Bougainville


After Admiral Halsey's forces had taken New Georgia, he had decided to bypass Kolombangara because of the heavy Japanese resistance there.Instead, he planned take Vella LaVella and the Bougainville.On August 15th, 1943, the Americans landed at Vella LaVella, and met no resistance.Almost two weeks later, they invaded Arundel Island, which was defended by a garrison from Kolombangara.In late September, Japanese GHQ decided to abandon the central Solomans and fall back to Bougainville.Between September 28th and October 3rd, 9400 men evacuated.

The Americans got word of the Japanese plans and decided to bypass Bougainville and head for Empress Augusta Bay.On October 27th, the 3rd New Zealand Division land at Treasury Island and took it within 11 days.To confuse the Japanese, the Americans made raids on Choiseul Island and in the Shortlands, then at dawn on November 1st, Vandegrift led the Marines ashore at Empress Augusta Bay, only to find that the Japanese garrison had fled into the jungle.The Marines soon gained enough land to build and airstrip and started bombing raids on Rabual, forcing Admiral Koga to withdraw his carrier aircraft.Soon, the Japanese found out that the attack on Empress Augusta Bay was not a diversionary attack, and sent a pityful force of 475 men to stop it.On November 7th, they Japanese force was destroyed.The Japanese Seventeenth Army did not have the supplies to connter the Americans and soon stalemate settled in in early December.

The Americans were now 44,000 strong and had four airfields.On March 8th and 25th, the Japanese again tried to dislodge the Americans, this time with a force of 15,000.They marched through the thick, rainy jungle to join the attck, but very heavy fighting took 5000 Japanese lives and they were pushed back.After that, most of the Japanese troop withdrew to the southern bases on Bougainville and the Americans left them cut-off from GHQ in Rabual and the rest of the Japanese Empire.



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