Landings at Cape Torokina

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Landings at Cape Torokina
Part of the Pacific Theater of World War II

1st Battalion, 3rd Marines engaged during the landing at Cape Torokina.
Date1–3 November 1943
Location
Bougainville, Solomon Islands
Result Allied victory
Belligerents
 United States  Japan
Commanders and leaders
William F. Halsey
Theodore S. Wilkinson
Alexander A. Vandegrift
Allen H. Turnage
Lawrence F. Reifsnider
Robert S. Beightler		 Hitoshi Imamura
Harukichi Hyakutake
Strength
14,000 Marines 270 soldiers
1 x 75mm field gun
Casualties and losses
78 killed
104 wounded[1]		 192 killed[1]

The Landings at Cape Torokina (1–3 November 1943) took place at the beginning of the Bougainville campaign in World War II. The amphibious landings were carried out by the United States Marine Corps and the United States Army during the month of November 1943 on Bougainville Island in the Solomon Islands of the South Pacific, as part of Allied efforts to advance towards the main Japanese base around Rabaul. The landings were completed successfully after which Allied forces established a strong perimeter which follow on forces used to gain control of the island over the course of 1944 and 1945.

Background

Geographically part of the Solomon Islands, but administratively part of the Territory of New Guinea at the time of the battle,[2] Bougainville lies at the northeastern end of the Solomon Islands chain. Situated south-east of New Britain, Bougainville offered the Allies another step in their advance towards the main Japanese base that had been established around Rabaul, the reduction and isolation of which was a key objective of the Allied Operation Cartwheel.[3] Seizure of Bougainville offered the Allies forward airfields from which to launch attacks against Rabaul, as well as anchorages around Empress Augusta Bay and Soraken, which could be utilised for Allied shipping.[4]

Location of Bougainville

The Japanese had invaded Bougainville in early 1942, and had established several airfields on the island, with key bases being established around Buka, at Kahili and Kieta, and on the Bonis Peninsula. From these bases, the Japanese had sought to strike south towards Guadalcanal, in an effort to severe sea lanes of communication between the United States and Australia.[5] Japanese air and naval movements around Bougainville had been monitored by a small group of Allied Coastwatchers, who were able to gain considerable intelligence through the native population of the island; however, by early 1943, with the conclusion of the Guadalcanal Campaign in the Allies' favor, and a string of defeats in the central Sololmons, the Japanese had sought to consolidate their hold on Bougainville and had slowly cleared the Coastwatchers from Bougainville, with the remaining personnel being withdrawn by the US submarine Gato in March 1943.[6]

Initially, Allied planners had intended to capture Choisel and the Shortland Islands, and the Japanese airbase at Kahili. However, heavy Japanese resistance during the Battle of Munda Point forced them to reconsider. The fierce defense of their airfields the Japanese demonstrated at Munda Point, coupled with the success of the bypassing strategy Allied forces had employed at Vella Lavella, turned Allied thoughts towards the indirect approach and it was subsequently decided to bypass the Shortland Islands and Kahili, and to seize a lodgment in Empress Augusta Bay, around Cape Torokina on the western coast of Bougainville, with the view to establishing an airbase from which to project airpower towards Rabaul.[7]

Opposing forces

Japanese

The Japanese forces defending Bougainville were part of the General Harukichi Hyakutake 17th Army. This formation reported to the Eighth Area Army under General Hitoshi Imamura at Rabaul, New Britain. The main concentrations of Japanese troops were as follows: 6,000 around Buka, in northern Bougainville; 5,000 on the Shortland Islands, and between 2,000 and 3,000 around Empress Augusta Bay.[8] Troops in the immediate vicinity of Cape Torokina numbered around 270 men, drawn mainly from a single company from the 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment. These troops were supported by a single 75mm field gun, and were spread between the main position around Cape Torokina, as well as smaller positions on Torokina Island (held by a squad) and Puruata Island (held by a platoon).[9]

American

The Bougainville invasion was the ultimate responsibility of Admiral William F. Halsey, commander U.S. Third Fleet, at his headquarters at Nouméa, New Caledonia. The landings were under the personal direction of Rear Admiral Theodore S. Wilkinson, commander Third Fleet Amphibious Forces, aboard his flagship attack transport George Clymer. Also aboard was Lieutenant General Alexander A. Vandegrift, USMC, commander I Marine Amphibious Corps.[10][Note 1] Loaded aboard eight attack transports (APAs) and four attack cargo transports (AKAs), organized into three transport divisions, were the men of the 3rd Marine Division (reinforced), Major General Allen H. Turnage commanding. With Turnage aboard the Hunter Liggett was Commodore Lawrence F. Reifsnider, who had responsibility for the transports as well as the attack cargo ships. The transport divisions were escorted by an escort screen consisting of 11 destroyers, and were supporting by various fleet tugs, minesweepers and minelayers.[11] Anti-aircraft guns from the 3rd Marine Defense Battalion were also assigned to the operation, as were several field artillery batteries from the 12th Marine Regiment, to provide support to ground troops once ashore.[12]

Battle

Landing beaches near Cape Torokina

In the month prior to the landings, Allied aircraft assigned to AirSols launched over 3,200 sorties against Japanese airfields surrounding the proposed landing site, and the wider Bougainville area in an effort to reduce the ability of the Japanese to interfere with the landings from the air. On the day of the landing, a naval task force, Task Force 39 under Rear Admiral Aaron S. Merrill, including several cruisers and destroyers bombarded the airfields around Buka and the Bonis Peninsula, followed by a fire mission on the Shortlands, as part of a diversionary attack to take Japanese attention away from Cape Torokina.[13] Elsewhere, the Treasury Islands were secured by New Zealand and US forces, in the days prior to the landings at Cape Torokina, to secure anchorages around Blanche Harbor and establish a radar station to support air operations over Bougainville.[14] A battalion of paramarines also launched a raid on Choiseul to divert Japanese attention from Bougainville.[15]

The three transport divisions began forming at different locations throughout late October: Transdiv "A" at Espiritu Santo, Transdiv "B" at Guadalcanal and Transdiv "C" at Efate. On the morning of 31 October, the three divisions rendezvoused at sea and began their approach to Bougainville, approaching southwest of the Solomons.[16] Pre-war charts of Bougainville proved to be quite inaccurate, and although aerial reconnaissance and information gathered from submarine patrols had been used to update these, they remained imperfect particularly with respect to longitude. The charts were also missing details of underwater obstructions and, as a result, the escorting minesweepers hit several uncharted shoals on during the approach, while one of the APAs, American Legion also later ran aground on an uncharted shoal.[17]

After the transports arrived at the transport area off Empress August Bay, at 07:10 hours on 1 November, the first wave disembarked from the transports and went ashore aboard a large number of LCVPs landing at 12 pre-designated beaches along an 8,000-yard front north of and including Cape Torokina, extending as far as Koromokina Lagoon. As the marines came ashore, a force of 31 US Marine aircraft, staging out of Munda, attacked Japanese positions on the landing beaches, while heavy, but ultimately ineffective naval gunfire was also brought down ahead of the assault. The 9th Marines assaulted the western beaches while the 3rd Marines took the eastern beaches and the cape itself. The 3rd Marine Raider Battalion under Lieutenant Colonel Fred D. Beans captured Puruata Island about 1,000 yards west of the cape against a well entrenched Japanese force. After being ejected from their pillboxes and trenches, the survivors escaped into the interior of the island; mopping up operations began on 2 November.[18]

Because of the possibility of an immediate Japanese counterattack by air units, the assault was planned to ensure a smooth landing, that would allow the transports to withdraw quickly. Some difficulty was experienced in landing east of the cape, while the three northern beaches were found to be completely unsuitable for landing craft to get ashore.[19] Nevertheless, the initial assault wave, which consisted of 7,500 Marines, proceeded relatively smoothly and landed successfully by 07:30 hours.[20] These troops pushed ashore through small dry corridors of land and began clearing the dense scrub. The 2nd Marine Raider Battalion used search dogs to locate Japanese troops hiding in the undergrowth,[21] and by 11:00 hours, the Marines had seized the lightly defended area. Some resistance continued until nightfall, by which time the beachhead was firmly secured, coming at a cost of 78 killed in action while virtually annihilating the 270 troops of the Japanese that were defending the area around the beachhead.[1]

US Marines board landing craft in Empress Augusta Bay

Sergeant Robert A. Owens, from Company A, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines, was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in eliminating a Japanese 75 mm gun that had been shelling the landing force, after it had destroyed four landing craft and damaged ten others. At the cost of his life, Owens approached the gun emplacement, entered it through the fire port, and drove the crew out the back door.[22]

In response to the landing, a large force of Japanese aircraft (44 fighters and nine dive bombers) were scrambled. These were intercepted by New Zealand and US Marine fighter aircraft from Munda and Vella Lavella, and were also met with heavy anti-aircraft fire from the escorting US destroyers, resulting in 26 Japanese machines being shot down.[12] As the attack was under way, unloading was halted and the transports began defensive maneuvers for two hours. After this first effort was repulsed, unloading on the beaches resumed, until a second attack came in with 100 aircraft being launched from New Britain in the early afternoon. These were met by 34 AirSols fighters under direction from the destroyer Conway. Only 12 Japanese aircraft managed to penetrate the AirSols fighter screen. Arriving over the transport area, their attack proved largely ineffective, although they did manage to inflict a near miss on the destroyer Wadsworth, resulting in two killed and five wounded.[23]

By 17:30 hours, despite the earlier interruptions, eight of the 12 transports had completed unloading. In the space of eight hours, Wilkinson's flotilla unloaded about 14,000 men and 6,200 tons of supplies. This was achieved largely by short-loading each vessel. He then took his ships out of the area out of fear of an overnight attack by Japanese surface ships.[24] Meanwhile, Rear Admiral Frederick C. Sherman's Task Force 38, consisting of two aircraft carriers, as well as anti-aircraft cruisers and a large number of destroyers carried out further strikes on the airfields around the Buka Passage on 1–2 November.[25] As it turned out, an American force of four light cruisers and eight destroyers encountered a Japanese force of two heavy cruisers, two light cruisers and six destroyers in the Battle of Empress Augusta Bay that night (morning of 2 November).[26] Throughout 2 and 3 November, the Marines began patrolling the area around their beachhead, and secured Torokina Island without loss on the 3rd.[27]

Aftermath

Organization of 3rd Marine Division for the landings at Cape Torokina[28][29]

The remainder of the 3rd Marine Division, as well as the US 37th Infantry Division under Major General Robert S. Beightler, and Advance Naval Base Unit No. 7 were landed at Cape Torokina throughout November, landing as part of several subsequent echelons, arriving aboard several high-speed transports (APDs), as well as the slower LSTs, which had been held back initially due to fears of air attack.[30] Major General Roy S. Geiger assumed command of Allied forces on Bougainville, replacing Wilkinson, on 13 November. As late as Thanksgiving, the beachhead was still under hostile fire. As the sixth echelon of the invasion force was unloading, Japanese artillery fired on the landing ships, inflicting casualties. The Marines silenced these guns the following day.[31]

Throughout November, US forces established a perimeter around Cape Torokina, during which significant base development work was undertaken with eight naval construction battalions and a brigade of New Zealand engineers being deployed. This work included the construction of three airfields and and advanced PT boat base on Puruata Island.[32] Meanwhile, a number of engagements were fought on the periphery throughout the remainder of 1943, as the beachhead was secured. The first of these, the Battle of Koromokina Lagoon, saw a Japanese counter-landing repelled,[33] before US forces slowly pushed their perimeter forward, systematically advancing to several inland defense lines.[34] US forces also launched an unsuccessful raid around Koiari, to the south of the beachhead, at the end of the month.[35] Elsewhere, landings were made around Arawe and Cape Gloucester, on New Britain, in December, while operations to secure the Huon Peninsula on the Allied western flank progressed throughout late 1943 and in early 1944.[36]

The Americal Division started arriving in December 1943, relieving the Marines, and subsequently responsibility for the Torokina perimeter was assumed by Major General Oscar Griswold's XIV Corps.[37] In March 1944, the Japanese launched a counterattack on the US perimeter around Cape Torokina, which was defeated with heavy casualties.[38] After this, a lull in the fighting followed on Bougainville until the later part of 1944 when Australian forces took over responsibility for the lodgment at Cape Torokina as US forces were re-directed towards the capture of the Philippines. Throughout 1944 and into 1945, the Australians worked to secure control of the island from the Japanese, launching a series of drives to clear the northern, central and southern sectors, which saw them advance to the Bonis Peninsula in the north, and just short of Buin in the south.[39]

Notes

Footnotes
  1. ^ Vandegrift had already been promoted to Commandant of the Marine Corps, but was asked by Halsey to command the landing force at Bougainville following the accidental death of the original commander, Major General Charles Barrett.

References

Citations
  1. ^ a b c Rentz 1946, p. 38
  2. ^ Morison 1958, p. 280
  3. ^ Miller 1959, pp. 222–225
  4. ^ Morison 1958, p. 281; Keogh 1965, p. 413
  5. ^ Keogh 1965, p. 414
  6. ^ Morison 1958, p. 280.
  7. ^ Morison 1958, p. 283
  8. ^ Morison 1958, p. 281
  9. ^ Rentz 1946, p. 25; Morison 1958, p. 300
  10. ^ Morison 1958, p. 298
  11. ^ Morison 1958, p. 297
  12. ^ a b Chapin 1997, p. 4
  13. ^ Morison 1958, pp. 291–292
  14. ^ Shaw & Kane 1963, p. 188
  15. ^ Miller 1959, p. 241
  16. ^ Morison 1958, p. 298.
  17. ^ Morison 1958, pp. 298–299 & 303
  18. ^ Rentz 1946, pp. 32–33 & 48; Chapin 1997, pp. 1–2
  19. ^ Morison 1958, p. 300
  20. ^ Rentz 1946, pp. 24–25
  21. ^ Morison 1958, p. 302
  22. ^ Gailey 199, p. 74; Chapin 1997, p. 3
  23. ^ Morison 1958, p. 303
  24. ^ Morison 1958, pp. 303–304
  25. ^ Morison 1958, p. 293
  26. ^ Morison 1958, pp. 305–322
  27. ^ Rentz 1946, p. 38.
  28. ^ Nafziger, George. "Allied Invasion Forces Cape Torokina October-November 1943" (PDF). United States Army Combined Arms Center. United States Army. Retrieved 15 March 2017.
  29. ^ Rottman 2002, pp. 293–297
  30. ^ Miller 1959, p. 235; Morison 1958, pp. 337–347
  31. ^ Morison 1958, pp. 348–352
  32. ^ Morison 1958, pp. 360–364 & 424
  33. ^ Morison 1958, p. 341
  34. ^ Rentz 1946, pp. 39–40; Shaw & Kane 1963, pp. 247–267
  35. ^ Rentz 1946, pp. 71–77
  36. ^ Keogh 1965, pp. 338–341
  37. ^ Morison 1958, p. 364
  38. ^ James 2012, p. 155
  39. ^ Keogh 1965, pp. 414–421
Bibliography
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