World War II Day by Day

Hollandia and Aitape, Northern New Guinea • April 21–22, 1944

The Pacific War in New Guinea, the second largest island in the world after neigh­boring Aus­tra­lia, lasted from Janu­ary 1942 to several weeks past the sur­render of Japan on August 14, 1945. Japa­nese inva­ders set first foot in the Aus­tra­lian-admin­is­tered Man­dated Terri­tory of New Gui­nea, that is the north­eastern quad­rant of the island, on Janu­ary 23, 1942, then inva­ded North­western New Gui­nea (the Dutch half of the island and a portion of adjacent north­eastern New Gui­nea) begin­ning March 29/30, followed by a drawn-out attempt to over­run the south­western quad­rant of New Guinea, the Australian Territory of Papua, on July 21, 1942.

U.S. General Douglas MacArthur, since April 18, 1942, Supreme Com­mander of all Allied mili­tary forces in the South­west Pacific Area, was deter­mined to lib­er­ate the island of New Gui­nea as a stepping-stone to the recon­quest of the Amer­i­can Common­wealth of the Philip­pines, which fell to the south­ward-driving Japa­nese jugger­naut in May 1942. Mac­Arthur’s roll­back of Japa­nese con­quests along the north­western coast of New Gui­nea con­sisted of at least 10 major battles and sub­cam­paigns, and started with near simul­taneous amphib­ious landings in the Hollan­dia area early on this date, April 21, 1944, and the next morning at Aitape (see map below). The invaders met scant resis­tance due to most Japa­nese personnel fleeing the scene before the Americans’ arrival.

Dual landings near Hollandia (Operation Reck­less, 30,000 men) and a landing at Aitape (Oper­a­tion Perse­cu­tion, 22,500 men) were intended to iso­late the 20,000-man Japa­nese 18th Army garr­i­son and its air­base, the largest in main­land New Gui­nea, at Wewak to the south. Led by Lt. Gen. Hatazō Adachi, his weary and starving sol­diers had suffered severe losses at Lae and else­where on the jungle-covered, disease-ridden Huon Penin­sula. Licking their wounds they with­drew north­west to their Wewak base. Unex­pectedly they found them­selves stymied from falling even further back to Hollan­dia by Allied landings there and at Aitape, 113 miles closer to Wewak. The Battle of Driniu­mor River was Adachi’s attempt to recapture Aitape and join forces with the 2nd Area Army in West Papua that was sub­or­di­nated, like his, to the Japanese Southern Expedi­tionary Army Group headquartered in the Philippines.

The Battle of Driniumor River, aka Battle of Aitape (July 10 to August 25, 1944), was a slug­fest in which Adachi and 10,000 men under his com­mand came out the losers. On July 10–11 three Japa­nese regi­ments attacked and breached Amer­i­can lines on the Driniu­mor River, about 20 miles south of Aitape. The remainder of July saw heavy fighting on both river­banks. Fighting devolved into hand-to-hand com­bat and skir­mishes in the jungle until the enemy became a spent force. Adachi ordered a com­plete with­drawal toward Wewak on August 4. U.S. troops harassed Adachi’s rear­guard. Assisting the Amer­i­cans were U.S. and Austra­lian air­craft and naval fire­power. Battle casual­ties were roughly three times higher for the Japa­nese than the Americans’ 3,000, of which 440 were U.S. dead.

Following the Driniumor River drubbing, the Japa­nese 18th Army hun­kered down in their few strong­holds. Hunger, star­va­tion, tropi­cal dis­eases, and com­bat losses took their toll. In late 1944, as U.S. troops were released for ser­vice else­where in the South­west Pacific Thea­ter, leader­ship of the Western New Gui­nea Cam­paign passed to the Aus­tra­lians. Aussie “diggers” (sol­diers) began clearing Adachi rem­nants from coastal areas starting around Aitape and advancing east­ward to the Wewak area. On May 11, 1945, Adachi’s Wewak head­quarters fell. Offen­sive oper­a­tions con­tinued in the back­country until Adachi surren­dered his sword and men to the Aus­tra­lian 6th Army Divi­sion in a cere­mony near Wewak on Septem­ber 13, 1945. This cere­mony occurred 11 days after senior Japa­nese offi­cials had engaged in a far grander cere­mony stage-managed by Gen. Mac­Arthur aboard the battle­ship USS Missouri anchored in Tokyo Bay.

Western New Guinea Campaign, April 21, 1944, to September 13, 1945

Above: During the colonial period the tropical island of New Guin­ea was divided longi­tu­di­nally at the 141st meri­dian east between the Dutch in the west (today’s Indo­ne­sian pro­vince of West Papua), the Germans in the island’s north­east quad­rant, and the British in the south­east quad­rant. The German colony was con­verted by the League of Nations after World War I into a man­dated terri­tory admin­is­tered by Aus­tra­lia. On April 21 and 22, 1944, the U.S. and Aus­tra­lia con­tested the Japa­nese con­quest of the northern coast of New Guinea with near-simul­ta­neous landings in the area of Hollan­dia (renamed Jaya­pura in 1968), then and now the admin­ist­ra­tive capi­tal of West Papua, and Aitape in the Australian-mandated territory. Map source: Warfare History Network

Left: U.S. soldiers unload supplies at Aitape, April 1944. Seizing Aitape and nearby air­fields in what was part of the Austra­lian-admin­is­tered Terri­tory of New Guinea helped secure the flank of U.S. forces fighting around Hollan­dia (Jaya­pura), Dutch New Guinea, 123 miles to the east. Two years before, the Japa­nese had occu­pied the Aitape region as part of their south­ward advance through the South­west Pacific. Through­out 1943 and into 1944, U.S. and Austra­lian forces began a series of offen­sives in New Guinea in con­cert with U.S. efforts to reduce and even­tually neutral­ize the huge Japa­nese presence on the east­ern tip of nearby New Britain Island (see map above), at Rabaul. The Western New Gui­nea Cam­paign, during the course of which the Allies slowly gained ascen­dency over the enemy, was part of a gene­ral U.S. advance north­ward toward the Philip­pines, the Japa­nese-occupied Amer­i­can common­wealth of islands, that was planned for 1944 and 1945.

Right: Aerial view of landing craft unloading U.S. troops and equip­ment on Beach Red Two, Tanah­merah Bay, April 21, 1944. In mid-April a flo­tilla of 217 U.S. air­craft carriers, escort vessels, and inva­sion forces heading for the north-central coast of New Gui­nea split into two parts: 22,500 infantry­men in Oper­ation Perse­cu­tion headed toward Aitape while roughly 30,000 men in Oper­a­tion Reck­less headed toward the Hollan­dia area. The latter contin­gent steamed into Hum­boldt Bay and a landing zone 2.5 miles from Hollan­dia as well as to Tanah­merah Bay 25 miles east of Hollandia in the early morning hours of April 21, 1944. The latter’s inva­sion beaches were so poor due to mud as to require many of the troops to debark at Hum­boldt Bay the next day, April 22. Hollan­dia was secured on April 23, 1944, when resis­tance by an enemy force of 11,000 men quickly col­lapsed. Japa­nese casual­ties approached 3,300 killed and 600 wounded. Allied casual­ties amounted to 157 dead and 1,057 wounded. Roughly 7,200 enemy troops attempted to escape death or cap­ture, but only around 1,000 managed that feat. U.S. mopping up oper­a­tions lasted into early June 1944 as the Allies made further landings west of Hollan­dia along the northern coast. In mid-July around 20,000 sol­diers of the Japa­nese 18th Army launched their expected counter­attack (enemy radio mes­sages were read by Mac­Arthur’s crypt­an­a­lysts), resulting in a stag­gering number of Japa­nese casual­ties 20 miles east of Aitape during the Battle of Driniumor River.

Left: U.S. infantrymen patrol along a river near Aitape during the Battle of Driniu­mor River, aka Battle of Aitape. The aim of Lt. Gen. Hatazō Adachi’s 18th Army was to bust through U.S. lines and recap­ture Aitape and its stocks of food and muni­tions. The April 1944 landings at Aitape and Hollan­dia (Jaya­pura) had iso­lated Adachi’s head­quarters at Wewak from those of his supe­riors in the Philip­pines and from resupply. Between July 10 to August 25, 1944, Adachi’s origi­nal assault force of about 20,000 war­riors was reduced by nearly half (8,000–10,000 wounded, missing, and dead from com­bat, star­va­tion, or dis­ease) in all-out attacks, skir­mishes, and hand-to-hand fighting. After giving chase to the retreating foe, the Amer­i­cans called the battle in their favor, despite Driniu­mor River being the second most-costly Allied cam­paign in the eastern half of the island after the Battle of Buna-Gona six months earlier (November 1942 to January 1943).

Right: An Australian light machine gun team takes aim at the enemy near Wewak, June 27, 1945. By the end of com­bat in Septem­ber, most of Lt. Gen. Adachi’s Japa­nese 18th Army had been anni­hi­lated in the climac­tic epi­sode of the Western New Gui­nea Cam­paign, the Aus­tralian-led Aitape-Wewak cam­paign (Novem­ber 1944 to August 1945). From a 140,000-man force in 1943, barely 13,000 Japa­nese warriors were still alive when Adachi surren­dered his exhausted army to the battle-hardened Aus­tra­lian 6th Divi­sion on Septem­ber 13, 1945. Two years later Adachi, in Aus­tra­lian cus­tody, took his life, having been charged by a mili­tary tribu­nal with war crimes in con­nec­tion with mis­treat­ment and arbitrary execution of Allied POWs.

Battle for New Guinea, 1942–1945: Australian and U.S. Soldiers in Action