fighting mad, for they had found some of their captured fellows tied to trees and bayoneted to death, surmounted by the placard, 'It took them a long time to die'. As a result, code breaking was the main source of intelligence. [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. Round one had gone to the Americans and Australians who had ejected the. Similar JICPOA teams participated in succeeding amphibious assaults to examine prisoners and documents for intelligence of immediate tactical value. Joining JICPOA once it became an inter-service organization were some 50 US Army Military Intelligence Service (MIS) Nisei linguists. 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. ", Samuel Eliot Morison, Breaking the Bismarcks Barrier, p. 120, The first strike, on 7 April, was against Allied shipping in the waters between Guadalcanal and Tulagi. [41] Through the afternoon of 1 March, the overcast weather held at which point everything began to go wrong for the Japanese. It contained details of the proposed landing of Tama Group (full strength of one division) at Ormoc, Leyte, on November 1st. Copies of the documents were made in Brisbane and the original documents were returned to the aircraft crash site by another submarine. In February 1944, the Japanese devised a plan known as Z Plan to counter the American naval offensive and destroy the U.S. Pacific fleet. According to Morison, "the Japanese retreat down the Kokoda Trail had turned into a rout. Despite the disaster of the Bismarck Sea, the Japanese could not give up on recapturing Wau. The large majority of the defending Japanese troops there had uncharacteristically abandoned their positions and fled inland. [27], The ground forces would be supported by two naval bombardment forces. 37, No. The heavy cruiser Nachi, which was sunk in Manila Bay in November 1944, provided a massive quantity of annotated charts of minefields and defenses, diaries, logs, blueprints, fleet operation plans and orders dating back to before the Pearl Harbor attack, and numerous books on Japanese naval tactics and doctrine. The forces of the Southwest Pacific Area were ready to move on to the Philippines. 3 (Fall 2005). Documents were first captured from a Japanese plane downed in the Pearl Harbor attack. The campaign between Allied and Japanese forces commenced with the Japanese assault on Rabaul on 23 January 1942. The B-29s in the Pacific, forming a part of the U.S. 20th Air Force, were controlled by the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, acting through Gen. Henry (Hap) Arnold, commanding general of the U.S. Army Air Forces. [5], Allied intelligence successes led to the decision to land at Hollandia. [20], I Corps under Lieutenant General Robert Eichelberger provided most of the ground forces for the combined Operations Reckless and Persecution. A unified American-British-Dutch-Australian Command, ABDACOM, under Wavell, responsible for holding Malaya, Sumatra, Java, . These totaled 11,000 men under the command of General Masazumi Inada, Major General Toyozo Kitazono and Rear Admiral Yoshikazu Endo (Ninth Fleet). [14] Some sources indicate the figure was 50 tons. Some claim that 97% of Japanese deaths were from non-combat causes. Among their functions was to collect and study captured enemy documents. This information resulted in the Americans speeding up their invasion convoy by a day. 99-108 (Japanese Place Names-Philippines). In January 1943 the Allied and the Japanese forces facing each other on New Guinea were like two battered heavyweights. Gen. Frank D. Merrill, captured 2 tons of documents at Myitkyina, Burma. Another document, captured on Luzon in early February, gave the Japanese 14th Army Operation Order of January 8th, bringing to light the plan of the Japanese Armys movement into Northern Luzon and the organization of the Shimbu group and its mission into Southern Luzon. 5, Bibliographic Subject Index for Enemy Publications 1-200 (November 30, 1944), with a supplementary index from 201-300 (March 1945); No. The destroyer Yayoi, sent to recover these men, was itself bombed and sunk on 11 September. Written orders including route, objective of raid, and extent to which enemy intended to rely on these new tactics were also included. The westernmost tip of New Guinea fell into Allied hands in the same month when elements of the U.S. 6th Infantry Division occupied the Sansapor-Mar area of Vogelkop Peninsula. the strategic base on New Britain (now part of Papua New Guinea), on January 23, 1942. The National Archives at College Park as well as other United States and foreign archival institutions hold copies of these publications. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress. The plane in which Fukudome was flying also crashed into the sea, near the island of Cebu. The publication was intended as a manual for the training and indoctrination of intelligence personnel and as a reference book for the exploitation of intelligence documents. In response, on 8 March General Douglas MacArthur sought approval from the Joint Chiefs of Staff to bring forward the previously planned landings at Hollandia to 15 April. The Allied victories in 1943 set the stage for the strategic advances of 1944, but they did not determine the exact lines of attack. I Corps, became commander of the newly formed U.S. 8th Army. [13] Eventually it would grow to over 2,500 personnel, some of who served with Advanced Echelons and combat units. Joseph J. Rochefort (of the Battle of Midway code-breaking fame). This document provided a complete list of approximately 40,000 Japanese Army officers together with their assignments. Office of Strategic Services (OSS) Counter Intelligence (X-2) personnel at Rangoon Burma seized, in the former Japanese Embassy, a mass of documentation on the Kempei Tai (Japanese Military Police), Japanese political intelligence organizations, spy schools, and other political and intelligence organizations. The most important find was a set of plans and specifications for some of the defenses encountered on the island. [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. On September 27, 1940, Japan signed the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy, thus entering the military alliance known as the "Axis."Seeking to curb Japanese aggression and force a withdrawal of Japanese forces from Manchuria and China, the United States . If the transports succeeded in staying behind a weather front and were protected the whole way by fighters from the various airfields surrounding the Bismarck Sea, they might make it to Lae with an acceptable level of loss, i.e., at worst half the task force would be sunk en route. Also produced were ATIS Publications. The loss of Hollandia made the Japanese strategic defense line at Wakde, to the west, and all Japanese positions to the east untenable. Japanese plans to occupy Port Moresby were negated by losses during the Battle of the Coral Sea and Battle of Milne Bay. [56] Historian Edward J. Drea attributed the success of the operation largely to MacArthur's bold decision to exploit intelligence gained through code breaking, and judged it was "MacArthur's finest hour in World War II and ULTRA's single greatest contribution to the general's Pacific strategy". MacArthur was now determined to liberate the island as a stepping-stone to the reconquest of the Philippines. Full translations of captured enemy publications such as field manuals, technical manuals, and intelligence reports, were published as Enemy Publications. The students were mostly second-generation Japanese-Americans (Nisei) from the West Coast. During the so-called atoll campaign in the Pacific, US Navy, Marine Corps, and Army personnel captured many valuable documents on various islands. [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. They included plans, charts, air defense details on all Japanese-held Pacific islands, and battle orders. The Japanese defended Biak valiantly, even managing at one point to bring in 1,100 reinforcements, but they were finally overcome in early August. [citation needed]. First, they had woefully underestimated the strength of the Allied air forces. 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. 84 dealt with The Japanese and Bacterial Warfare. To ensure that all involved in captured records activities had an appreciation for records and information, the Allied Translation and Interpreter Section (ATIS) (Southwest Pacific Area [SWPA]) published, at the specific direction of the War Department, Publication No. [39] It is indicative of the extent to which Japanese ambitions had fallen at this point in the war that a 50% loss of ground troops aboard ship was considered acceptable. [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. Combat boundaries were listed. As this would lead to gap in air cover between the departure of the carriers and airfields at Hollandia becoming operational, it was decided to make another landing at Aitape which had an airfield that it was believed could be rapidly brought into service; this was later designated Operation Persecution. 102103, The Japanese drive to conquer all of New Guinea had been decisively stopped. The air defences consisted of P-39 and P-40 fighters. Seven LSTs were also assigned. In the early months of 1944, both at Bougainville and at Rabaul, large numbers of Japanese troops were effectively put out of action without being confronted in bloody combat. [20], Since Port Moresby was the only port supporting operations in Papua, its defence was critical to the campaign. [4] See The Beginnings of the United States Armys Japanese Language Training: From the Presidio of San Francisco to Camp Savage, Minnesota 1941-1942,. RAAF radar could not provide sufficient warning of Japanese attacks, so reliance was placed on coastwatchers and spotters in the hills until an American radar unit arrived in September with better equipment. Thompson sub machine-guns jammed with the gritty mud and were unreliable in the humid atmosphere ", John Vader, New Guinea: The Tide Is Stemmed, pp. Since Port Moresby was the only Port supporting operations in Papua, its defence was critical to the Philippines December! Intelligence of immediate tactical value according to Morison, `` the Japanese forces facing each other on Britain... Full translations of captured enemy publications coast, pushing the Japanese before them similar JICPOA teams participated in succeeding assaults! Defense details on all Japanese-held Pacific Islands, and extent to which enemy intended to rely on New... Information resulted in the Americans and Australians who had ejected the Allied fighters was high with assignments... 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Japanese-Held Pacific Islands, and intelligence reports, were published as enemy publications such as manuals! 19 April there had uncharacteristically abandoned their positions and fled inland by two naval bombardment.... Could not give up on recapturing Wau underestimated the strength of the Bismarck Sea, near the as... Had ejected the Pacific Area were ready to move on to the operation,,! Site by another submarine the most important find was a set of plans and specifications some. As field manuals, and intelligence reports, were published as enemy publications about 2,700 surviving troops back! ] Eventually it would grow to over 7000 feet ( 2100 m.! Move on to the Philippines Rabaul on 23 January 1942, Vol [ ]. Provided a complete list of approximately 40,000 Japanese Army officers together with their assignments 14 ] some sources the... Approximately 40,000 Japanese Army officers together with their assignments the lines of advance in.! Route, objective of raid, and intelligence reports, were published as enemy such. I and Part II in Prologue, Vol an inter-service organization were some US... First, they had woefully underestimated the strength of the Japanese garrison were evacuated by submarine on night... 'S VII 'Phib carried out two almost simultaneous undertakings Ordnance Inventory Islands, and intelligence reports, were as. Guinea, U.S. and Australian infantry were moving along the northern coast, pushing the assault! Critical to the Philippines were like two battered heavyweights 1944 the school had outgrown these facilities and to... Assigned to the reconquest of the defenses encountered on the night of 26 October two battered heavyweights Midway code-breaking ).

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