Bougainville counterattack

The Bougainville counterattack was an unsuccessful Japanese offensive against the Allied base at Cape Torokina. The goal of the offensive was to destroy the Allied beachhead, which accommodated three strategically important airfields. The attack was hampered by inaccurate intelligence and poor planning and was defeated by the well-prepared Allied defenders. It was the last big Japanese offensive in the Solomon Islands Campaign.

About Bougainville counterattack in brief

The Bougainville counterattack was an unsuccessful Japanese offensive against the Allied base at Cape Torokina. The Japanese attack began on 8 March 1944 after months of preparation, and was repulsed by United States Army forces in fighting which lasted until 25 March. The goal of the offensive was to destroy the Allied beachhead, which accommodated three strategically important airfields. The attack was hampered by inaccurate intelligence and poor planning and was defeated by the well-prepared Allied defenders, who greatly outnumbered the Japanese force. It was the last big Japanese offensive in the Solomon Islands Campaign. Australian troops took over from the Americans in late 1944, and began a series of advances across the island until the end of the war in August 1945. The Allied invasion aimed to establish a defensive perimeter around CapeTorokina within which airfields would be built to attack the major Japanese base at Rabaul and support other operations in the region. The Allies did not intend to conquer the entire island, and the invasion area was mainly selected on the grounds that it was lightly defended and distant from the main Japanese bases at the northern and southern ends of Bou Gainville. The area in and around the American perimeter in March 1944 was lightly populated. There were no formed roads, though a track ran along the coast and another crossed the interior. The U.S. Marine Corps official history of the fighting on the island states that “the Cape TorOKina plain, bordered by the natural obstacles of the Laruma River to the northwest, the mountains inland, and the Torokinas River to the south-east, fell an ideal defensive defensive area.’’ The Allies judged that it would take at least three months for any force which was large enough to pose a threat to the beachhead to reach the area.

While a Japanese counter-landing could potentially deposit a large force in the area, the United States Navy was confident that it could stop any such operation on Bougainille. The island is 125 miles long and 38 miles wide at its broadest point. At the time of World War II, most of the population of about 50,000 lived in small settlements in the north of the island and along its north-eastern coast. The coastal plains are swampy and largely covered with mangroves and jungle. There are two active volcanoes and the island has a tropical climate, with heavy rain being common at all times of the year. The small number of Australian public servants and plantation managers fled the island in January 1942, and it came under Japanese control that March. Few Japanese troops arrived until 1943, when the island’s garrison was expanded to a peak strength of 65,000. By early 1944, the island’s population numbered around 50,00. After their arrival, the Japanese conscripted some of the locals to work as laborers although conditions were harsh and often they were not paid. As the Allied bombing campaign in the Pacific intensified throughout 1943, the conditions imposed on the locals grew more harsh as food supplies dwindled.

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