Battle of Sio
The Battle of Sio was fought between December 1943 and March 1944. It was the break-out and pursuit phase of General Douglas MacArthur’s Huon Peninsula campaign, part of the New Guinea campaign of World War II. Australian Army forces broke through the Japanese positions around Finschhafen. Constant pressure brought the Japanese logistical system to the brink of collapse.
About Battle of Sio in brief
The Battle of Sio was fought between December 1943 and March 1944. It was the break-out and pursuit phase of General Douglas MacArthur’s Huon Peninsula campaign, part of the New Guinea campaign of World War II. Australian Army forces broke through the Japanese positions around Finschhafen. Constant pressure from US Navy PT boats, Australian land forces and Allied aircraft brought the Japanese logistical system to the brink of collapse. Hundreds of Japanese soldiers were killed; thousands more died from disease, malnutrition, exhaustion and suicide. During the advance, Australian troops captured Japanese cryptographic materials. This had an important effect on the subsequent course of the war against Japan in the South West Pacific, as it permitted codebreakers in Australia and the U.S. to read Japanese Army messages on a much greater scale than previously. The Battle of Wareo proved that the Japanese intended to defend the area. After a fierce fight, Wootten managed to drive the Japanese from the high ground around Sattelberg and Gusika. In early December, Adachi ordered all his troops to withdraw to Sio. By December, the condition of Japanese prisoners confirmed for the Australians that “the Japanese logistic system in the final stages of the battle was breakdown”. Between 9 and 13 December, PT boats sank 23 barges, most of them south of the most of the Sio Island. On 7 January, the PT boats also attacked a submarine. No less than 12 barges were destroyed on the night of 8 January, which was less than a month after the start of Operation Cartwheel.
On 9 January, three troop-carrying barges sank, taking one prisoner, and two patrol patrol patrol boats also destroyed them on a beach and destroyed them. On the same night, two patrol boats engaged eight barges and destroyed two patrol patrol ships and two six barges on north Sio island. On 10 January, a third patrol patrol found a third troop- carrying barges north of the island and destroyed it. On 11 January, one of the patrol boats attacked a group of 70 troops loaded with ammunition with another 70 troops, which attempted to fight back. On 12 January, no less than twelve barges with ammunition loaded with another troops around 70 troops were also taken prisoner. On 13 January, the same group of barges took one prisoner and one patrol patrol boat. On 15 January, the same night two patrol groups were seen to sink a barge which was seen to be loaded with 70 troops. On 16 January, another patrol group engaged eight barge patrol boats and destroyed six patrol patrol vessels and two barges. On 17 January, two Patrol boats engaged eight barges and destroyed a patrol patrol patrol patrol and two six barges on the beach and two barge patrol policemen on Saidor. On 18 January, Australian and Papuan troops inflicted heavy and disproportionate casualties on the Japanese as they advanced, ultimately linking up with the American forces at Saidor and taking the island.
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This page is based on the article Battle of Sio published in Wikipedia (as of Oct. 30, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
