Battle of Labuan
The Battle of Labuan was fought between Allied and Imperial Japanese forces in June 1945. It formed part of the Australian invasion of North Borneo, and was initiated by the Allied forces as part of a plan to capture the Brunei Bay area. The Australians quickly captured the island’s harbour and main airfield. A total of 389 Japanese personnel were killed on Labuan and 11 were captured.
About Battle of Labuan in brief
The Battle of Labuan was fought between Allied and Imperial Japanese forces in June 1945. It formed part of the Australian invasion of North Borneo, and was initiated by the Allied forces as part of a plan to capture the Brunei Bay area. The Australians quickly captured the island’s harbour and main airfield. A total of 389 Japanese personnel were killed on Labuan and 11 were captured. Australian casualties included 34 killed. After securing the island, the Allies developed Labuan into a significant base. The island’s airfield was repaired and expanded to host Royal Australian Air Force units. After the war, a major Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery was established on labuan. The Japanese developed two airfields on the island which were built by labourers who had been conscripted from the Lawas and Terusan regions of mainland Bornea. After Japanese forces suppressed a revolt at the town of Jesselton in late 1943, which was led by Chinese-ethnic civilians, 131 of the rebels were held on Labusan. Only nine rebels survived to be liberated by Australian forces in 1944. Until mid-1944, few Japanese combat units were stationed in Borneos. In March 1945 the Australian Army’s I Corps, whose main combat elements were the veteran 7th and 9th Divisions, was assigned responsibility for liberating Borneon. The offensive was to commence on 23 April with the landing of a brigade from the 6th Division on Tarakan, off the east coast of Tarakakan. The 9th Division would then assault Banjarmasin in south-east Bornee.
These positions would then be used to support the invasion of Java by the remainder of I Corps. The main purpose of attacking BruneiBay was to secure it as a base for the British Pacific Fleet and gain control of oil fields and rubber plantations in the area. While the liberation of Brunei area had been authorised by the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff, it was not supported by the British chiefs of Staff Committee. The British leadership did not want the BPF to be diverted from the main theatre of operations off Japan and preferred to establish a base in the Philippines. The plans for the offensive evolved considerably during April and it was decided to employ two brigades of the 7th Division, 7th Bay and I Corps at Bruneibay. These brigades conducted a further assault at the end of the month and conducted further preparations at Tarakkakan and at the beginning of June. The final assault on Java was cancelled, and the remaining positions would be used by the rest of the I Corps to be used for support of the Bornean invasion. The Allies had to reconstruct Labuan’s infrastructure and provide assistance to thousands of civilians who had be rendered homeless by the pre-invasion bombardment. It was to be developed as an airbase and form of a string of strategic positions which would allow the Allies to control the seas off the Japanese-occupied coast between Singapore and Shanghai.
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This page is based on the article Battle of Labuan published in Wikipedia (as of Oct. 30, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
