In addition, about 5,400 survivors of the Japanese defeat at Buna-Gona were moved into the Lae-Salamaua area. [57] Stephen R. Taaffe reached a similar conclusion. The forces of the Southwest Pacific Area were ready to move on to the Philippines. Their noses had been refitted with eight 50-caliber machine guns for strafing slow-moving ships on the high seas. The timely publication of 18 of these reports afforded a wealth of information preparatory to the invasion. [6], The struggle for New Guinea began with the capture by the Japanese of the city of Rabaul at the northeastern tip of New Britain Island in January 1942 (the Allies responded with multiple bombing raids, of which the action off Bougainville was one). As the body of available material continued to grow, individual studies based on information available to ATIS were produced as Information Bulletins on subjects of general interest. The Dutch surrendered on 8 March. [11] This document was quickly translated and published as ATIS Publication No. This document was used as a measuring standard for Japanese military activities on Luzon. [10] After the chief of staff of the Second Area Army travelled to Wewak to deliver Adachi orders in person, he directed that the 66th Infantry Regiment begin moving from Wewak to Hollandia on 18 April; it was expected that this unit would arrive there in mid-June. Gen. Millard F. Harmon, who was also subordinate to Nimitz. Three weeks later, on March 21, 1944, a captured field order disclosed the Japanese strength at Rossum, New Britain. During the so-called atoll campaign in the Pacific, US Navy, Marine Corps, and Army personnel captured many valuable documents on various islands. The Allied reduction of Rabaul was only made possible by relentless air strikes that took place day after day, but Yamamoto thought the damage inflicted by a few attacks of large formations would derail Allied plans long enough for Japan to prepare a defense in depth. The most important find was a set of plans and specifications for some of the defenses encountered on the island. In mid-July 1944, near Moemi, soldiers recovered three cases of buried records, including seven important documents that a Japanese deserter had led them to. CIC personnel were constantly engaged in providing lectures to soldiers about the importance of captured Japanese documents. Actual Allied losses amounted to one destroyer, one oiler, one corvette, two cargo ships and approximately 25 aircraft. At the Quebec Conference in August 1943, the leaders of the Allied nations agreed to this change in strategy focusing on neutralizing Rabaul rather than capturing it.[50]. This involved air attacks and naval bombardments on the Wewak area, and faked landings of reconnaissance patrols. At 177 planes, this was the largest Japanese air attack since Pearl Harbor. The documents were then sent on to ATIS, SWPA, for final examination. His contemplated offensive against Wau died a-borning. Primary Image: The US pursued a two-pronged offensive across the central and southwest Pacific to . 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. The headland was formed by the Cyclops Mountains, a mountain ridge rising steeply to 7,000 feet (2,100m) and was backed by Lake Sentani, extending 15 miles (24km) east to west. [63][64], Meanwhile, the Allies quickly made the Sentani airfields operational and were able to mount bombing raids on Japanese positions as far west as Biak, making them useless for air operations. . Over 120 of these Research Reports were published. Excerpts from the citation indicate that he, with great risk to his life made reconnaissance in a number of caves which had been occupied by Japanese, approaching dangerously close to enemy fire and recovered more than 11 cases of enemy documents vitally needed for the successful conclusion of the operation.. The gunners got a lot of practice; Port Moresby suffered its 78th raid on 17 August 1942. ", John Vader, New Guinea: The Tide Is Stemmed, p. 93, The Australian 7th Division under the command of Major General George Alan Vasey, along with the revitalized US 32nd Division, restarted the Allied offensive. The Navy played a crucial role in operations to take Japanese airfields. 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. Consequently, Japanese efforts to develop the area were delayed throughout 1943 and 1944. [13] Eventually it would grow to over 2,500 personnel, some of who served with Advanced Echelons and combat units. This resulted in considerable fatigue for the air crews. During mid-May American forces intercepted a Japanese landing craft near Arare that carried material for reinforcing the Japanese-held islands offshore of New Guinea that were to be attacked as part of the Wakde-Sarmi Bay Operation. Opposition on the ground at Hollandia was negligible and within four days the two divisions had secured inland Japanese airfields. Operations focused on attacking positions and seaborne traffic around Timor, Ambon, and the Kai and Aroe Islands. 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. The defeat of the Japanese invasion of Milne Bay by 5 September 1942 was the first Allied land victory over the Japanese. Also produced were ATIS Publications. Second, the Allies had become convinced that the Japanese were preparing a major seaborne reinforcement and so had stepped up their air searches. [14], Operation Mo was the designation given by the Japanese to their initial plan to take possession of Port Moresby. Current Translations were publications containing complete translations of documents classified A, B, C, or D in ATIS Bulletins. "[19] Thus was the overland threat to Port Moresby permanently removed. [27] As the Japanese ground forces pressed toward Port Moresby, the Allied Air Forces struck supply points along the Kokoda Track. In March 1944, plans were developed for ATIS to be located in closer proximity to combat operations. Air and naval support consisted largely of U.S. assets, although Australia also provided air support during preliminary operations and a naval bombardment force. Edwards also spoke with Graves Registration units about the importance of acquiring from the bodies of enemy soldiers everything with Japanese writing. 72 (formerly ATIS Information Bulletin No. US troops debark from LST-66 at Tanahmerah Bay Hollandia. Although one line of attack was carried out primarily by ground forces and the other by naval forces, the main feature of both undertakings was the close coordination of land, sea, and air power. With the occupation of Morotai, the long drive up the New Guinea coast was strategically completed. 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. Landings were made at two points in the Hollandia area on April 22, 1944, with the U.S. 24th Infantry Division moving ashore at Tanahmerah Bay and the 41st Infantry Division pushing inland at Humboldt Bay, 25 miles (40 km) to the east. Intelligence gained from breaking the codes protecting Imperial Japanese Army radio messages led the Allies to learn that the Hollandia area was only lightly defended, with Japanese forces being concentrated in the Madang-Wewak region. While it was beyond MacArthur's capabilities to deny Buna to the Japanese, the same could not be said of Milne Bay, which was easily accessible by Allied naval forces. The campaign was long and arduous, but by the end of 1944 the Japanese threat was contained in New Guinea. The Z Plan would fall into the hands of the Allies and be translated by ATIS during the early summer of 1944 and immediately be returned to the Japanese. In the spring of 1944, ATIS received a document which, after being translated, proved to be of exceptional value and probably considerably shortened the war. In addition, ATIS officers collaborated in the accumulation of evidence from prisoners and testified before the Board. He told soldiers that ATIS personnel had told him that they had seen Japanese documents held as souvenirs of earlier battles in New Guinea, which contained information of tactical value which if had been turned in at the time, would have saved lives and shortened battles. [1][2], Hollandia was situated on the east side of a headland separating Humboldt Bay to the east and Tanahmerah Bay, 25 miles (40km) to the west. [15] The only Allied response was a bombing raid of Lae and Salamaua by aircraft flying over the Owen Stanley Range from the carriers USSLexington and USSYorktown, leading the Japanese to reinforce these sites. [33], Operation Lilliput (18 December 1942 June 1943) was an ongoing resupply operation ferrying troops and supplies from Milne Bay, at the tip of the Papuan Peninsula, to Oro Bay, a little more than halfway between Milne Bay and the BunaGona area. Most regrettable!!' 255) Procedure in interrogating and handling [Allied] prisoners of war. Over 420 of these were published. 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. During the early days of the war the Japanese forces were advancing. This success was attributable to Milne Bay's Australian and US defenders together with the crews of the (mostly Dutch) merchantmen that had delivered vital supplies and reinforcements to the garrison. 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. 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. Except for some fairly heavy air raids, the Japanese reacted feebly to this penetration of their last defenses before the Philippines. 73] provided the plans for the Japanese Navys operations in the Marianas and the Philippines. Nimitz offered to assign eight small escort carriers to support the landing at Aitape, with these vessels then proceeding to support operations at Hollandia until 11 May. The quantity and type of documents captured from the Japanese varied widely. The beach quickly became congested, as it had also been the center of a Japanese supply dump prior to the assault, and engineers had to work to clear the area with bulldozers and construct a roadway to the beach's only exit. It was a grisly task, but a military necessity since Japanese soldiers do not surrender and within swimming distance of shore, they could not be allowed to land and join the Lae garrison. Garrisons were effectively besieged and denied shipments of food and medical supplies, and as a result, some claim that 97% of Japanese deaths in this campaign were from non-combat causes. New Guinean porters carry a load through the jungle. In May 1945 ADVATIS followed the advance of General Headquarters into Manila. Beleaguered, the survivors of the Japanese garrison were evacuated by submarine on the night of 26 October. The Royal Australian Air Force and Dutch air units remained under Kenneys control as part of the Allied Air Forces, while the Royal New Zealand Air Force, together with certain U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Navy land-based air units, continued to operate along the Solomon Islands axis. Historian Samuel Eliot Morison summed up the results this way: the enemy had shot his bolt; he never showed up again in these waters. The majority of the Allied force was provided by the United States, with the bulk of two United States Army infantry divisions being committed on the ground. Twelve of these were scheduled to be produced, beginning in March 1943. [43][44] Meanwhile, carrier-borne aircraft attacked targets around Wakde, Sarmi and Hollandia from 21 April, destroying at least 33 Japanese planes in the air and more on the ground. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for My dad's whole collection of old stamps UNTEA Dutch Nw Guinea [ay08] at the best online prices at eBay! Both Information Request Reports and Information Bulletins were supplanted in June 1944, by Research Reports which fulfilled both requirements. Accordingly, the Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2, directed on September 22, 1944, that Advanced Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ADVATIS) be established in the immediate vicinity of General Headquarters at Hollandia. The naval command in the Southwest Pacific remained unchanged. However, this is contradictory to the total number of Japanese combat deaths calculated across most individual battles in the campaign. Captured and sunken Japanese ships and boats also provided large quantities of documents, many of immediate value. A force of 800 Australian troops landed on 22 October on either side of the Japanese position. [56] Historian Edward J. Drea attributed the success of the operation largely to MacArthur's bold decision to exploit intelligence gained through code breaking, and judged it was "MacArthur's finest hour in World War II and ULTRA's single greatest contribution to the general's Pacific strategy". According to Morison, the Japanese "never again risked a transport larger than a small coaster or barge in waters shadowed by American planes. ", Samuel Eliot Morison, Breaking the Bismarcks Barrier, p. 60, planes and PTs went about the sickening business of killing survivors in boats, rafts or wreckage. [8] ICPOAs first officer in charge was Cmdr. This deception effort proved successful. Interrogation of a prisoner confirmed the fact that supplies were being unloaded at Lae from enemy submarines. The War Department Intelligence Service established a secret school at the Presidio of San Francisco to teach individuals to be Japanese-language interpreters and translators. [18] For more information regarding the Z Plan see my article The Z Plan Story: Japans 1944 Naval Battle Strategy Drifts into U.S. Hands, Part I and Part II in Prologue, Vol. [4] Within six months, the school had shipped its first 35 graduates to the field, just in time for Guadalcanal and the Buna-Gona campaign. From there the documents were immediately sent to Brisbane for translation by ATIS personnel. The brief spurt of books in 1943 and 1944, when Japanese were able to visit the occupied Dutch East Indies, dealt mainly with Dutch New Guinea, and then only in a very rudimentary way. Their operation plan decreed a five-pronged attack: one task force to establish a seaplane base at Tulagi in the lower Solomons, one to establish a seaplane base in the Louisiade Archipelago off the eastern tip of New Guinea, one of transports to land troops near Port Moresby, one with a light carrier to cover the landing, and one with two fleet carriers to sink the Allied forces sent in response. Red 2 beach was found to be highly unsuitable and the promised roads were non-existent. The Japanese also seized the key oil production zones of Borneo, Central Java, Malang, Cepu, Sumatra, and Dutch New Guinea of the late Dutch East Indies, defeating the Dutch forces. Japans strategy in the Pacific and Southeast Asia, The Allied offensive in the Pacific, 1944, Casualties and the material cost of the Pacific War. The PTs turned their guns on, and hurled depth charges at the three boats which, with over a hundred men on board, sank. [16] In the resulting 48 May 1942 Battle of the Coral Sea, the Allies suffered higher losses in ships, but achieved a crucial strategic victory by turning the Japanese landing force back, thereby removing the threat to Port Moresby, at least for the time being. The students were mostly second-generation Japanese-Americans (Nisei) from the West Coast. Allied troops set up 105mm howitzer in Depapre New Guinea 1944. [41] Through the afternoon of 1 March, the overcast weather held at which point everything began to go wrong for the Japanese. 16 dealt with interrogation of captured American B-24 air crews; No. Base ATIS was closed at Brisbane on June 4, 1945, and established several weeks later in Manila. The diary covered the period January 1942-January 1944. This procedure called for all documents to be briefly examined, and those of operational value segregated from those having probable or general value and those having no apparent military value, and provisions were made for the translation on a priority bases of those sections of documents containing information of operational value. [17], After this failure, the Japanese decided on a longer term, two-pronged assault for their next attempt on Port Moresby. 3, Glossary of military terms encountered in Japanese documents; No. JICPOA personnel also served, beginning in January 1945, at the Advance Intelligence Center (AIC), established at the CINCPAC Advance Headquarters at Guam. Blog of the Textual Records Division at the National Archives. When very few documents were captured and relatively little was known about the enemy forces in the SWPA, it was imperative to translate all documents in full. 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