American military leaders knew that while the number of prisoners (and thus information) taken in the Pacific would be relatively small, compared to the war in Europe, Japanese records would become all that more important as an intelligence source. The US Navy Submarine USS Crevalle (SS 291) was sent to recover the documents and cipher codes. They were prepared and distributed as a result of a specific need, and represented a form of publication for matters outside the usual range of translations and reports. The U.S. built Naval Base Morotai, . [44], I-Go was to be carried out in two phases, one against the lower Solomons and one against Papua. 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. In the meantime another landing was made at Aitape in Australian New Guinea, about 125 miles (roughly 200 km) southeast of Hollandia, where Australian engineers soon completed an airstrip. 9, Japanese-English Medical Dictionary; No. the strategic base on New Britain (now part of Papua New Guinea), on January 23, 1942. 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. The experience of the green US 32nd Infantry Division, just out of training camp and utterly unschooled in jungle warfare, was nearly disastrous. 5 captured many military documents. MacArthur was further determined to conquer all of New Guinea in his progress toward the eventual recapture of the Philippines. Historian Samuel Eliot Morison summed up the results this way: the enemy had shot his bolt; he never showed up again in these waters. [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. ", John Vader, New Guinea: The Tide Is Stemmed, p. 93, The Australian 7th Division under the command of Major General George Alan Vasey, along with the revitalized US 32nd Division, restarted the Allied offensive. Achieving complete surprise, they were able to destroy 340 aircraft on the ground and 60 more aircraft in the air, leaving the 6th Air Division unable to resist the planned invasion. The Royal Australian Air Force and Dutch air units remained under Kenneys control as part of the Allied Air Forces, while the Royal New Zealand Air Force, together with certain U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Navy land-based air units, continued to operate along the Solomon Islands axis. portalId: 20973928, The Japanese entered Lae and Salamaua, two locations on Huon Gulf, on 8 March 1942 unopposed. The Battle for Milne Bay was a small one as World War II engagements went, but very important. This success was attributable to Milne Bay's Australian and US defenders together with the crews of the (mostly Dutch) merchantmen that had delivered vital supplies and reinforcements to the garrison. The Allied victories in 1943 set the stage for the strategic advances of 1944, but they did not determine the exact lines of attack. Over the course of an hour, this feature, dubbed Pancake Hill, was captured with only minimal opposition. Most important of all, the bombers of MacArthur's air forces, under the command of Lieutenant General George C. Kenney, had been modified to enable new offensive tactics. His contemplated offensive against Wau died a-borning. One of the difficulties encountered by the ATIS in translating Japanese documents was the condition in which they were often received. This plan was eventually reversed in favor of a counterattack on U.S. forces around Aitape. First, they had woefully underestimated the strength of the Allied air forces. [12] General Headquarters South West Pacific Area Operational Instruction No.7 of 25 May 1942, issued by Commander-Allied-Forces, General Douglas MacArthur, placed all Australian and US Army, Air Force and Navy Forces in the Port Moresby Area under the control of New Guinea Force. In the first months of 1942, the Japanese launched further attacks against British Burma, Australian-administered New Guinea and Papua, and the islands of the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). However, using 27 tons, at 40 lbs. Seven LSTs were also assigned. The gunners got a lot of practice; Port Moresby suffered its 78th raid on 17 August 1942. 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. This information resulted in the Americans speeding up their invasion convoy by a day. In July and August 1945 CIC agents gathered more documents at Kweilin in southern China on the Gui River. An A B and C priority system was established; with A being documents of operational value; B being documents of probable or general value; and, C being documents containing information of no apparent value. By December 27, 1942, 1,100 Japanese documents had been received at the Advanced Land Headquarters, Brisbane, from the New Guinea area. Taking the airfield at Wau was a crucial step in this process, and to this end, the 51st Division was transferred from Indochina and placed under General Hitoshi Imamura's Eighth Area Army at Rabaul; one regiment arrived at Lae in early January 1943. [7], MacArthur met with the commander of the Pacific Fleet, Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, at Brisbane between 25 and 27 March to discuss the role of the Navy in the operation. 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. [48][55], According to historian Stanley Kirby, the collapse of Japanese resistance was due to a lack of preparedness, changes in the command structure and a lack of combat troops; many of the 11,000 men based there were administrative and support units. Exact tracings and translations were supplied to XXIV Corps prior to attack on these positions. West Papua: Forgotten War, Unwanted People. The documents were then sent on to ATIS, SWPA, for final examination. Gona fell to the Australians on 9 December 1942, Buna to the US 32nd on 2 January 1943, and Sanananda, located between the two larger villages, fell to the Australians on 22 January. Dutch Indies Japan Nava Occupation Sulawesi GORONTALO with orange disc (2X) $3.25 . The beach was narrow, though, and only allowed two LCMs to land at a time, while the even bigger LSTs had to remain offshore where they were cross loaded on to LVTs. The umbrella term for the series of strategic actions taken by the Allies to reduce and capture the vast Japanese naval and air facilities at Rabaul was Operation Cartwheel. 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. Before the operation against the Japanese at Hollandia, Dutch New Guinea, 41 st CIC Detachment Special Agent in Charge Duval Edwards at Finschhaven during March and April 1944 gave many lectures on the great importance of soldiers turning in any captured documents. This was done to fool the Japanese into believing that the documents had not been discovered by the Allies. US troops and vehicles along the invasion beach at Korako. The following month at least 20 fighters were lost in combat, while eight were destroyed in July. Key Terms Similar JICPOA teams participated in succeeding amphibious assaults to examine prisoners and documents for intelligence of immediate tactical value. A map, also captured on March 21st, and quickly translated, proved to be more accurate than maps possessed by the attacking forces. West Papua is the western half of the island of New Guinea, formerly known as Dutch New Guinea. Operation Reckless, the invasion of Hollandia and Aitape of 22-27 April 1944, was one of the most dramatic leapfrogging operations during the New Guinea campaign, and saw American forces bypass the strong Japanese bases at Wewak and Hansa Bay and capture key bases for MacArthur's planned return to the Philippines. 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. Round one had gone to the Americans and Australians who had ejected the. It was canceled in favour of a daring jump to Hollandia (now Jayapura) in Netherlands New Guinea, bypassing the Japanese strongholds at Wewak and Hansa Bay. An airfield had been built there during an area gold rush in the 1920s and 1930s. By 1944 there were over 200 translators serving with JICPOA. At the same time, two sketches were captured at Tacloban, Leyte, which showed the disposition of the Japanese 16th Division. U.S. Military forces began capturing records almost as soon as the war began and started exploiting them immediately. 25 with Anti-Japanese activities in Java; and No. Between the mountain ridge and the lake was a narrow plain where the Japanese had built a number of airfields; three had been constructed by April 1944 and a fourth was under construction. [43][44] Meanwhile, carrier-borne aircraft attacked targets around Wakde, Sarmi and Hollandia from 21 April, destroying at least 33 Japanese planes in the air and more on the ground. This attack also destroyed 60 percent of all rations and ammunition that had been landed, and resulted in shortages amongst the infantry advancing towards the airfields. [11] Adachi continued to plan to make a last stand at Hollandia if he was defeated at Hansa Bay. 72 (formerly ATIS Information Bulletin No. Then began the grueling Kokoda Track campaign, a brutal experience for both the Japanese and Australian troops involved. The Dutch surrendered on 8 March. To demonstrate the seriousness of the effort to the Supreme War Council, multiple shifts of high-ranking personnel were also effected: Both Yamamoto and Ozawa moved their headquarters to Rabaul; and Eighth Fleet commander Vice Admiral Gunichi Mikawa as well as General Imamura's chief of staff were sent to Tokyo with advice and explanations for the respective General Staffs (Admiral Tomoshige Samejima replaced Mikawa as Eight Fleet commander). Although one line of attack was carried out primarily by ground forces and the other by naval forces, the main feature of both undertakings was the close coordination of land, sea, and air power. Report No. 119 deals with the Japanese Military Police Service and Report No. Beleaguered, the survivors of the Japanese garrison were evacuated by submarine on the night of 26 October. The Allies proceeded to turn the island into an air base. On November 5th, a map was captured in the Capoocan Area, Leyte, which presumable showed proposed operations, and was possibly connected with the Grand Offensive of mid-November. He was thrown into his own jail.[15]. 87 (Japanese Mines and Minesweeping); and, Nos. On December 7, 1941, Japan staged a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, severely damaging the US Pacific Fleet. 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. MacArthur's rollback began with the 16 November 1942 22 January 1943 Battle of Buna-Gona. MacArthur was now determined to liberate the island as a stepping-stone to the reconquest of the Philippines. They were carrying Admiral Mineichi Koga, commander in chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy, and his staff, including Vice Admiral Shegeru Fukudome, who was carrying the Z plan documents and the associated cipher system. Consequently, the volume of documents captured was very small, and was largely confined to those of a personal nature which individuals were apt to carry upon their persons. The Japanese 18th Army (equivalent to an Anglo-American corps), under Lieutenant General Hataz Adachi, was responsible for Japanese operations on mainland New Guinea. January 23, 1942 - August 1945. author Paul Bocu, 2019. 2 in May 1943. The landings were undertaken simultaneously with the amphibious invasion of Aitape ("Operation Persecution") to the east. In May 1945 ADVATIS followed the advance of General Headquarters into Manila. The New Guinea campaign of the Pacific War lasted from January 1942 until the end of the war in August 1945. It was later thought that 3000 troops from the 6th Sea Detachment were in the area, and reinforcements were being rapidly transferred there. German New Guinea Stamps, Dutch Dutch & Colonies Cover Stamps, Dutch Stamps, 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. [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. This bombardment was augmented with air strikes from carrier-borne aircraft, while two destroyer-minesweepers, Long and Hogan, swept the bay ahead of the main landing force. Current Translations were publications containing complete translations of documents classified A, B, C, or D in ATIS Bulletins. 84 dealt with The Japanese and Bacterial Warfare. In addition, about 5,400 survivors of the Japanese defeat at Buna-Gona were moved into the Lae-Salamaua area. 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'. The information contained in these reports were bibliographically indexed. The Americans landed at Hollandia and Aitape simultaneously on 22 April with the aim of bypassing the Japanese stronghold at Wewak and thus leaving the Japanese 18th Army isolated and cut off there. Meanwhile, on 30 March and continuing to 3 April these air forces attacked Hollandia itself and the airfields on the Sentani plain. During the first week of March 1945, I Corps ATIS Advanced Echelon on Luzon translated four top secret Japanese operational orders made between February 26th-March 2nd. The most important find was a set of plans and specifications for some of the defenses encountered on the island. On 10 January 1942, during the Dutch East Indies Campaign, Japanese forces invaded the Dutch East Indies as part of the Pacific War. [13], Due north of Port Moresby, on the northeast coast of Papua, are the Huon Gulf and the Huon Peninsula. Free shipping for many products! 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). After the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, in March 1943, an abandoned lifeboat at Goodenough Island (northeast of New Guinea) from the Teiyo Maru was recovered and found in it was The Japanese Army List, dated October 15, 1942. As a result of immediate translation of the map, the 5th Air Force was informed and proceeded to destroy practically all of the barges. This bombing operation was also the moment in the New Guinea campaign when Japanese air power no longer threatened the Allies. This information was immediately translated, relayed to naval and air units, and, coordinated with the translation of a captured map showing enemy positions, resulted in the repulse of the enemy attack by naval and aerial bombardment. Opposing these forces were the Australian 2/5th, 2/6th and 2/7th Battalions along with Lieutenant Colonel Norman Fleay's Kanga Force. [24] A gradual improvement in their numbers and skill forced the Japanese bombers up to higher altitude, where they were less accurate, and then, in August, to raiding by night. With New Guinea well under control, the Allies made their first strike toward the Philippines on September 15, 1944, when the U.S. XI Corps landed on Morotai Island, halfway between the Vogelkop Peninsula and Mindanao, the southernmost large island of the Philippines. Reports were issued when sufficient information on any subject had been collated to warrant publication. 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. [7] The attack was designated Operation Reckless in recognition of the risks involved in carrying it out. He told soldiers that ATIS personnel had told him that they had seen Japanese . Even before the war ended, ATIS was exploiting captured records for war crimes purposes. Among this cache were code books and a list of Japanese and German agents in the United States. The admirals preferred to bypass the Philippines and take Formosa, which was much closer to Japan. [63][64], Meanwhile, the Allies quickly made the Sentani airfields operational and were able to mount bombing raids on Japanese positions as far west as Biak, making them useless for air operations. This involved air attacks and naval bombardments on the Wewak area, and faked landings of reconnaissance patrols. Found on the vessel were Japanese documents, including field orders and prisoner interrogation reports that indicated the Japanese knew when and where the American operation was to take place. Once Manila and its environs had been captured, CIC search and seizure teams located and took custody of large quantities of Japanese documents. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress. 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. 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