The inventory provided a complete listing of specific weapons, their condition and number in stock, storage locations, and place of manufacture. In February 1944, the Japanese devised a plan known as Z Plan to counter the American naval offensive and destroy the U.S. Pacific fleet. Meanwhile, on 30 March and continuing to 3 April these air forces attacked Hollandia itself and the airfields on the Sentani plain. 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. The unit was in effect a miniature ATIS, with various sections, coordinating the production of translation and interrogation reports of immediate operation value. A map, also captured on March 21st, and quickly translated, proved to be more accurate than maps possessed by the attacking forces. An airfield had been built there during an area gold rush in the 1920s and 1930s. 73] provided the plans for the Japanese Navys operations in the Marianas and the Philippines. The Battle of Coral Sea and the Battle of Midway in 1942 represented crucial losses for the Japanese and marked a turning point in the war. 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. The whole northern coast of the island was now in Allied hands and airfields from which bombers could strike the southern Philippines were soon in operation. The large majority of the defending Japanese troops there had uncharacteristically abandoned their positions and fled inland. [18]. The experience of the green US 32nd Infantry Division, just out of training camp and utterly unschooled in jungle warfare, was nearly disastrous. 14) was published and entitled Japanese Violations of the Laws of War. The report contained 28 pages of translations, each translation accompanied by a photostatic copy of the original document and authenticated under oath by the translator. 141, for example, contained random poems of a Prisoner of War. Among this cache were code books and a list of Japanese and German agents in the United States. By 1944 there were over 200 translators serving with JICPOA. 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. On 17 September, the Japanese had reached the village of Ioribaiwa, just 30 kilometres (20mi) from the Allied airdrome at Port Moresby. In February 1943, the first contingent of twenty graduates from the Navys Japanese Language School at Boulder, Colorado arrived at ICPOA and began interrogating prisoners of war and translating captured documents. Incidence of malaria was almost one hundred per cent. The first major collection of captured Japanese documents in the Pacific Theater was made in August 1942 when the 1st Marine Raider Battalion, under Col. Evans Carlson and Lt. Col. James Roosevelt, made a harassing raid on Makin Island in the Gilberts. On 24 April, the beach became more congested with the arrival of scheduled reinforcements and further equipment, as well as two transports and seven LSTs carrying troops, including the corps commander and his headquarters, which had been diverted from Tanahmerah Bay. [27] As the Japanese ground forces pressed toward Port Moresby, the Allied Air Forces struck supply points along the Kokoda Track. [7] The attack was designated Operation Reckless in recognition of the risks involved in carrying it out. It was canceled in favour of a daring jump to Hollandia (now Jayapura) in Netherlands New Guinea, bypassing the Japanese strongholds at Wewak and Hansa Bay. [23] The Australian and American anti-aircraft gunners of the Composite Anti-Aircraft Defences played a crucial part. Free shipping for many products! The Battle for Milne Bay was a small one as World War II engagements went, but very important. He was succeeded in September 1942, by Capt. After the cessation of hostilities, the War Crimes Echelon, a separate part of ATIS, was established. [25] But fighters did provide cover for the transports, and for bombers when their targets were within range. 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. Later, the procedure was altered again to cope with the tons of documents captured at main Japanese bases. [47], I-Go demonstrated that the Japanese command was not learning the lessons of air power that the Allies were. By the end of the war, ATIS had processed over 350,000 documents (or 1,680 cubic feet of records).[17]. The Navy played a crucial role in operations to take Japanese airfields. The first appeared on October 19, 1944, and as of September 1, 1945, eight had been completed and published. 117, Infringement of the Laws of War and Ethics by the Japanese Medical Corps, contains information on violations of the Geneva Convention on the rules of warfare and points out how, time and again, medical personnel put to death their own patients. [22] The cost to the Allied fighters was high. It contained details of the proposed landing of Tama Group (full strength of one division) at Ormoc, Leyte, on November 1st. Gen. Robert L. Eichelberger, previously commander of the U.S. The U.S. 24th Division's 19th and 21st Regimental Combat Teams (RCTs) were to land at Tanahmerah Bay. Wrecked Japanese planes litter Hollandia field, largely the victims of USAAF attacks earlier in the month (80-G-325109). Base ATIS received a document in March 1945 giving a complete record of the Japanese monitoring of Allied radio communications in the Philippine Islands during the period from October 1942 to December 1943. [16] See The National Archives Arthur Evarts Kimberly and the Allied Translator and Interpreter Sections Document Restoration Sub-Section, 1944-1945.. 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. [16] Only about 500 of the 11,000 personnel were ground combat troops, being drawn from several antiaircraft batteries. The Pacific Strategy, 1941-1944. Documents captured during the Philippine operations also proved useful. Their noses had been refitted with eight 50-caliber machine guns for strafing slow-moving ships on the high seas. 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 July 1944, incidental to the disclosure in ATIS documents and interrogations that a number of war crimes had been committed against Allied prisoners and non-combatants in the SWPA, the War Crimes Investigation Board was established under the Commanding General, US Army Forces Far East (USAFFE). 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. 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. [5] During the Guadalcanal campaign a large quantity of documents were captured, including ones retrieved from the Japanese submarine I-1, just offshore.[6]. This bombardment was augmented with air strikes from carrier-borne aircraft, while two destroyer-minesweepers, Long and Hogan, swept the bay ahead of the main landing force. 3 (Fall 2005). "Within a few days, the enemy was retreating from the Wau Valley, where he had suffered a serious defeat, harassed all the way back to Mubo"[37] About one week later, the Japanese completed their evacuation of Guadalcanal. 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. . MacArthur was further determined to conquer all of New Guinea in his progress toward the eventual recapture of the Philippines. The remote but crucial airfield lay 25 miles south/southeast of the port town of Salamaua. Also produced were ATIS Publications. 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 Japanese occupied the village with an initial force of 1,500 on 21 July and by 22 August had 11,430 men under arms at Buna. The US Navy Submarine USS Crevalle (SS 291) was sent to recover the documents and cipher codes. Todays post is by Dr. Greg Bradsher, Senior Archivist at the National Archives at College Park, Maryland. On December 7, 1941, Japan staged a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, severely damaging the US Pacific Fleet. Researchers should, of course, use the National Archives Catalog. On November 4th, a Japanese 16th Division Operations Order, dated October 31st, was captured. Current Translation No. Background. 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. They were prepared and distributed as a result of a specific need, and represented a form of publication for matters outside the usual range of translations and reports. Air and naval support consisted largely of U.S. assets, although Australia also provided air support during preliminary operations and a naval bombardment force. 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. 6, The Exploitation of Japanese Documents, dated December 14, 1944. 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. 7 was cancelled and no record is held that No. 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. The other landing would be made at Humboldt Bay by two RCTs (the 162nd and 186th) of the 41st Division. [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. Joining JICPOA once it became an inter-service organization were some 50 US Army Military Intelligence Service (MIS) Nisei linguists. [17] The Allied Translation and Interpreter Section (ATIS) estimated the average size of a captured document at 12 pages. This was done to fool the Japanese into believing that the documents had not been discovered by the Allies. Most important of all, the bombers of MacArthur's air forces, under the command of Lieutenant General George C. Kenney, had been modified to enable new offensive tactics. This deception effort proved successful. The naval command in the Southwest Pacific remained unchanged. I am estimating that a cubic foot of records is 2,500 pages. Base G played an important role as a staging area for subsequent operations in New Guinea and the Philippines. The Japanese had already captured Rabaul, the capital of the Australian-controlled territory of New Guinea, on 23 January 1942, and early in February Australian and Dutch forces surrendered the island of Ambon in the Netherlands East Indies (modern Indonesia). 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 battle was an unqualified success for the Allied forces, resulting in a withdrawal by the Japanese to a new strategic defense line in the west of New Guinea and the abandonment of all positions in the east of the island. They were special works, compiled for general reference purposes. "[19] Thus was the overland threat to Port Moresby permanently removed. The Joint Intelligence Center, Pacific Ocean Areas (JICPOA), had its origins in the Intelligence Center, Pacific Ocean Areas (ICPOA) which had been established on July 14, 1942 in Hawaii as Admiral Chester W. Nimitz intelligence center. The Allied Air Forces acted promptly on this information and sank both Japanese submarines and supply barges. Cushing, realizing the possible significance of the documents, notified his superiors who in turn notified the Allied Intelligence Bureau in Brisbane. [4][23], The main landings at Hollandia would be made at two locations. 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. Operations focused on attacking positions and seaborne traffic around Timor, Ambon, and the Kai and Aroe Islands. 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. Thompson sub machine-guns jammed with the gritty mud and were unreliable in the humid atmosphere ", John Vader, New Guinea: The Tide Is Stemmed, pp. Operation Reckless, the invasion of Hollandia and Aitape of 22-27 April 1944, was one of the most dramatic leapfrogging operations during the New Guinea campaign, and saw American forces bypass the strong Japanese bases at Wewak and Hansa Bay and capture key bases for MacArthur's planned return to the Philippines. 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 Kempei Tai (Japanese Military Police) headquarters they found numerous lists of names and evidence of collaboration and disloyalty to the Philippines and the United States.
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