BATTLE ISLANDS CAMPAIGN MISSION 8 SERIES

Bougainville had to be the closest thing to a living hell that I ever saw in my life.вЂќ

ArmyвЂ™s XIV Corps perimeter at Cape Torokina on Bougainville in March 1944: вЂњThe curtain was about to rise on one of the bloodiest, most fanatical Banzai attacks made by the Japanese in the South Pacific War вЂ¦ against a civilian army of battling clerks, farmers, mechanics, schoolboys, business men.вЂќДЄnother Marine veteran of Guam and Iwo Jima recounted, вЂњOf all the 28 months I spent overseas, nothing compared to Bougainville for miserable living conditionsвЂ¦. ArmyвЂ™s 37th Infantry Division historian, wrote about the Japanese counteroffensive against the U.S. Vandegrift, who commanded the 1st Marine Division on Guadalcanal and then the I Marine Amphibious Corps (IMAC) for the Bougainville landings, commented that the Bougainville вЂњjungle worse than we had found on Guadalcanal.вЂќ Turnage, commanding the 3rd Marine Division, which had invaded Bougainville in November 1943, wrote, вЂњNever had men in the Marine Corps had to fight and maintain themselves over such difficult terrain as was encountered on Bougainville.вЂќ

The losses of Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) units, IJN ships, and aircraft and crews could never be replaced after the defeats suffered on these hellacious jungle islands, especially given the requisite presence of Imperial forces on the Central Pacific and New Guinea fronts.

BATTLE ISLANDS CAMPAIGN MISSION 8 SERIES

What has been ignored, however, is the backbreaking series of defeats that the Japanese suffered in their attempts to defend New Georgia, Kolombangara, and Bougainville in the Central and Northern Solomons. The six-month-long, grueling Japanese defense and ultimate conquest of Guadalcanal by American land, sea, and air forces-after the initial Marine amphibious invasion of that southern Solomon island on August 7, 1942-halted the Japanese southeastward strategic advance to sever the sea lanes to the Antipodes. The American NavyвЂ™s sinking of four enemy carriers at Midway crippled future Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) initiatives on the scale mounted during the warвЂ™s initial six months. Key Allied victories in the Pacific have been singled out as seminal turning points against the Japanese.

Battle islands campaign mission 8