78 killed
104 wounded 192 killed Result Allied victory | Date November 1943 | |
 | ||
14,000 Marines 2,000 soldiers
1 x 75mm field gun Combatants United States of America, Empire of Japan Similar World War II, Bougainville Campaign, Battle of Empress Augusta, Battle of Koromokina Lagoon, Pacific War | ||
The Landings at Cape Torokina were the beginning of the Bougainville campaign in World War II, between the military forces of the Empire of Japan and the Allied powers. The amphibious landings by the United States Marine Corps and the United States Army during the month of November 1943 on Bougainville Island in the Solomon Islands of the South Pacific.
Contents
Japanese
The Japanese forces defending Bougainville were part of the General Harukichi Hyakutake 17th Army. This formation reported to the Eighth Area Army under General Hitoshi Imamura at Rabaul, New Britain. The main concentrations of Japanese troops were as follows:
American
The Bougainville invasion was the ultimate responsibility of Admiral William F. Halsey, commander U.S. Third Fleet, at his headquarters at Nouméa, New Caledonia. The landings were under the personal direction of Rear Admiral Theodore S. Wilkinson, commander Third Fleet Amphibious Forces, aboard his flagship attack transport George Clymer. Also aboard was Major General Alexander A. Vandegrift, USMC, commander I Marine Amphibious Corps.
Loaded aboard five attack transports were the men of the 3rd Marine Division (reinforced), Major General Allen H. Turnage commanding. With General Turnage aboard the Hunter Liggett was Commodore Lawrence F. Reifsnider, who had responsibility for the transports as well as three attack cargo ships.
First echelon
The first wave went ashore along an 8,000-yard front north of and including Cape Torokina at 07:10 hours on 1 November 1943. The 9th Marines assaulted the western beaches while the 3rd Marines took the eastern beaches and the cape itself. The 3rd Marine Raider Battalion captured Puruata Island about 1,000 yards west of the cape.
Because of the possibility of an immediate Japanese counterattack by air units, the initial assault wave landed 7,500 Marines by 07:30 hours. These troops seized the lightly defended area by 11:00 hours, suffering 78 killed in action while virtually annihilating the 270 troops of the Japanese 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment that were defending the area around the beachhead.
Sergeant Robert A. Owens, from Company A, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines, was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in eliminating a Japanese 75 mm gun that had been shelling the landing force, after it had destroyed four landing craft and damaged ten others. At the cost of his life, Owens approached the gun emplacement, entered it through the fire port, and drove the crew out the back door.
In the space of eight hours, Admiral Wilkinson's flotilla unloaded about 14,000 men and 6,200 tons of supplies. He then took his ships out of the area out of fear of an overnight attack by Japanese surface ships. As it turned out, an American force of four light cruisers and eight destroyers encountered a Japanese force of two heavy cruisers, two light cruisers and six destroyers in the Battle of Empress Augusta Bay that night (morning of 2 November).
Later echelons
The remainder of the 3rd Marine Division, as well as the US 37th Infantry Division under Major General Robert S. Beightler, and Advance Naval Base Unit No. 7 were landed at Cape Torokina throughout November. As late as Thanksgiving, the beachhead was still under hostile fire. As the sixth echelon of the invasion force was unloading, Japanese artillery fired on the landing ships, inflicting casualties. The Marines silenced these guns the following day.