By the time the Allied bombers and PT boats finished their work on 3 March, Kimura had lost all eight transports and four of his eight destroyers. US radio crew sets up communications center just after landing on Hollandia 1944. [8] ICPOAs first officer in charge was Cmdr. Others included information about the Psychology in the Japanese Armed Forces (No. Todays post is by Dr. Greg Bradsher, Senior Archivist at the National Archives at College Park, Maryland. The information contained in these reports were bibliographically indexed. During the landing, the first JICPOA team accompanied the invasion forces. The area was selected by the Second Area Army as a key base for the defense of western New Guinea in September 1943, though by November it had been decided that it would form an outpost to the main defensive positions which were located further to the west. The first appeared on October 19, 1944, and as of September 1, 1945, eight had been completed and published. By 1944 the school had outgrown these facilities and moved to nearby Fort Snelling. They were discontinued with the dissolution of the Philippine Island Research Section of ATIS on October 9, 1944. They arrived off Hollandia during the night of 21/22 April and about 20 miles (32km) offshore, the convoy split again with the Central Attack Group preceding for Humboldt Bay while the Western Attack Group turned towards Tanahmerah Bay. Between November 1943 and March 1944 18 Squadron was ordered to prevent Japanese reinforcements reaching the north-east part of Papua and New Guinea. The large majority of the defending Japanese troops there had uncharacteristically abandoned their positions and fled inland. He told soldiers that ATIS personnel had told him that they had seen Japanese . This was done to fool the Japanese into believing that the documents had not been discovered by the Allies. Gona fell to the Australians on 9 December 1942, Buna to the US 32nd on 2 January 1943, and Sanananda, located between the two larger villages, fell to the Australians on 22 January. The U.S. built Naval Base Morotai, . The landing was supported by carrier-based aircraft of the U.S. 5th Fleet, which had also struck Japanese air installations at Wakde and Sarmi to the northwest. This material was translated by ATIS in May 1945 and provided Allied naval commanders with immediate intelligence regarding a variety of topics. It would commit all the remaining Japanese naval power to one last major battle with the Allies. A unified American-British-Dutch-Australian Command, ABDACOM, under Wavell, responsible for holding Malaya, Sumatra, Java, . [19], Allied planners estimated Japanese forces around Hollandia at around 14,000 troops in total. [36], The Australians decisively turned back the Japanese assault in the ensuing 2931 January 1943 Battle of Wau. When the first thirty-five prisoners of war arrived in June 1942, after the Battle of Midway, Japanese interrogators had to be borrowed from other activities. Found on the vessel were Japanese documents, including field orders and prisoner interrogation reports that indicated the Japanese knew when and where the American operation was to take place. I am estimating that a cubic foot of records is 2,500 pages. Incidence of malaria was almost one hundred per cent. As their number grew, and the volume of available intelligence increased, such a procedure became unnecessary, and also impossible due to the limited number of linguists available. [7] The volume would have been more but members of the 414th CIC unit learned that Chinese soldiers through ignorance destroyed many documents. The gunners got a lot of practice; Port Moresby suffered its 78th raid on 17 August 1942. They were special works, compiled for general reference purposes. These provided the first clues to breaking the Japanese Navys operational codes. [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. [54] There was little resistance initially, but further inland there was some opposition as elements of the 186th Infantry reached the lake by 24 April. Opposition on the ground at Hollandia was negligible and within four days the two divisions had secured inland Japanese airfields. Classes began November 1, 1941, with four instructors and 60 students in an abandoned airplane hangar at Crissy Field. Some of the research reports dealt with military and naval matters, such as No. [12], As an attack on Hollandia was not expected, no plans were prepared to defend the area prior to the Allied landing. For example, in the fall of 1944, Task Force Galahad, commanded by Brig. New Guinean porters carry a load through the jungle. [38], In response to a request from the head of the US Navy, Admiral Ernest King, the Eastern Fleet conducted a raid on Japanese positions on the island of Sabang in the Indian Ocean ahead of the landings at Hollandia and Aitape. 4, Bibliographic Index used for all ATIS publications; No. 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. 5, Bibliographic Subject Index for Enemy Publications 1-200 (November 30, 1944), with a supplementary index from 201-300 (March 1945); No. The forces of the Southwest Pacific Area were ready to move on to the Philippines. The defeat of the Japanese invasion of Milne Bay by 5 September 1942 was the first Allied land victory over the Japanese. This diary along with other documents relating to atrocities was used in the trials of Japanese war criminals. In early 1943, it became apparent, as the Allies assumed the offensive, that the volume of documents captured would far exceed the capacity of personnel available to translate each and every document in full. ", 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. Achieving complete surprise, they were able to destroy 340 aircraft on the ground and 60 more aircraft in the air, leaving the 6th Air Division unable to resist the planned invasion. 119 deals with the Japanese Military Police Service and Report No. After the Japanese invasion of New Guinea the Americans, aided by Australian troops, organized a series of landings and other offensive actions against the Japanese in New Guinea. It made the term amphibious a household word throughout the English-speaking world. On April 29, 1944, ATIS Research Report No. Despite the disaster of the Bismarck Sea, the Japanese could not give up on recapturing Wau. 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. 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. I Corps Commanding General was informed in detail of a major enemy operation involving several divisions and embracing the entire Corps front from Rosario to Puncan. In November 1943, during Operation Galvanic, marines of the 2nd Marine Division captured important documents at Tarawa Atoll (Betio). First, they had woefully underestimated the strength of the Allied air forces. This information resulted in the Americans speeding up their invasion convoy by a day. When the Japanese invaded New Guinea in early 1942, they began a struggle for control of the island which would last until the end of the Second World War. The naval command in the Southwest Pacific remained unchanged. On December 7, 1941, Japan staged a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, severely damaging the US Pacific Fleet. Rabaul overlooks Simpson Harbor, a considerable natural anchorage, and was ideal for the construction of airfields. For this purpose, liaison was established and during July and August ATIS furnished the Board with approximately 1,200 pages of translations. Before the operation against the Japanese at Hollandia, Dutch New Guinea, 41 st CIC Detachment Special Agent in Charge Duval Edwards at Finschhaven during March and April 1944 gave many lectures on the great importance of soldiers turning in any captured documents. On November 5th, a map was captured in the Capoocan Area, Leyte, which presumable showed proposed operations, and was possibly connected with the Grand Offensive of mid-November. White 1 would be the main landing, as it provided the only spot where the larger LSTs could land, while White 2 would be secured with smaller LVTs and DUKWs, which would be used to cross the shallow entrance to Jautefa Bay. MacArthur's rollback began with the 16 November 1942 22 January 1943 Battle of Buna-Gona. [5] During the Guadalcanal campaign a large quantity of documents were captured, including ones retrieved from the Japanese submarine I-1, just offshore.[6]. [7][8] Over the next year, the Japanese built up the area into a major air and naval base. 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. [24][25] The operation was the 24th Infantry Division's first combat assignment after home defense duties in Hawaii and training in Australia,[26] but the 41st Infantry Division had previously taken part in the fighting in New Guinea in 19421943. 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. [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. Interestingly, one of the Japanese operational orders provided the instructions Utmost precautions will be taken to conceal the plan., In mid-March agents of the 40th CIC Detachment captured on Panay Island and Negros Island incriminating documents of Panays puppet governor. 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. At the same time, two sketches were captured at Tacloban, Leyte, which showed the disposition of the Japanese 16th Division. The diary covered the period January 1942-January 1944. Rabaul became the forward base for the Japanese campaigns in mainland New Guinea, including the pivotal Kokoda Track campaign of July 1942 - January 1943, and the Battle of Buna-Gona. 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. There was also a small airstrip.To the west, the Cyclops Mountains rise to over 7000 feet (2100 m). JICPOA personnel also served, beginning in January 1945, at the Advance Intelligence Center (AIC), established at the CINCPAC Advance Headquarters at Guam. Pre-landing reconnaissance efforts were hampered by the destruction of the Australian scouting party that was landed in the area by submarine in late March, and the reality of the terrain was only discovered through aerial intelligence that arrived too late. [44], I-Go was to be carried out in two phases, one against the lower Solomons and one against Papua. As a result of immediate translation of the map, the 5th Air Force was informed and proceeded to destroy practically all of the barges. Horikoshi, upon arrival at ATIS, at first denied all knowledge of any atrocities but on being confronted with his diary, admitted that such things had occurred. In early January 1943, Japanese documents taken from the body of a sniper killed near Soputa, New Guinea, revealed the entire standing operating procedure of the Japanese in that area. After taking evasive routes to the west of the Admiralty Islands to avoid air attack,[42] the convoy turned back towards their objective late in the afternoon. On September 27, 1940, Japan signed the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy, thus entering the military alliance known as the "Axis."Seeking to curb Japanese aggression and force a withdrawal of Japanese forces from Manchuria and China, the United States . Allied casualties amounted to 157 killed and 1,057 wounded. Japanese makeshift bridges were attacked by P-40s with 500lb (230kg) bombs. The plane in which Fukudome was flying also crashed into the sea, near the island of Cebu. [8], The Japanese high command intended to hold Hollandia. Joining JICPOA once it became an inter-service organization were some 50 US Army Military Intelligence Service (MIS) Nisei linguists. Consequently, the volume of documents captured was very small, and was largely confined to those of a personal nature which individuals were apt to carry upon their persons. They included: No. Also captured on January 19th was a radio chart that was used by I Corps Signal officers to gain highly satisfactory results in the monitoring of Japanese radio communications. [4][32] The shortage of shipping meant that each ship had to be loaded as efficiently as possible, using a technique known as combat loading to ensure that the most important stores and equipment could be unloaded quickly. By the end of the war, ATIS had processed over 350,000 documents (or 1,680 cubic feet of records).[17]. These totaled 11,000 men under the command of General Masazumi Inada, Major General Toyozo Kitazono and Rear Admiral Yoshikazu Endo (Ninth Fleet). 102103, The Japanese drive to conquer all of New Guinea had been decisively stopped. West Papua is the western half of the island of New Guinea, formerly known as Dutch New Guinea. The admirals preferred to bypass the Philippines and take Formosa, which was much closer to Japan. [34], Wau is a village in the interior of the Papuan peninsula, approximately 50 kilometres (30mi) southwest of Salamaua. (1944), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=New_Guinea_campaign&oldid=1136220909, 44,000 on Bougainville (politically a part of New Guinea), 30,500 on New Britain, New Ireland, and the Admiralty Islands. [47], I-Go demonstrated that the Japanese command was not learning the lessons of air power that the Allies were. [46] Yamamoto then turned his attention to New Guinea: 94 planes struck Oro Bay on 11 April; 174 planes hit Port Moresby on 12 April; and in the largest raid of all, 188 aircraft struck Milne Bay on 14 April. Beleaguered, the survivors of the Japanese garrison were evacuated by submarine on the night of 26 October. [5] The first Nisei linguists were tested when the Marines invaded Guadalcanal on August 7, 1942 and flew prisoners of war and captured Japanese documents were sent a short distance away to New Caledonia for processing by the Nisei language team attached to Task Force 6814. In 1944, a CIC officer was detailed for liaison with ATIS for eventual duty as an instructor for CIC units. [53], Meanwhile, the infantry continued their advance inland. [25] But fighters did provide cover for the transports, and for bombers when their targets were within range. This discovery resulted in a hurried revision of the assault plans regarding these islands. The work contains a complete study on the collection, translation, and processing of captured documents. 1, List of Japanese Military Conventional Signs and Abbreviations (March 4, 1943); No. His contemplated offensive against Wau died a-borning. Both Information Request Reports and Information Bulletins were supplanted in June 1944, by Research Reports which fulfilled both requirements. Between the mountain ridge and the lake was a narrow plain where the Japanese had built a number of airfields; three had been constructed by April 1944 and a fourth was under construction. 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. Army units in the South Pacific were transferred to MacArthurs direct control in June, and the U.S. 13th Air Force was moved to the Southwest Pacific Area (SWPA) to form, with the U.S. 5th Air Force, the new Far Eastern Air Force, which was commanded by Gen. George C. Kenney in addition to his position as commander of Allied Air Forces SWPA. In New Guinea, U.S. and Australian infantry were moving along the northern coast, pushing the Japanese before them. [60] A total of 7,200 Japanese troops assembled at Genjem and then attempted to withdraw overland to Sarmi; only around 1,000 reached their destination. The air defences consisted of P-39 and P-40 fighters. Twelve of these were scheduled to be produced, beginning in March 1943. 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.. In response, on 8 March General Douglas MacArthur sought approval from the Joint Chiefs of Staff to bring forward the previously planned landings at Hollandia to 15 April. Other organizations were established throughout the Pacific Theater to translate and exploit the records. Allied troops set up 105mm howitzer in Depapre New Guinea 1944. 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