The Australians held firm and began their counterdrive on 26 September. In February 1944, marines and soldiers from the 27th Infantry Division captured important documents at Engebi Island. [43], The remaining destroyers with about 2,700 surviving troops limped back to Rabaul. An A B and C priority system was established; with A being documents of operational value; B being documents of probable or general value; and, C being documents containing information of no apparent value. [9] Few combat units were stationed at Hollandia in early 1944. The beach was narrow, though, and only allowed two LCMs to land at a time, while the even bigger LSTs had to remain offshore where they were cross loaded on to LVTs. Miscellaneous identifications taken from documents captured in early November in the Pinamopoan Area, Leyte, gave the first indication of the Japanese 1st Divisions presence in this area. 39 with Navy Operations, Plans and Orders (1941-1944). In addition, about 5,400 survivors of the Japanese defeat at Buna-Gona were moved into the Lae-Salamaua area. Although the quantity of documents captured in South East Asia and China were not as voluminous as those found elsewhere, nevertheless there were major collections captured. To the invaders from Japan, and the occupiers from Australia and the United States, however, New Guineans appeared as colonial subjects at best, and as slaves at worst. The quantity and type of documents captured from the Japanese varied widely. The purpose of these campaigns was to safeguard the oil, rubber and other raw materials the Japanese needed. [15] Under a memorandum of August 27, 1945, CIC was ordered to cease its investigation of wartime collaborators in the Philippines on September 2nd and turn over all records, together with over 5,000 interned Filipinos charged with treason, collaboration and subversive activities, to the Department of Justice of the Philippine Commonwealth Government. Two months after JICPOA was formed US forces invaded the Gilbert Islands. In January 1943 the Allied and the Japanese forces facing each other on New Guinea were like two battered heavyweights. The sinking of over 25,000 tones of Japanese ships earned the unit the nickname . 84 dealt with The Japanese and Bacterial Warfare. These totaled 11,000 men under the command of General Masazumi Inada, Major General Toyozo Kitazono and Rear Admiral Yoshikazu Endo (Ninth Fleet). Allied troops set up 105mm howitzer in Depapre New Guinea 1944. During the early stages of the planning process MacArthur's headquarters believed that two Japanese infantry regiments may have been in the Hollandia area, but this was later discounted. 1944 battle between American and Japanese forces during World War II, "Securing New Guinea: The U.S. Navy in Operations Reckless and Persecution: 2122 April 1944", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Battle_of_Hollandia&oldid=1132691020, South West Pacific theatre of World War II, Battles and operations of World War II involving Australia, Battles and operations of World War II involving Japan, Battles and operations of World War II involving the United States, Amphibious operations involving the United States, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 10 January 2023, at 02:36. [9] The documents were quickly brought back to Hawaii. Once the war ended, Southeast Asia Command Field Security Sections were assigned to seize records that, among other things, could be used for the prosecution of war criminals. During the initial phase in early 1942, the Empire of Japan invaded the Australian -administered Mandated Territory of New Guinea (23 January) and the Australian Territory of Papua (21 July) and overran western New Guinea (beginning 29/30 March), which was a part of the Netherlands East Indies. [34], Wau is a village in the interior of the Papuan peninsula, approximately 50 kilometres (30mi) southwest of Salamaua. [38], General Imamura and his naval counterpart at Rabaul, Admiral Jinichi Kusaka, commander Southeast Area Fleet, resolved to reinforce their ground forces at Lae for one final all-out attempt against Wau. Seven LSTs were also assigned. U.S. Military forces began capturing records almost as soon as the war began and started exploiting them immediately. Urgent information was extracted before rushing the documents on to the Advanced Echelon where they were sorted, stamped, examined, and translated as necessary. The unit was in effect a miniature ATIS, with various sections, coordinating the production of translation and interrogation reports of immediate operation value. Ultimately, a major air and staging base was developed in the Hollandia area and most of the higher headquarters in the Southwest Pacific area established their command posts there during the summer of 1944. It was a new kind of combined operations warfare in which the Allies consistently outclassed their Japanese opponents. These provided the first clues to breaking the Japanese Navys operational codes. The fires around White 1 continued until 27 April when the engineers were released to return to the beach. US troops debark from LST-66 at Tanahmerah Bay Hollandia. In May 1945 ADVATIS followed the advance of General Headquarters into Manila. US troops man Anti Aircraft MG in New Guinea 1942. By 1944 the school had outgrown these facilities and moved to nearby Fort Snelling. The landing was unopposed as the enemy garrison indicated its intention of surrendering by hoisting a white flag at the first sight of the invasion force. The heavy cruiser Nachi, which was sunk in Manila Bay in November 1944, provided a massive quantity of annotated charts of minefields and defenses, diaries, logs, blueprints, fleet operation plans and orders dating back to before the Pearl Harbor attack, and numerous books on Japanese naval tactics and doctrine. For this purpose, liaison was established and during July and August ATIS furnished the Board with approximately 1,200 pages of translations. Beleaguered, the survivors of the Japanese garrison were evacuated by submarine on the night of 26 October. During the first week of March 1945, I Corps ATIS Advanced Echelon on Luzon translated four top secret Japanese operational orders made between February 26th-March 2nd. [59], Operation Reckless was an unqualified success, as were the landings around Aitape under the guise of Operation Persecution. 3, Glossary of military terms encountered in Japanese documents; No. Limited Distribution Reports were special reports, highly classified, consisting of translations of documents possessing information of the highest intelligence value or of immediate importance, issued from time to time as directed. In January 1944, during the New Britain-New Guinea operations, captured Japanese code books enabled radio intelligence staff to determine the intentions of Lt. Gen. Hatazo Adachi, commander of the Japanese 18th Army. Captured and sunken Japanese ships and boats also provided large quantities of documents, many of immediate value. As a result, a system of thorough Screening, i.e., the rapid examination of documents and the extraction (partial translations) therefrom of the more important material only, was given added prominence. Gen. Frank D. Merrill, captured 2 tons of documents at Myitkyina, Burma. [41] After rehearsals and loading, on 16 to 18 April the amphibious forces sailed from their bases at Finschafen and Goodenough Island; they joined up with other ships carrying troops bound for Aitape from Seeadler Harbour and then rendezvoused with the escort aircraft carriers providing air cover off Manus Island early on 20 April. Then began the grueling Kokoda Track campaign, a brutal experience for both the Japanese and Australian troops involved. During the period of October 1942-July 1943, the work of indexing, abstracting and collating information from captured documents and prisoners of war, answering internal queries, and providing information to assist translators and examiners, was carried on by a staff consisting of six officers and ten enlisted personnel. The Dutch East Indies fell into Japan's sphere. The plan called for the establishment of a two-battalion front, with troops landed in seven waves at two beaches: Red 1 around the Depapre Inlet and Red 2 on the eastern side of the bay. [4][23], The main landings at Hollandia would be made at two locations. In December 1943, an operational order indicating the times and dates at which Japanese submarine were scheduled to appear in designated spots in the Arawe area, New Britain, was translated by ATIS and immediately forwarded to Naval Intelligence where prompt action was taken. [40], About 6,900 troops aboard eight transports, escorted by eight destroyers, departed Rabaul at midnight 28 February under the command of Rear Admiral Masatomi Kimura. First, with completion of the reduction of Rabaul, the South Pacific Area was closed as an active theatre, and Halsey left to take command of the U.S. 3rd Fleet. [citation needed], Three factors conspired to create disaster for the Japanese. Researchers should, of course, use the National Archives Catalog. At Anguar Island in the Western Carolinas in early September 1944, agents from the 81st CIC Detachment, with the 81st Infantry Division, captured a large volume of records, including blueprints, books, miscellaneous documents, files, 40 pounds of mail, and Japanese currency and coins. The attack failed, and the Japanese were driven back toward Wewak. Hollandia was a port on the north coast of New Guinea, part of the Dutch East Indies, and was the only anchorage between Wewak to the east, and Geelvink Bay to the west. Historians acknowledge that the deciphering of the Z Plan was one of the greatest single intelligence feats of the war in the South West Pacific Area. region: "", MacArthur, the supreme commander in the area, also commanded all U.S. Army troops in the Southwest Pacific in his capacity as commanding general, U.S. Army Forces in the Far East. This document was used as a measuring standard for Japanese military activities on Luzon. It was recognized that before an invasion of the Japanese home islands became possible it would be necessary to undertake extensive aerial bombardment of the islands and cut Japans lines of communications to the Dutch East Indies and Malaya. The stores situation in the forward area grew more urgent as the supply line up the single road broke down. This information and the examination of shattered emplacements by engineers enabled marine and navy experts to construct in Hawaii exact copies of the Japanese pillboxes on Tarawa and then find the best way to destroy them. In addition, at the request of the Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2 [Intelligence], USAFFE (US Army Forces in the Far East), an ATIS officer periodically delivered lectures on the importance and classification of Japanese documents to Army Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) classes. Allied casualties amounted to 157 killed and 1,057 wounded. [9], The Japanese 8th Area Army (equivalent to an Anglo-American army), under General Hitoshi Imamura at Rabaul, was responsible for both the New Guinea and Solomon Islands campaigns. Admiral Nimitz exploited the same intelligence advantage when he planned the next stage of the Navys campaign in the central Pacific. While military planners argued the merits of one approach over another, two main lines of attack were actually followed during 1944: (1) MacArthurs ground forces (including Army, Marine, and Navy elements) strengthened their hold in New Guinea and eventually invaded the Philippines; (2) Nimitzs naval forces drove across the central Pacific from the Gilberts to the Marianas and then covered the landing in the Philippines. This was usually done in the form of listings (usually termed bulletins) that provided a brief description of the records and various types of publications containing full or partial translations of specific documents and publications containing full or partial translations of documents relating to a general or specific topic. In March General Hatazo Adachi, the commander of the Japanese 18th Army, was ordered by the Second Area Army to withdraw his forces west from the Madang-Hansa Bay area to Hollandia, with one division to be dispatched there immediately. [14] The 18th Army did not plan for the defense of Hollandia, and the Army Air Force and Naval units stationed there had little opportunity to develop plans due to the rapid turnover of their leadership. Engineers operating amphtracks pushed forward from Jautefa Bay to the lake to carry the infantry around the Japanese positions at the lake, completing their flanking maneuver on 25 April. U.S. Army Air Forces, Pacific Ocean Area (except the B-29s) were placed under Lieut. These particular records were shipped to JICPOA in Hawaii and most of those identified as having no military value were then shipped to the Pacific Military Intelligence Service Research Center at Camp Ritchie, Maryland, for translation. By the end of the day on 23 April the 186th Infantry were about halfway to Lake Sentani, while those from the 162nd had secured Hollandia and were securing the high ground around their objective, winkling out isolated pockets of resistance with aerial support. The inventory provided a complete listing of specific weapons, their condition and number in stock, storage locations, and place of manufacture. Blog of the Textual Records Division at the National Archives. To assist researchers interested in World War II-era research regarding the Pacific and Far East, I prepared a 1,700-page finding aid entitled Japanese War Crimes and Related Records: A Guide to Records in the National Archives,which is searchable and available online. [10], The colonial capital of Port Moresby on the south coast of Papua was the strategic key for the Japanese in this area of operations. The timing of the landings at Hollandia were moved back to 22 April at around this time due to logistical problems and the Pacific Fleet's other commitments, and it was decided to conduct the landing at Aitape simultaneously with the main assault. This attack also destroyed 60 percent of all rations and ammunition that had been landed, and resulted in shortages amongst the infantry advancing towards the airfields. The information contained in these reports were bibliographically indexed. This information was given to the 163rd Infantry Regiment of the 41st Infantry Division who used it in subsequent offensive operations. It was occupied by the Japanese during their invasion of the Dutch East Indies in 1942, who planned to use it as a base for their expansion towards the Australian mandated territories of Papua and New Guinea. American military leaders knew that while the number of prisoners (and thus information) taken in the Pacific would be relatively small, compared to the war in Europe, Japanese records would become all that more important as an intelligence source. In the Southwest Pacific Area, aside from the creation of the Far Eastern Air Force, there were few changes. 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