SW Pacific World War II Timeline 1941-1944
1930's Japan invaded China early in the 1930's and steadily expanded her area of conquest there through the 30's.
1940
From November in 1940 the 8th Brigade group of the future
3rd Division was occupying defensive positions around Suva, Fiji.
1941
December, 7, Japanese naval air strike on Pearl
Harbour, Hawaii, sinks several US battleships and destroys
many aircraft but fails to attack the US aircraft carriers
which were luckily at sea.
December, 8, Japanese invasion on north coast of
Malaya.
Decemebr, 10, Japanese invades Luzon in Phillipines after air
attacks destroy many US aircraft on ground.
British battle cruiser Repulse and battleship Prince of Wales
sunk by Japanese bombers while heading from Singapore to
intercept invasion.
December, 25, Hong Kong falls to Japanese invasion.
1942
In January the 14th Brigade arrived in Fiji and took up defensive
positions around Lautoka.
February, 15, Singapore falls to Japanese.
February, Around mid February the
Japanese bombed Rabaul and were in the Solomon
Islands, click for map.
February, Invasion of Dutch
East Indies and battle of the Java Sea where allied losses were
heavy.
March,
Japanese invade Buka Island, north end of Bougainville.
April, 9, US lead
forces surrender in Bataan, Phillipines.
April,
Japanese take Admiralty Islands, north of Rabaul.
May, 8, Battle of
Coral Sea, US and allied navies stop Japanese naval movements
towards Port Moresby and the Solomons.
First carrier battle, US lose the carrier Lexington but Japanese
losses and damage similar.
June, 7, Battle
of Midway further north in central Pacific, US knowledge of
Japanese communication codes leads to the invasion task force
being intercepted by US carrier borne aircraft. Three
Japanese aircraft carriers lost, turning point in Pacific war as
Japan lacked the industrial capacity to replace losses on this
scale.
July, 6,
Japanese invade Guadalcanal in the southern Solomon Islands.
Period of maximum Japanese penetration into SW Pacific.
From July US forces arrived in Fiji and elements of the
3rd. Division were shipped back to NZ for training and
re-organization in the Waikato.
August, 7, US Marines land in Guadalcanal
to begin a six month period of bitter fighting in which time they
slowly gained the ascendancy leading to the Japanese pulling out
in February, 1943. By October US and Japanese forces
were about equal at ~23,000 each but by January 1943 the US troop
numbers had doubled, while Japan found it increasingly hard to
maintain shipping supply lines.
August, 9, Battle of Savo Island took
place very near the Guadalcanal landings when a Japanese cruiser
task force arrived from Rabaul in the early hours of the morning.
Through terrible allied shortcomings in communications at all
levels, command cross purposes and elementary lapses
in watchkeeping on the night, Admiral Mikawa achieved
complete surprise and a stunning tactical success in destroying 3
US cruisers plus the heavy cruiser HMAS Canberra, which did not
manage to fire a shot. However, anxious to get away
with dawn approaching and not realising that the US Carriers that
could have destroyed his force were moving away,
Mikawa failed to attack the transport shipping at the beachheads
which just might have put the US invasion in danger and given the
Japanese a real victory. As it turned out, superior
US naval resources in a series of battles and engagements
over the next year, blunted the effectiveness of the
tactically brilliant and daring Japanese navy in this
region. Link for account of naval battles over this period
from Encyclopedia Britannica CD 99.
November, the 3rd. Division was shipped to New Caledonia for
advanced training.
1943
February, 7, Japanese pull out of Guadalcanal.
Period of "holding the line" in the Solomons and action
in other areas, eg. New Guinea. It must be remembered
that the allied war leaders had decided that the European theatre
of war was most important and the Pacific was only accorded major
resources as they could be spared from Europe. It is in
this period that JFK served in PT Boats in the Solomons.
August, US forces
take Rendova Island and Munda on the eastern tip of New Georgia.
Munda airbase soon in operation
During this month the NZ 3rd Division moved north from New
Caledonia, regrouped at Guadalcanal then in September landed on Vella Lavella to replace US
units and cleared the island of Japanese by 9 October.
October, 3rd Division units take
the Treasury (Mono) Islands ENE of
Vella Lavella.
February US forces take the
Admiralty Islands. 3rd Division
units land on Green (Nissan) Island north of Bougainville
and clear the island of Japanese. An airstrip was then
constructed as part of the US thrust north.
For NZ Herald article on
Green Islands invasion.
Against a background of vast US resources pouring into the SW
Pacific in 1944, manpower shortages in the NZ war effort
brought the 3rd Division home in 1944 and many from that unit
were used to reinforce the NZ 2nd Division fighting in
Italy. The 3rd. Division had never been at full strength
and only had 2 operational Brigades not three.
