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Bougainville campaign (1943–45)

Bougainville Campaign (1943–45)
Part of the Pacific Theatre of World War II
U.S. Soldiers at Bougainville (Solomon Islands) March 1944.jpg
United States Army soldiers hunt Japanese infiltrators on Bougainville in March 1944.
Date 1 November 1943 – 21 August 1945
Location 6°8′S 155°18′E / 6.133°S 155.300°E / -6.133; 155.300Coordinates: 6°8′S 155°18′E / 6.133°S 155.300°E / -6.133; 155.300
Bougainville, Territory of New Guinea (geographically part of the
Solomon Islands)
Result Allied victory
Belligerents
 United States
 Australia
 New Zealand
Fiji Colony of Fiji
 Empire of Japan
Commanders and leaders
United States Douglas MacArthur
United States William F. Halsey
United States Theodore S.        Wilkinson
United States Alexander A.        Vandegrift
New Zealand Robert Row
United States Allen H. Turnage
United States Robert S. Beightler
United States Roy S. Geiger
United States Oscar W. Griswold
New Zealand H. E. Barrowclough
Australia Thomas Blamey
Australia Stanley Savige
Empire of Japan Hitoshi Imamura
Empire of Japan Harukichi Hyakutake
Empire of Japan Mineichi Koga
Empire of Japan Jinichi Kusaka
Empire of Japan Tomoshige
       Samejima

Empire of Japan Sentaro Omori
Empire of Japan Kiyoto Kagawa 
Empire of Japan Masatane Kanda
Strength
144,000 American troops
30,000 Australian troops
728 aircraft
45,000–65,000 troops
154 aircraft
Casualties and losses
USA:
727 dead
Australia:
516 dead
18,500–21,500 dead

The Bougainville Campaign was a series of land and naval battles of the Pacific campaign of World War II between Allied forces and the Empire of Japan. It was part of Operation Cartwheel, the Allied grand strategy in the South Pacific. The campaign took place in the Northern Solomons in two phases. The first phase, in which American troops invaded and held the Perimeter around the beachhead at Torokina, lasted from November 1943 through November 1944. The second phase, in which primarily Australian troops went on the offensive, mopping up pockets of starving, isolated but still-determined Japanese, lasted from November 1944 until August 1945, when the last Japanese on the island surrendered. Operations during the final phase of the campaign saw the Australian forces advance north towards the Bonis Peninsula and south towards the main Japanese stronghold around Buin, although the war ended before these two enclaves were completely destroyed.

Before the war, Bougainville had been administered as part of the Australian Territory of New Guinea, even though, geographically, Bougainville is part of the Solomon Islands chain. As a result, within the various accounts of the campaign it is referred to as part of both the New Guinea and the Solomon Islands campaigns.

During their occupation the Japanese constructed naval aircraft bases in the north, east, and south of the island; but none in the west. They developed a naval anchorage at Tonolei Harbor near Buin, their largest base, on the southern coastal plain of Bougainville. On the nearby Treasury and Shortland Islands they built airfields, naval bases and anchorages. These bases helped protect Rabaul, the major Japanese garrison and naval base in Papua New Guinea, while allowing continued expansion to the south-east, down the Solomon Islands chain, to Guadalcanal and New Guinea and beyond. To the Allies, Bougainville would later also be considered vital for neutralizing the Japanese base around Rabaul.


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