Weapon of Denial: Air Power and the Battle for New Guinea (1995)

The New Guinea campaign lasted until July of 1944. The turning point was in March, 1943, when U.S. and Australian troops won the Battle of the Bismarck Sea.

In May, Japanese Imperial HQ ordered the Combined Fleet to occupy Port Moresby and take U.S. bases in the Solomon Islands, New Caledonia, Fiji and Samoa. This was Operation Mo. Some elements of the Japanese groups had already started this as early as May 4th, though.

The preliminary group was attacked by Task Force 17 which sunk a destroyer, four landing barges, a merchant ship, and also destroyed six seaplanes. This was on May 4th. On May 6th, a B-17 located the Japanese invasion force.

On May 7th, the first naval battle ever fought strictly between carrier-based aircraft began. This was the Battle of Coral Sea. When it was all over, the Japanese invasion was turned bank, the Shoho was sunk, and two other Japanese aircraft carriers were seriously damaged. This prevented their use at Midway, which helped the U.S. win that battle, also.

On August 13th, the Sasebo 5th Special Naval Landing Force “rounded up and beheaded every man, woman and child in the village of Buna, just south-southeast of Gonn.

Another Japanese attack was done without waiting for proper reinforcements. Barges landed at Goodenough Island. The Japanese troops got off to fix a meal, and 12 Australian P-40 planes found them and strafed them, destroying all the barges and most of their equipment and supplies. The survivors were unable to join the rest of the invasion force.

”The Japanese were under orders to 'kill without remorse'-orders that backfired when the Australians found the remains of several captured comrades who had been tied to trees and bayoneted. Tacked by their bodies was a sign: 'It took them a long time to die.'”

The Japanese tried to rescue their stranded troops on Goodenough Island, but were again attacked by Australian P-40s which sank one destroyer and drove off the other two.

The Japanese got to within thirty miles of their target, Port Moresby.

The U.S. invaded Guadalcanal, and the Japanese realized they could no longer support the Port Moresby invasion idea, so what troops were left retreated, some resorting to cannabilism.

The Japanese were surrounded at Buna but continued to fight. The two Japanese commanders committed ritual suicide. Japanese troops tried to swim to safety, but were apparently strafed by Allied planes.

In the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, the Japanese Commander of Convoy and Escort Forces was Rear Adm. Masatomi Kimura. The Commander of Transport Vessels was Capt. Kametaro Matsumo. The destroyer escort force consisted of the Arashio,, Asashio, Shirayuki and Tokitsukaze, all of which were sunk, and the Asagumo, Shikinami, Uranami and Yukikaze.

The transport force consisted of the Aiyo Maru, Kemu Maru, Kyokusei Maru, Oigawa Maru, Shinai Maru, Taimei Maru, Teiyo Maru and the Nojima. All of these were sunk. Some Japanese planes were also shot down.

“Over the next few days, PT boats and Allied aircraft combed the waters off the Huon Peninsula searching for Japanese survivors and strafing and bombing them mercilessly. It was, Australian historian Alan Stephens noted,”

“...a grim and bloody work which many of the crews found nasueating, but, as one RAAF Beaufighter pilot said, 'every enemy they prevented from getting ashore was one less for their Army colleagues to face.' “

The Japanese idea of tying prisoners to trees and bayoneting them came back to haunt the Japanese.

By the end of the battle, the Japanese 51st Division “had essentially ceased to exist.” 3,000 of the 6,900 troops in the convoy were missing. They died by bombing, strafing, exposure, thirst, shark attacks, drowning, and suicide.

Two weeks after the end of the battle, the Japanese high command decided it was a good idea to make sure all the soldiers knew how to swim.

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