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Bougainville |
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In March 1944 as part of its operations to regain the Solomon Islands and as part of the leap frogging advance to the Philippines, American troops won a savage local victory at Bougainville, securing a base at Torokina but leaving Japanese forces largely intact on the Island. In May the Japanese launched a massive attack but lost 5000 men and withdrew beyond the fourteen mile perimeter established by the Americans around where they subsisted through fishing and farming. When the American advance to the Philippines began, the task of mopping up and holding the Island was given to the Australians of General Savige's 3rd (Militia) Division comprising the 7th, 11th, 15th and 29th Brigades. Bougainville, the largest of the Solomon Island group, was 130 miles long and dominated by a mountainous jungle clad spine whose gullies and ravines dropped into the surrounding flats. Savige decided on a two pronged drive. Three brigades (7th, 15th and 29th) would operate from the main base at Torokina moving east and south against the main Japanese force while the fourth brigade (11th) would head north to clear that sector. As a first stage of the campaign to destroy the Japanese forces, the 7th Brigade moved along the Numa Numa trail against Japanese positions on the high ground east of Torokina. Combining with New Zealand Corsair aircraft and artillery, the Brigade secured Artillery Hill and then Pearl ridge. The 23rd Brigade was brought from outlying Islands to continue the push to the east coast. Though a militia division the 3rd had been well trained in the theory of jungle warfare. In bitter contested engagements they advanced methodically against the Japanese driving them back steadily using amphibious flanking tactics and supported by a squadron of Australian tanks. By mid-February they had secured a crossing over the Puarita River. On 29 March the Japanese counterattacked and after some initial success fell back after eight days savage fighting in the swampy lowlands. As the Australian advance toward the Japanese base at Buin drew closer to its objective Japanese resistance intensified. By mid July constant downpours and swollen rivers halted the Australians fifteen miles short of Buin. To the north the advance by the 11th Brigade had been as dogged and constant and when the Atom bomb was dropped, effectively ending the war, the Japanese were contained in the furthest northern point on the Bonis Peninsula. However, fighting had not been a one way street and on 8 June the 31st/51st Battalion suffered heavy casualties when a landing craft grounded on coral. Air support was called into suppress the hostile fire while the Australian soldiers extricated themselves. In one of the final actions of the campaign, a 20 year old militiaman of the 8th Battalion was awarded a VC when he retrieved a Bren Gun from a fallen comrade and though wounded himself in an arm and leg, and then engaged and suppressed Japanese bunker single handedly. He was the only militiaman to be awarded this coveted award and the last Australian to receive it in the Second World War. The Japanese defenders on Bougainville, though estimated at 18,000 when the Americans vacated the Island, were found to have numbered 40,000 in October 1944. 23,000 surrendered and were in a pitiful state, 8500 had been killed and nearly 10,000 died of disease. Against this 512 Australians were killed and 1572 wounded. The enduring controversy about Bougainville is that it formed part of the 'unnecessary wars' in that Australians were asked to do the dirty work of mopping up while the Americans marched on to further glories to the north. The other aspect being that it was felt the Japanese could have been left alone to wither, a charge Blamey disputed in part on the humanitarian grounds on relieving native populations from Japanese oppression. |
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