Destruction on the Driniumor July, 1999

This article refers to a battle on New Guinea that involved the 124th Infantry Regiment.

The Americans and the Australians had retaken much of New Guinea by the time the 124th was sent there, although two critical areas remained under Japanese control. The Japanese forces were under the command of Lt. Gen. Hatazo Adachi. The Americans had captured some airfields, and had established an “outpost line of resistance” along the Driniumor River.

The Japanese commander moved his troops through the jungle on foot and at night over a distance of around 90 miles.

At midnight on July 10th, 1944, the Japanese attacked with a force of 20,000 along the river. The first two waves of attackers were destroyed by artillery fire, mortar fire, automatic-weapons fire and barbed-wire emplacements. This left about 3,000 Japanese dead right off. The Americans began to ran out of ammunition, though. The Americans retreated and reformed.

The Japanese forces attacked again the next day. On July 13th, the 124th was added to the US forces while other movements were made that trapped the Japanese between two rivers.

They were relatively new to this type of combat, but they learned quicky from the other Americans that had experience. A few Japanese were captured who were carrying codebooks and the overall plans for their army's movement. Two companies of Japanese troops used banzai charges. The article gives a lot of details on the events in the confrontation.

Eventually the Japanese commander surrendered on Sept. 13, 1944, and in May of the next year he committed ritual suicide.

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