WW2 Pacific Wrecks: The New Georgia campaign, 1943

Photos by: William C. Shrout, LIFE Collections

The New Georgia 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 strategy in the South Pacific. The campaign took place in the New Georgia group of islands, in the central Solomon Islands from 20 June through 7 October 1943.

A force consisting of portions of the 4th Marine Raider Battalion and of the 103rd Infantry Regiment (Army) landed at Oloana Bay on the south coast of Vangunu Island. 

From there they marched overland to Vura village which overlooked Wickham Anchorage, the first of the objectives of the original plan. By 12 July, Vura was secured and garrisoned.

A force also consisting of portions of the 4th Marine Raider Battalion and portions of the 103rd Infantry Regiment (Army) landed at Viru Harbor, the third of the original plan’s objectives. The Japanese were driven off and by 9 July the area was secured and garrisoned.

The landings in the area around Munda were obviously the most important of the four. Admiral Turner personally commanded this portion of the invasion fleet from his flagship, the attack transport McCawley, which after being damaged by a Japanese air-launched torpedo that afternoon, was mistakenly sunk by an American PT boat that night. 

The 172nd Infantry Regiment (Army) landed at Rendova Harbor while Companies A and B of the 169th Infantry Regiment along with a commando unit of 130 South Pacific islanders took three vitally placed islets in Blanche Channel. 

These were to provide staging areas for the main event, the siege of Munda, the ultimate goal that eventually would prove far more arduous to attain than anticipated.

On 2 July, the Americans were ready to make a landing in the Munda area. 

Laiana beach was closest, being only two miles from Munda, but as it was heavily defended, it was rejected in favor of Zanana beach, more than three miles farther east. Zanana would prove to be an unfortunate choice.

The Army troops’ advance from Zanana to Munda was completely stymied. 

General Hester tried to break the stalemate by sending the 172nd Infantry Regiment around to the north to take the Japanese position in the rear, while the 169th Infantry would continue the frontal assault. 

Historian Samuel Eliot Morison had this to say about the decision:

This was perhaps the worst blunder in the most unintelligently waged land campaign of the Pacific war (with the possible exception of Okinawa). 

Laiana should have been chosen as the initial beachhead; if it was now required, the 172nd should have been withdrawn from Zanana and landed at Laiana under naval gunfire and air support. 

Or Hester might have made the landing with his reserves then waiting at Rendova. As it was, General Sasaki interpreted the move correctly and by nightfall had brought both advances to a standstill.

The American ground troops on New Georgia were thus halted in both the north and the south. The Japanese brought reinforcements over by barge from Vila to Bairoko, and 1,200 more troops were loaded onto four destroyer-transports at Rabaul and sent down to be landed at Vila on the night of 12–13 July. 

These ships were escorted by a light cruiser and five destroyers. 

Admiral Ainsworth was sent to intercept this flotilla with three light cruisers and ten destroyers. 

He encountered the Japanese force in The Slot in the waters north of Kolombangara Island. 

The ensuing Battle of Kolombangara resulted in the sinking of the American destroyer Gwin, the Japanese light cruiser Jintsu, and the death of Rear Admiral Shunji Izaki.

Admiral Kusaka and General Imamura at Rabaul made a final, disastrous attempt to bring reinforcements to General Sasaki. 

Under the protection of a single destroyer, 940 troops and 700 naval personnel were loaded aboard three destroyer-transports and sent down under the command of Rear Admiral Kaju Sugiura to Kolombangara on the night of 6–7 August. 

Admiral Wilkinson, thinking such a movement likely on that night, sent a force of six destroyers under Commander Frederick Moosbrugger to intercept them. 

The American destroyer sailors were jubilant that at last they would be free of the combat doctrine that required them to stick close to the cruisers; on this night, they would be able to apply their own tactics. 

In the resulting Battle of Vella Gulf, fought in the waters northwest of Kolombangara, the American destroyers took the Japanese completely by surprise. 

The three ships carrying passengers, Arashi, Hagikaze, and Kawakaze, were torpedoed and sunk, and the escort ship, Shigure, did not linger to search for survivors.

Following this major reversal, General Sasaki moved his headquarters to Kolombangara on 8–9 August, leaving behind a token force to defend the west coast of New Georgia. 

His mission now was simply to hold the remaining islands of the New Georgia group as long as possible, giving the Japanese a chance to reinforce the northern Solomons. 

US Army forces moved along the west coast of New Georgia, wiping out the 200 Japanese remaining in the Zieta area, and capturing the islet of Baanga to silence the enemy artillery there by 20 August. 

Under the noses of U.S. patrols, the last Japanese troops on New Georgia were barged from Bairoko Harbor over to Kolombangara on the night of 23 August. This marked the end of ground combat on New Georgia.

SOURCES: HERE and HERE