Landing at Saidor
Encyclopedia
The Landing at Saidor (Operation MICHAELMAS) was an Allied amphibious landing at Saidor, Papua New Guinea
on 2 January 1944 as part of Operation Dexterity
during World War II
. In Allied hands, Saidor was a stepping stone towards Madang
, the ultimate objective of General
Douglas MacArthur
's Huon Peninsula campaign
. The capture of the airstrip at Saidor also allowed construction of an air base to assist Allied air forces to conduct operations against Japanese bases at Wewak
and Hollandia
. But MacArthur's immediate objective was to cut off the 6,000 Imperial Japanese troops retreating from Sio
in the face of the Australian advance
from Finschhafen
. Following the landing at Saidor, the Japanese elected to retreat rather than fight, and withdrew over the foothills of the rugged Finisterre Range
. For the Japanese soldiers involved, the march was a nightmare, as they struggled through the jungles, across the swollen rivers, and over cliffs and mountains. Men succumbed to fatigue, disease, starvation, drowning, and even exposure, the nights in the Finisterres being bitterly cold. Hampered by the rugged terrain, inclement weather, signal failures, misunderstandings, over-caution, and above all the resolute and resourceful Japanese, US troops were unable to prevent large numbers of the retreating Japanese from slipping past them. After considerable construction effort in the face of wet weather, the air base was completed and proved useful. Whereas the base at Nadzab was surrounded by mountains and was therefore unsuited for missions that had to take off after dark, there was no such problem at Saidor. During March 1944, B-24 Liberator
bombers staged through Saidor for night attacks on Hollandia
.
in late 1943 and early 1944 was dominated by General
Douglas MacArthur
's Operation CARTWHEEL
, a series of operations directed at isolating and neutralising Rabaul
, the main base of the Imperial Japanese forces in the South West Pacific area. MacArthur's original ELKTON III plan called for Australian troops to capture first Lae
, then Finschhafen
, and finally Madang
with a combination of airborne and amphibious assaults. However, it was a long way from Finschhafen to Madang — 178 miles (286.5 km). Thinking in terms of a shore-to-shore operation, which would be limited in radius of action to the distance that landing craft
could sail in one night, the Commander of Allied Land Forces, General
Sir Thomas Blamey
recommended in August 1943 that an intermediate objective be seized first. Saidor was chosen as it had accessible beaches, a harbour, and a pre-war airstrip, and was allocated the GHQ codename MICHAELMAS. It was recognised that the capture of Saidor might make that of Madang unnecessary, as both could cover the Dampier
and Vitiaz Strait
s, and both would provide air bases close to the Japanese base at Wewak
. For the time being though, both were considered objectives.
The Battle of Finschhafen
prevented the early occupation of Saidor. The Japanese wrested back the initiative and threatened to derail MacArthur's strategy, but ultimately failed to dislodge the Australian 9th Division or prevent the occupation of the Finschhafen area. With the battle of Finschhafen won, the 9th Division initiated a pursuit of Lieutenant General
Hatazō Adachi
's retreating Japanese Eighteenth Army on 5 December 1943. Adachi was now in a difficult and precarious position, attempting to conduct a fighting withdrawal with his inland right flank vulnerable to attack from the Australian 7th Division in the Ramu Valley and his seaborne left flank open to amphibious assault. That he had an opportunity to destroy Adachi's army was not lost on MacArthur, who decided on 10 December that Saidor should be seized on or about 7 January, provided that Operation BACKHANDER
was proceeding satisfactorily. On 17 December, Lieutenant General
Walter Krueger
, the commander of the ALAMO Force, received orders setting a target date for Saidor of 2 January 1944.
but no longer required for the New Britain campaign. The assistant division commander, Brigadier General
Clarence A. Martin was appointed commander of MICHAELMAS Task Force, which was built around the 126th Infantry Regimental Combat Team. The 126th Regimental Combat Team had been rebuilt after the Battle of Buna-Gona
and had received six weeks' amphibious training in Australia and a further three weeks' training at Milne Bay. Units assigned to the task force were at Goodenough Island
, Milne Bay
, Oro Bay
, Lae
, Finschafen, Port Moresby
, Kiriwina
, Arawe
, Cape Cretin, and Australia
.
The mission of MICHAELMAS Task Force was to (1) seize the Saidor area; (2) establish facilities for a fighter group; (3) assist in the establishment of air forces in the area; (4) assist in the establishment of light naval forces in the area; and (5) construct minimal port and base facilities. Notably, it did not contain any explicit instruction to fight the Japanese. Lieutenant General
Frank Berryman's Australian II Corps would cooperate by exploitation along the coast, while the Australian 7th Division would contain Japanese forces in the Bogadjim area by fighting patrols.
Maps were supplied by the Australian Survey Corps
. There was insufficient time and opportunity for ground reconnaissance, so three beaches, codenamed Red, White, and Blue, on the west shore of Dekays Bay were chosen from aerial photographs. They proved to be "narrow, rocky and exposed to heavy seas". The intelligence staff at GHQ in Brisbane
believed that there were no more than 4,500 Japanese forward of Sio, and only 1,500 more between there and the Madang area. They estimated that it if the Japanese decided to counter-attack at Saidor, they would take a week to bring up 3,000 men. Accordingly, General Martin elected to dispense with a preliminary aerial bombardment. Removing this requirement permitted a dawn landing.
The assault troops with their supplies and equipment had to be loaded on board the ships on 31 December 1943, just five days after the assault on cape Gloucester. Rear Admiral
Daniel E. Barbey
's VII Amphibious Force allotted 6 Landing Ships, Tank (LSTs), 10 High speed transport
s (APDs) and 17 Landing Craft Infantry
(LCIs). A last minute hitch developed on 30 December when it was discovered that only nine APDs would be available. New embarkation tables were drawn up, shifting personnel not required in the assault waves to LCIs, and the landing schedule was revised in the light of the reduced number of landing craft.
The difficulty of simultaneously supplying operations at Saidor, Arawe, Long Island, and Cape Gloucester was sufficiently daunting for General Krueger to request for a postponement of the Saidor operation. But the commander of the Allied Naval Forces and the United States Seventh Fleet
, Vice Admiral
Thomas C. Kinkaid
assured MacArthur that enough supplies would be delivered, and MacArthur overruled Krueger. "I am most anxious that if humanly possible this operation take place as scheduled," MacArthur informed him, "Its capture will have a vital strategic effect which will be lost if materially postponed."
B-24 Liberator
s, B-25 Mitchell
s and A-20 Havocs bombed Saidor airstrip later that morning.
The first wave reached the shore at about 0730. The first four waves of landing craft — LCP(R)s from the APDs — arrived over the next 15 minutes. Each of the six LSTs in the assault towed a Landing Craft Mechanized
(LCM) of the 2nd Engineer Special Brigade; two carried bulldozers, two carried rocket equipped DUKWs, and two carried spare diesel fuel. The LCMs beached shortly before 0830 and the LSTs soon after. The Shore Battalion, 542nd Engineer Boat and Shore Regiment laid Australian ARC mesh
to provide a roadway across the beach for vehicles. All six LSTs were unloaded by 1145. There was little opposition. Eleven Japanese soldiers were killed by the naval bombardment or assault troops. Perhaps as many as 150 transient Japanese troops were in the Saidor area. all of whom fled into the interior. American D-Day casualties came to one soldier killed and five wound, and two sailors drowned. Nine Japanese Nakajima Ki-49
(Helen) aircraft, escorted by up to twenty A6M Zero
(Zeke) and Kawasaki Ki-61
(Tony) fighters bombed the beach area at 1630. There were three more air raids during the night, and 49 over the course of the month, but most were small.
General MacArthur announced the landing in his communiqué the next day:
Hitoshi Imamura
's Japanese Eighth Area Army headquarters at Rabaul
, the staff debated whether the 20th
and 51st
Divisions should attack Saidor or slip past it and join up with the rest of the Eighteenth Army at Wewak
. In view of the poor condition of the 20th and 51st Divisions, Imamura relieved the Eighteenth Army of responsibility for the Sio area and ordered Adachi to withdraw to Madang.
General Adachi had flown from Madang to the 51st Division's headquarters at Kiari in late December, and he received word of the landing at Saidor shortly before heading overland to the 20th Division's headquarters at Sio, where he received Imamura's orders. He placed Lieutenant General
Hidemitsu Nakano of the 51st Division in overall command of the forces east of Saidor and ordered the 41st Division to move from Wewak to Madang to defend that area. He then departed for Madang by submarine. To harass Saidor, he withdrew eight companies from Major General
Masutaro Nakai's force facing Major General
George Vasey's Australian 7th Division in the Finisterres. The Nakai force deployed along the Mot River around Gambumi. It succeeded in repelling American attempts to cross the river until 21 February, when it withdrew, its mission complete. However, weakening the Finisterres front provoked an Australian attack, resulting in the loss of the entire Kankirei position.
General Nakano organised the withdrawal of his force. He chose two routes, one following the coast and the other running along the ridge lines of the foothills of the Finisterres. Initially, the 20th Division was to take the coastal route while the 51st and some naval units took the inland one, but this was changed at the last minute and both divisions took the inland route. Additional rations and supplies were to be delivered by submarine. However, the 51st Division elected to move out rather than wait for the submarines and risk exhausting its rations through waiting. The 51st Division had experience crossing the mountains before, and Nakano was confident of its ability to negotiate them. In the event, one submarine was discovered by Allied aircraft and failed to reach its objective, while a second was discovered and sunk. A third got through but it was a small type that was only able to carry five tons of supplies, which were distributed among units of the 20th Division.
The difficulty of the march had been underestimated, and sick and wounded men had to make their way through trackless regions. Lieutenant General Kane Yoshihara, the Chief of Staff of the Eighteenth Army, recalled the march:
The first troops reached Madang on 8 February, and the whole movement was complete by 23 February. Eighteenth Army anticipated that units reaching Madang, would probably have lost much of their equipment, as was indeed the case, so stores were gathered together from distant Wewak and Hansa, and collected together near Madang. In addition emergency articles such as some food, shoes and clothing were collected near the mouth of Minderi River, supplied by the Nakai Detachment.
In his report, Krueger stated:
American patrols which attempted to reach the track in the Sindaman area encountered aggressive Japanese patrols. An observation post in the mountains at Mambit counted 965 Japanese troops passing through Yagoyoga between 6 and 10 February and 2,613 between 11 and 23 February. Perhaps another 1,000 passed through before 6 February. From prisoners of war, the Task Force built up a fairly complete and accurate picture of the identity and strength of the opposing Japanese forces. On 12 January, Martin received intelligence from ALAMO Force to the effect that the Japanese were concentrating around Sio, and would attempt to force their way through to Madang. In response to a request from General Martin for reinforcements, the 1st and 3rd Battalion Combat Teams of the 128th Infantry
were sent to reinforce Saidor, arriving on 16 January. Martin came to believe that an advance to the east and an attack on the withdrawing enemy would "provide an opportunity to destroy the Japanese before they could organise an attack on the Saidor position", but General Krueger did not immediately give General Martin permission for such an operation. There was still the possibility of Japanese attack, and the 32nd Infantry Division was required for the upcoming Hansa Bay
operation. On 20 January, a visiting staff officer from ALAMO Force was asked to raise the possibility with Krueger. However, on 21 January Martin received a letter stating that the mission of the Task Force remained unchanged and a radiogram
was received on 22 January to the effect that this was not consistent with Krueger's wishes. On 8 February, Martin received a garbled radiogram from Krueger that indicated that the earlier restrictive message of 22 January had itself been garbled, and on 9 February a radiogram was received authorising offensive action. Plans were immediately made but on 10 February contact was made with elements of the Australian 5th Division, which had relieved the 9th Division on 20 January. This closed the gap on the east flank.
and a driver were borrowed from the 114th Engineer Battalion to provide transportation. The officers did not know each other and therefore were unaware of each other's capabilities. As it turned out, none of them had experience with amphibious operations, and only one had experience in airbase construction, although this was to be their most important task.
Saidor had an existing grass civilian airstrip. Before they had abandoned Saidor in 1942, Australian troops had sabotaged the airstrip by digging trenches across the runway. These were quickly filled in, and the overgrown Kunai grass was knocked down by driving 2½-ton trucks
over it. By the afternoon of 4 January, 1800 feet (548.6 m) of runway was ready for use. A Piper Cub
took off from it the next day. The 863rd Engineer Aviation Battalion arrived on 9 January and improved the strip, permitting twelve C-47 Skytrain
s loaded with ammunition to land on 11 January. ALAMO Force wanted an all-weather runway 6000 feet (1,828.8 m) by 100 feet (30.5 m), preferably where a second, parallel runway could be constructed if need be. Construction of the second runway was requested by the Fifth Air Force
on 24 January. The 8th Engineer Squadron survey detachment laid out a new runway oriented about 10° from the existing airstrip. The Task Force engineer had the entire site stripped, leaving the subgrade
exposed. This was a serious error, as from 10 to 31 January there were only three days during which it did not rain, and 25 inches (635 mm) of rain fell over the period — quite normal for the time of year. As a result, construction was delayed. Gravel was taken from the Nankina River which was laid up to 0.7 foot (0.21336 m) deep and topped with crushed aggregate. The rains, and frequent rolling, gave a good water-bound surface. Part was sealed with Bitumen but delays caused by the weather prevented it all being sealed before being overlaid with Marston mats. The runway was declared ready for emergency landings on 4 February but the surface deteriorated under use. The runway was finally completed on 6 March. Construction of the taxiways and dispersal areas continued through April, with the airbase being complete and in operation on 7 May.
On 5 March, the engineers began construction of the bulk petroleum installation. Storage was provided for of avgas
in one tank and five tanks. A fuel jetty was constructed, allowing tankers to discharge into a pipeline which ran over a catwalk to the storage tanks. Work was completed on 8 April. Considerable effort had to be expended on road construction. The 808th Engineer Aviation Battalion had to be assigned to road work, the task being beyond the resources of the Shore Battalion. Gravel was laid up to 2 foot (0.6096 m) thick. By late January, the weather and damage to the roads by heavy military traffic forced the engineers to impose a ban on morning road use. By midday the sun had dried out the roads and traffic could resume. Initially, the Nakina River could be forded but the heavy seasonal rains turned it into a fast-flowing torrent. A portable bridge was flown in from Milne Bay and erected in a day but it took two weeks to construct the approaches. In the meantime the troops on the other side had to be supplied by water. To open up the most suitable area for camp sites, another bridge had to be erected over the Nakina. This was a permanent bridge with concrete abutments. A rise in the river level of 8 feet (2.4 m) complicated work, but the 112 feet (34.1 m) bridge opened to traffic on 17 February.
Local labour was supplied by an Australian New Guinea Administrative Unit
(ANGAU) detachment, initially consisting of eight Australian Army officers and eleven native police. A week after the landing, 199 native labourers were brought in from Lae. Initially, the ANGAU detachment found it difficult to lure the frightened local people in from the bush, but as the word spread that there was food and safety to be had within the American perimeter, large numbers began to walk in. ANGAU established a native settlement in the Biding River area. By 13 February, 680 native labourers were at work. They constructed camps for the Americans, carried supplies to units in the mountains and brought back the wounded, and worked in the hospital. ANGAU also carried out patrols, providing intelligence on the Japanese positions.
The amphibian engineers had brought six LCMs on the first day. These were joined by another six towed by the six LSTs that arrived on the second day. Unfortunately, within days the rocky beaches and reefs caused nine to be damaged so badly that they had to be sent back to Cape Cretin for repairs. Later in January, the rest of B Company, 542nd Engineer Boat and Shore Regiment was sent to Saidor. A 100 feet (30.5 m) lighter wharf was begun on 19 January and completed on 5 March. The unseasoned local timber used in its construction soon took a battering from heavily loaded barges bumping into them in high seas and had to be replaced with steel piles. A 330 feet (100.6 m) Liberty ship
wharf was completed on 6 May. Other construction activities included Jetties for servicing PT boat
s, landings for LSTs, a 250–bed hospital opened on 11 May, a quartermaster dump, and a staging area for 9,000.
. Its base at Nadzab was surrounded by mountains and was therefore unsuited for missions that had to take off after dark, but there was no such problem at Saidor. During March, B-24 Liberator
bombers staged through Saidor for night attacks on Hollandia
. A raid on Hollandia on 16 April 1944 encountered a weather front that closed Nadzab and the other fields in the Markham Valley. More than 30 aircraft made their way to Saidor. An F-5 Lightning and a B-25 Mitchell
collided on the runway, and two aircraft cracked up on landing, but the other aircraft that made it to Saidor eventually returned to their bases.
of New Guinea Force
reported to Blamey that MICHAELMAS Task Force appeared not to have made "any appreciable effort" to cut off the retreating Japanese. Sadly for the men of the 32nd Infantry Division, many of these Japanese would later have to be fought again under less advantageous circumstances in the Battle of Driniumor River
. Krueger officially terminated Operation DEXTERITY
, of which MICHAELMAS was a part, on 10 February 1944. All that remained now was the final act of the Huon Peninsula campaign
: the capture of Madang.
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...
on 2 January 1944 as part of Operation Dexterity
Operation Dexterity
Operation Dexterity was a military operation, part of Operation Cartwheel in the South West Pacific Area for the Allies in the Pacific theater of World War II...
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. In Allied hands, Saidor was a stepping stone towards Madang
Madang
Madang is the capital of Madang Province and is a town with a population of 27,420 on the north coast of Papua New Guinea. It was first settled by the Germans in the 19th century....
, the ultimate objective of General
General (United States)
In the United States Army, United States Air Force, and United States Marine Corps, general is a four-star general officer rank, with the pay grade of O-10. General ranks above lieutenant general and below General of the Army or General of the Air Force; the Marine Corps does not have an...
Douglas MacArthur
Douglas MacArthur
General of the Army Douglas MacArthur was an American general and field marshal of the Philippine Army. He was a Chief of Staff of the United States Army during the 1930s and played a prominent role in the Pacific theater during World War II. He received the Medal of Honor for his service in the...
's Huon Peninsula campaign
Huon Peninsula campaign
The Huon Peninsula campaign was a series of battles in the New Guinea campaign of the Second World War. Australian forces assaulted Japanese bases on the Huon Peninsula....
. The capture of the airstrip at Saidor also allowed construction of an air base to assist Allied air forces to conduct operations against Japanese bases at Wewak
Wewak
Wewak is the capital of the East Sepik province of Papua New Guinea. It is located on the northern coast of the island of New Guinea. It is the largest town between Madang and Jayapura. It is the see city of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Wewak....
and Hollandia
Jayapura
Jayapura City is the capital of Papua province, Indonesia, on the island of New Guinea. It is situated on Yos Sudarso Bay . Its approximate population in 2002 was 200,000....
. But MacArthur's immediate objective was to cut off the 6,000 Imperial Japanese troops retreating from Sio
Sio, Papua New Guinea
-History:A Lutheran mission station was established at Sio in 1910.The town was occupied by Imperial Japanese forces during World War II and was a major operating base...
in the face of the Australian advance
Battle of Sio
The Battle of Sio, fought between December 1943 and March 1944, was the breakout and pursuit phase of General Douglas MacArthur's Huon Peninsula campaign, part of the New Guinea campaign of World War II....
from Finschhafen
Finschhafen
Finschhafen is a district on the northeast coast of the Morobe province of Papua New Guinea. It is named after the port of the same name.The port was discovered in 1884 by the German researcher Otto Finsch. In 1885 the German colony of German New Guinea created a town on the site and named it...
. Following the landing at Saidor, the Japanese elected to retreat rather than fight, and withdrew over the foothills of the rugged Finisterre Range
Finisterre Range
Finisterre Range is a mountain range in north-eastern Papua New Guinea, at . The unnamed highest point of the range , which is ranked 45th in the world by prominence, is usually quoted at 4,175 m, but SRTM data suggests that it is nearer to 4,120 m...
. For the Japanese soldiers involved, the march was a nightmare, as they struggled through the jungles, across the swollen rivers, and over cliffs and mountains. Men succumbed to fatigue, disease, starvation, drowning, and even exposure, the nights in the Finisterres being bitterly cold. Hampered by the rugged terrain, inclement weather, signal failures, misunderstandings, over-caution, and above all the resolute and resourceful Japanese, US troops were unable to prevent large numbers of the retreating Japanese from slipping past them. After considerable construction effort in the face of wet weather, the air base was completed and proved useful. Whereas the base at Nadzab was surrounded by mountains and was therefore unsuited for missions that had to take off after dark, there was no such problem at Saidor. During March 1944, B-24 Liberator
B-24 Liberator
The Consolidated B-24 Liberator was an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and a small number of early models were sold under the name LB-30, for Land Bomber...
bombers staged through Saidor for night attacks on Hollandia
Jayapura
Jayapura City is the capital of Papua province, Indonesia, on the island of New Guinea. It is situated on Yos Sudarso Bay . Its approximate population in 2002 was 200,000....
.
Background
Fighting in the South West Pacific AreaSouth West Pacific Area
South West Pacific Area was the name given to the Allied supreme military command in the South West Pacific Theatre of World War II. It was one of four major Allied commands in the Pacific theatres of World War II, during 1942–45...
in late 1943 and early 1944 was dominated by General
General (United States)
In the United States Army, United States Air Force, and United States Marine Corps, general is a four-star general officer rank, with the pay grade of O-10. General ranks above lieutenant general and below General of the Army or General of the Air Force; the Marine Corps does not have an...
Douglas MacArthur
Douglas MacArthur
General of the Army Douglas MacArthur was an American general and field marshal of the Philippine Army. He was a Chief of Staff of the United States Army during the 1930s and played a prominent role in the Pacific theater during World War II. He received the Medal of Honor for his service in the...
's Operation CARTWHEEL
Operation Cartwheel
Operation Cartwheel was a major military strategy for the Allies in the Pacific theater of World War II. Cartwheel was a twin-axis of advance operation, aimed at militarily neutralizing the major Japanese base at Rabaul...
, a series of operations directed at isolating and neutralising Rabaul
Rabaul
Rabaul is a township in East New Britain province, Papua New Guinea. The town was the provincial capital and most important settlement in the province until it was destroyed in 1994 by falling ash of a volcanic eruption. During the eruption, ash was sent thousands of metres into the air and the...
, the main base of the Imperial Japanese forces in the South West Pacific area. MacArthur's original ELKTON III plan called for Australian troops to capture first Lae
Lae
Lae, the capital of Morobe Province, is the second-largest city in Papua New Guinea. It is located at the start of the Highlands Highway which is the main land transport corridor from the Highlands region to the coast...
, then Finschhafen
Finschhafen
Finschhafen is a district on the northeast coast of the Morobe province of Papua New Guinea. It is named after the port of the same name.The port was discovered in 1884 by the German researcher Otto Finsch. In 1885 the German colony of German New Guinea created a town on the site and named it...
, and finally Madang
Madang
Madang is the capital of Madang Province and is a town with a population of 27,420 on the north coast of Papua New Guinea. It was first settled by the Germans in the 19th century....
with a combination of airborne and amphibious assaults. However, it was a long way from Finschhafen to Madang — 178 miles (286.5 km). Thinking in terms of a shore-to-shore operation, which would be limited in radius of action to the distance that landing craft
Landing craft
Landing craft are boats and seagoing vessels used to convey a landing force from the sea to the shore during an amphibious assault. Most renowned are those used to storm the beaches of Normandy, the Mediterranean, and many Pacific islands during WWII...
could sail in one night, the Commander of Allied Land Forces, General
General (Australia)
General is the second highest rank, and the highest active rank, of the Australian Army and was created as a direct equivalent of the British military rank of General; it is also considered a four-star rank....
Sir Thomas Blamey
Thomas Blamey
Field Marshal Sir Thomas Albert Blamey GBE, KCB, CMG, DSO, ED was an Australian general of the First and Second World Wars, and the only Australian to date to attain the rank of field marshal....
recommended in August 1943 that an intermediate objective be seized first. Saidor was chosen as it had accessible beaches, a harbour, and a pre-war airstrip, and was allocated the GHQ codename MICHAELMAS. It was recognised that the capture of Saidor might make that of Madang unnecessary, as both could cover the Dampier
Dampier Strait (Papua New Guinea)
Dampier Strait in Papua New Guinea separates Umboi Island and New Britain, linking the Bismarck Sea to the north with the Solomon Sea to the south, at ....
and Vitiaz Strait
Vitiaz Strait
Vitiaz Strait is a strait between New Britain and the Huon Peninsula, northern New Guinea .The Vitiaz Strait was so named by Nicholai Nicholaievich Mikluho-Maklai to commemorate the Russian corvette Vitiaz in which he sailed from October 1870 by way of South America and the Pacific Islands reaching...
s, and both would provide air bases close to the Japanese base at Wewak
Wewak
Wewak is the capital of the East Sepik province of Papua New Guinea. It is located on the northern coast of the island of New Guinea. It is the largest town between Madang and Jayapura. It is the see city of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Wewak....
. For the time being though, both were considered objectives.
The Battle of Finschhafen
Battle of Finschhafen
The Battle of Finschhafen was part of the Huon Peninsula campaign during the Second World War between September and October 1943 between Australian and Japanese forces...
prevented the early occupation of Saidor. The Japanese wrested back the initiative and threatened to derail MacArthur's strategy, but ultimately failed to dislodge the Australian 9th Division or prevent the occupation of the Finschhafen area. With the battle of Finschhafen won, the 9th Division initiated a pursuit of Lieutenant General
Lieutenant General
Lieutenant General is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages where the title of Lieutenant General was held by the second in command on the battlefield, who was normally subordinate to a Captain General....
Hatazō Adachi
Hatazo Adachi
was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II.-Early career:Adachi was born into an impoverished samurai family in Ishikawa Prefecture in 1890...
's retreating Japanese Eighteenth Army on 5 December 1943. Adachi was now in a difficult and precarious position, attempting to conduct a fighting withdrawal with his inland right flank vulnerable to attack from the Australian 7th Division in the Ramu Valley and his seaborne left flank open to amphibious assault. That he had an opportunity to destroy Adachi's army was not lost on MacArthur, who decided on 10 December that Saidor should be seized on or about 7 January, provided that Operation BACKHANDER
Battle of Cape Gloucester
The Battle of Cape Gloucester was a battle in the Pacific theater of World War II, which took place between late December 1943 and April 1944, on the island of New Britain, part of the Territory of New Guinea....
was proceeding satisfactorily. On 17 December, Lieutenant General
Lieutenant General (United States)
In the United States Army, the United States Air Force and the United States Marine Corps, lieutenant general is a three-star general officer rank, with the pay grade of O-9. Lieutenant general ranks above major general and below general...
Walter Krueger
Walter Krueger
Walter Krueger was an American soldier of German descent and General in the first half of the 20th century. He is best known for his command of the Sixth United States Army in the South West Pacific Area during World War II...
, the commander of the ALAMO Force, received orders setting a target date for Saidor of 2 January 1944.
Preparation
General Krueger selected the 32nd Infantry Division for the Saidor operation as it was at Goodenough IslandGoodenough Island
Goodenough Island in the Solomon Sea is the westernmost of the three large islands of the D'Entrecasteaux Islands in Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea. It lies to the east of mainland New Guinea and south west of the Trobriand Islands.It should not be confused with Goodenough's Island...
but no longer required for the New Britain campaign. The assistant division commander, Brigadier General
Brigadier general (United States)
A brigadier general in the United States Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps, is a one-star general officer, with the pay grade of O-7. Brigadier general ranks above a colonel and below major general. Brigadier general is equivalent to the rank of rear admiral in the other uniformed...
Clarence A. Martin was appointed commander of MICHAELMAS Task Force, which was built around the 126th Infantry Regimental Combat Team. The 126th Regimental Combat Team had been rebuilt after the Battle of Buna-Gona
Battle of Buna-Gona
The Battle of Buna–Gona was a battle in the New Guinea campaign, a major part of the Pacific campaign of World War II. On 16 November 1942, Australian and United States forces attacked the main Japanese beachheads in New Guinea, at Buna, Sanananda and Gona. Both forces were riddled by disease and...
and had received six weeks' amphibious training in Australia and a further three weeks' training at Milne Bay. Units assigned to the task force were at Goodenough Island
Goodenough Island
Goodenough Island in the Solomon Sea is the westernmost of the three large islands of the D'Entrecasteaux Islands in Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea. It lies to the east of mainland New Guinea and south west of the Trobriand Islands.It should not be confused with Goodenough's Island...
, Milne Bay
Milne Bay
Milne Bay is a large bay in Milne Bay Province, southeastern Papua New Guinea. The bay is named after Sir Alexander Milne.The area was a site of the Battle of Milne Bay in 1942....
, Oro Bay
Oro Bay
Oro Bay is a bay in Oro Province, Papua New Guinea, located southeast of Buna. The bay is located within the larger Dyke Ackland Bay. A port is operated by PNG Ports Corporation Limited with limited wharf facilities.-History:...
, Lae
Lae
Lae, the capital of Morobe Province, is the second-largest city in Papua New Guinea. It is located at the start of the Highlands Highway which is the main land transport corridor from the Highlands region to the coast...
, Finschafen, Port Moresby
Port Moresby
Port Moresby , or Pot Mosbi in Tok Pisin, is the capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea . It is located on the shores of the Gulf of Papua, on the southeastern coast of the island of New Guinea, which made it a prime objective for conquest by the Imperial Japanese forces during 1942–43...
, Kiriwina
Kiriwina
Kiriwina is the largest of the Trobriand Islands, with an area of 290.5 km². It is part of the Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea. Most of the 12,000 people who live in the Trobriands live on Kiriwina. The Kilivila language, also known as Kiriwina, is spoken on the island...
, Arawe
Arawe
Arawe is located on the south coast of New Britain about from Cape Gloucester. A small harbour known as Arawe harbour provides an anchorage....
, Cape Cretin, and Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
.
Lieutenant General (Australia)
Lieutenant general is the second-highest active rank of the Australian Army and was created as a direct equivalent of the British military rank of lieutenant general. It is also considered a three-star rank....
Frank Berryman's Australian II Corps would cooperate by exploitation along the coast, while the Australian 7th Division would contain Japanese forces in the Bogadjim area by fighting patrols.
Maps were supplied by the Australian Survey Corps
Royal Australian Survey Corps
The Royal Australian Survey Corps was a Corps of the Australian Army that was formed on 1 July 1915 and disbanded on 1 July 1996. The Historical Collection of the Survey Corps is maintained by the at the School of Military Engineering, Steele Barracks, Moorebank, Sydney, New South Wales...
. There was insufficient time and opportunity for ground reconnaissance, so three beaches, codenamed Red, White, and Blue, on the west shore of Dekays Bay were chosen from aerial photographs. They proved to be "narrow, rocky and exposed to heavy seas". The intelligence staff at GHQ in Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
believed that there were no more than 4,500 Japanese forward of Sio, and only 1,500 more between there and the Madang area. They estimated that it if the Japanese decided to counter-attack at Saidor, they would take a week to bring up 3,000 men. Accordingly, General Martin elected to dispense with a preliminary aerial bombardment. Removing this requirement permitted a dawn landing.
The assault troops with their supplies and equipment had to be loaded on board the ships on 31 December 1943, just five days after the assault on cape Gloucester. Rear Admiral
Rear admiral (United States)
Rear admiral is a naval commissioned officer rank above that of a commodore and captain, and below that of a vice admiral. The uniformed services of the United States are unique in having two grades of rear admirals.- Rear admiral :...
Daniel E. Barbey
Daniel E. Barbey
Vice Admiral Daniel Edward Barbey was an officer in the United States Navy who served in World War I and World War II. A graduate of the Naval Academy, he participated in the 1912 United States occupation of Nicaragua and the 1915 United States occupation of Veracruz. While serving with the War...
's VII Amphibious Force allotted 6 Landing Ships, Tank (LSTs), 10 High speed transport
High speed transport
High Speed Transports were converted destroyers and destroyer escorts used to support amphibious operations in World War II and afterward. They received the US Hull classification symbol APD; "AP" for transport and "D" for destroyer....
s (APDs) and 17 Landing Craft Infantry
Landing Craft Infantry
The Landing craft, Infantry or LCI were several classes of sea-going amphibious assault ships of the Second World War utilized to land large numbers of infantry directly onto beaches. They were developed in response to a British request for a vessel capable of carrying and landing substantially...
(LCIs). A last minute hitch developed on 30 December when it was discovered that only nine APDs would be available. New embarkation tables were drawn up, shifting personnel not required in the assault waves to LCIs, and the landing schedule was revised in the light of the reduced number of landing craft.
The difficulty of simultaneously supplying operations at Saidor, Arawe, Long Island, and Cape Gloucester was sufficiently daunting for General Krueger to request for a postponement of the Saidor operation. But the commander of the Allied Naval Forces and the United States Seventh Fleet
United States Seventh Fleet
The Seventh Fleet is the United States Navy's permanent forward projection force based in Yokosuka, Japan, with units positioned near Japan and South Korea. It is a component fleet force under the United States Pacific Fleet. At present, it is the largest of the forward-deployed U.S. fleets, with...
, Vice Admiral
Vice admiral (United States)
In the United States Navy, the United States Coast Guard, the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Corps, and the United States Maritime Service, vice admiral is a three-star flag officer, with the pay grade of...
Thomas C. Kinkaid
Thomas C. Kinkaid
Thomas Cassin Kinkaid was an admiral in the United States Navy during World War II. He built a reputation as a "fighting admiral" in the aircraft carrier battles of 1942 and commanded the Allied forces in the Aleutian Islands Campaign...
assured MacArthur that enough supplies would be delivered, and MacArthur overruled Krueger. "I am most anxious that if humanly possible this operation take place as scheduled," MacArthur informed him, "Its capture will have a vital strategic effect which will be lost if materially postponed."
Landing
The ships and landing craft arrived in Dekays Bay before dawn on 2 January 1944 to find the shore obscured by low hanging cloud and drizzling rain. Admiral Barbey postponed H-Hour from 0650 to 0705 to provide more light for the naval bombardment, and then to 0725 to allow the landing craft more time to form up. Destroyers fired 1,725 5-inch rounds, while rocket equipped LCIs fired 624 4.5-inch rockets. There was no concurrent aerial bombardment, but Fifth Air ForceFifth Air Force
The Fifth Air Force is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force Pacific Air Forces . It is headquartered at Yokota Air Base, Japan....
B-24 Liberator
B-24 Liberator
The Consolidated B-24 Liberator was an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and a small number of early models were sold under the name LB-30, for Land Bomber...
s, B-25 Mitchell
B-25 Mitchell
The North American B-25 Mitchell was an American twin-engined medium bomber manufactured by North American Aviation. It was used by many Allied air forces, in every theater of World War II, as well as many other air forces after the war ended, and saw service across four decades.The B-25 was named...
s and A-20 Havocs bombed Saidor airstrip later that morning.
Landing Craft Mechanized
The Landing Craft Mechanized or Landing Craft Mechanical was a landing craft designed for carrying vehicles. They came to prominence during the Second World War when they were used to land troops or tanks during Allied amphibious assaults....
(LCM) of the 2nd Engineer Special Brigade; two carried bulldozers, two carried rocket equipped DUKWs, and two carried spare diesel fuel. The LCMs beached shortly before 0830 and the LSTs soon after. The Shore Battalion, 542nd Engineer Boat and Shore Regiment laid Australian ARC mesh
Mesh
Mesh consists of semi-permeable barrier made of connected strands of metal, fiber, or other flexible/ductile material. Mesh is similar to web or net in that it has many attached or woven strands.-Types of mesh:...
to provide a roadway across the beach for vehicles. All six LSTs were unloaded by 1145. There was little opposition. Eleven Japanese soldiers were killed by the naval bombardment or assault troops. Perhaps as many as 150 transient Japanese troops were in the Saidor area. all of whom fled into the interior. American D-Day casualties came to one soldier killed and five wound, and two sailors drowned. Nine Japanese Nakajima Ki-49
Nakajima Ki-49
|-See also:-References:NotesBibliography* Bueschel, Richard M. Nakajima Ki-49 Donryu in Japanese Army Air Force Service. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing Ltd., 2004. ISBN 0-76430-344-9....
(Helen) aircraft, escorted by up to twenty A6M Zero
A6M Zero
The Mitsubishi A6M Zero was a long-range fighter aircraft operated by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service from 1940 to 1945. The A6M was designated as the , and also designated as the Mitsubishi A6M Rei-sen and Mitsubishi Navy 12-shi Carrier Fighter. The A6M was usually referred to by the...
(Zeke) and Kawasaki Ki-61
Kawasaki Ki-61
The Kawasaki Ki-61 Hien was a Japanese World War II fighter aircraft used by the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force...
(Tony) fighters bombed the beach area at 1630. There were three more air raids during the night, and 49 over the course of the month, but most were small.
General MacArthur announced the landing in his communiqué the next day:
Japanese response
Since October 1943, the Japanese strategy had been to conduct a fighting withdrawal in the face of MacArthur's advance that would "trade position, to the end that the enemy offensive will be crushed as far forward as possible under the accumulation of losses". At GeneralGeneral
A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....
Hitoshi Imamura
Hitoshi Imamura
-External links:...
's Japanese Eighth Area Army headquarters at Rabaul
Rabaul
Rabaul is a township in East New Britain province, Papua New Guinea. The town was the provincial capital and most important settlement in the province until it was destroyed in 1994 by falling ash of a volcanic eruption. During the eruption, ash was sent thousands of metres into the air and the...
, the staff debated whether the 20th
20th Division (Imperial Japanese Army)
was an infantry division in the Imperial Japanese Army. Its call sign was the .-History:The 20th Division and the 19th Division were raised on 24 December 1915 as a garrison force for Korea. After Japan's victory in the Russo-Japanese War, and subsequent occupation, and then annexation of Korea,...
and 51st
51st Division (Imperial Japanese Army)
The 51st Division was an infantry division of the Imperial Japanese Army. It was formed on 10 July 1940 at Utsunomiya, Tochigi, and was assigned to the Eastern District Army. Under the command of Lieutenant General Kenichiro Ueno, upon formation the division's infantry group consisted of three...
Divisions should attack Saidor or slip past it and join up with the rest of the Eighteenth Army at Wewak
Wewak
Wewak is the capital of the East Sepik province of Papua New Guinea. It is located on the northern coast of the island of New Guinea. It is the largest town between Madang and Jayapura. It is the see city of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Wewak....
. In view of the poor condition of the 20th and 51st Divisions, Imamura relieved the Eighteenth Army of responsibility for the Sio area and ordered Adachi to withdraw to Madang.
Lieutenant General
Lieutenant General is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages where the title of Lieutenant General was held by the second in command on the battlefield, who was normally subordinate to a Captain General....
Hidemitsu Nakano of the 51st Division in overall command of the forces east of Saidor and ordered the 41st Division to move from Wewak to Madang to defend that area. He then departed for Madang by submarine. To harass Saidor, he withdrew eight companies from Major General
Major General
Major general or major-general is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. A major general is a high-ranking officer, normally subordinate to the rank of lieutenant general and senior to the ranks of brigadier and brigadier general...
Masutaro Nakai's force facing Major General
Major General (Australia)
Major General is a senior rank of the Australian Army, and was created as a direct equivalent of the British military rank of Major General. It is the third-highest active rank of the Australian Army, and is considered to be equivalent to a two-star rank...
George Vasey's Australian 7th Division in the Finisterres. The Nakai force deployed along the Mot River around Gambumi. It succeeded in repelling American attempts to cross the river until 21 February, when it withdrew, its mission complete. However, weakening the Finisterres front provoked an Australian attack, resulting in the loss of the entire Kankirei position.
General Nakano organised the withdrawal of his force. He chose two routes, one following the coast and the other running along the ridge lines of the foothills of the Finisterres. Initially, the 20th Division was to take the coastal route while the 51st and some naval units took the inland one, but this was changed at the last minute and both divisions took the inland route. Additional rations and supplies were to be delivered by submarine. However, the 51st Division elected to move out rather than wait for the submarines and risk exhausting its rations through waiting. The 51st Division had experience crossing the mountains before, and Nakano was confident of its ability to negotiate them. In the event, one submarine was discovered by Allied aircraft and failed to reach its objective, while a second was discovered and sunk. A third got through but it was a small type that was only able to carry five tons of supplies, which were distributed among units of the 20th Division.
The difficulty of the march had been underestimated, and sick and wounded men had to make their way through trackless regions. Lieutenant General Kane Yoshihara, the Chief of Staff of the Eighteenth Army, recalled the march:
The first troops reached Madang on 8 February, and the whole movement was complete by 23 February. Eighteenth Army anticipated that units reaching Madang, would probably have lost much of their equipment, as was indeed the case, so stores were gathered together from distant Wewak and Hansa, and collected together near Madang. In addition emergency articles such as some food, shoes and clothing were collected near the mouth of Minderi River, supplied by the Nakai Detachment.
Junction with the Australians
American patrols which attempted to reach the track in the Sindaman area encountered aggressive Japanese patrols. An observation post in the mountains at Mambit counted 965 Japanese troops passing through Yagoyoga between 6 and 10 February and 2,613 between 11 and 23 February. Perhaps another 1,000 passed through before 6 February. From prisoners of war, the Task Force built up a fairly complete and accurate picture of the identity and strength of the opposing Japanese forces. On 12 January, Martin received intelligence from ALAMO Force to the effect that the Japanese were concentrating around Sio, and would attempt to force their way through to Madang. In response to a request from General Martin for reinforcements, the 1st and 3rd Battalion Combat Teams of the 128th Infantry
128th Infantry Regiment (United States)
The 128th Infantry Regiment is a United States military unit of the Wisconsin National Guard. The 128th has served as part of the American Civil War, Spanish-American War, Mexican Civil War, World War I, World War II and the Iraq War....
were sent to reinforce Saidor, arriving on 16 January. Martin came to believe that an advance to the east and an attack on the withdrawing enemy would "provide an opportunity to destroy the Japanese before they could organise an attack on the Saidor position", but General Krueger did not immediately give General Martin permission for such an operation. There was still the possibility of Japanese attack, and the 32nd Infantry Division was required for the upcoming Hansa Bay
Hansa Bay
Hansa Bay is a bay located on the north coast of Papua New Guinea, in Madang Province, between Madang and Wewak, north east of Bogia.- World War II history :...
operation. On 20 January, a visiting staff officer from ALAMO Force was asked to raise the possibility with Krueger. However, on 21 January Martin received a letter stating that the mission of the Task Force remained unchanged and a radiogram
Radiogram
A radiogram is an instance of formal written message traffic routed by a network of amateur radio operators through traffic nets.It is a plaintext message, along with relevant metadata , that is placed into a traffic net by an amateur radio operator...
was received on 22 January to the effect that this was not consistent with Krueger's wishes. On 8 February, Martin received a garbled radiogram from Krueger that indicated that the earlier restrictive message of 22 January had itself been garbled, and on 9 February a radiogram was received authorising offensive action. Plans were immediately made but on 10 February contact was made with elements of the Australian 5th Division, which had relieved the 9th Division on 20 January. This closed the gap on the east flank.
Base Development
With a large construction programme, engineers made up 29.3% of MICHAELMAS Task Force. An Engineer Section headquarters was organised on 24 December 1943, only nine days before D-Day, consisting of five officers and five enlisted men. Later a jeepJeep
Jeep is an automobile marque of Chrysler . The first Willys Jeeps were produced in 1941 with the first civilian models in 1945, making it the oldest off-road vehicle and sport utility vehicle brand. It inspired a number of other light utility vehicles, such as the Land Rover which is the second...
and a driver were borrowed from the 114th Engineer Battalion to provide transportation. The officers did not know each other and therefore were unaware of each other's capabilities. As it turned out, none of them had experience with amphibious operations, and only one had experience in airbase construction, although this was to be their most important task.
Saidor had an existing grass civilian airstrip. Before they had abandoned Saidor in 1942, Australian troops had sabotaged the airstrip by digging trenches across the runway. These were quickly filled in, and the overgrown Kunai grass was knocked down by driving 2½-ton trucks
GMC CCKW
The GMC CCKW is a 2½ ton 6X6 U.S. Army cargo truck that saw service in World War II and the Korean War, often incorrectly referred to as a "Deuce and a Half" or "Jimmy"...
over it. By the afternoon of 4 January, 1800 feet (548.6 m) of runway was ready for use. A Piper Cub
Piper J-3
The Piper J-3 Cub is a small, simple, light aircraft that was built between 1937 and 1947 by Piper Aircraft. With tandem seating, it was intended for flight training but became one of the most popular and best-known light aircraft of all time...
took off from it the next day. The 863rd Engineer Aviation Battalion arrived on 9 January and improved the strip, permitting twelve C-47 Skytrain
C-47 Skytrain
The Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota is a military transport aircraft that was developed from the Douglas DC-3 airliner. It was used extensively by the Allies during World War II and remained in front line operations through the 1950s with a few remaining in operation to this day.-Design and...
s loaded with ammunition to land on 11 January. ALAMO Force wanted an all-weather runway 6000 feet (1,828.8 m) by 100 feet (30.5 m), preferably where a second, parallel runway could be constructed if need be. Construction of the second runway was requested by the Fifth Air Force
Fifth Air Force
The Fifth Air Force is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force Pacific Air Forces . It is headquartered at Yokota Air Base, Japan....
on 24 January. The 8th Engineer Squadron survey detachment laid out a new runway oriented about 10° from the existing airstrip. The Task Force engineer had the entire site stripped, leaving the subgrade
Subgrade
In transport engineering, subgrade is the native material underneath a constructed road, pavement or railway track. It is also called formation level.The term can also refer to imported material that has been used to build an embankment....
exposed. This was a serious error, as from 10 to 31 January there were only three days during which it did not rain, and 25 inches (635 mm) of rain fell over the period — quite normal for the time of year. As a result, construction was delayed. Gravel was taken from the Nankina River which was laid up to 0.7 foot (0.21336 m) deep and topped with crushed aggregate. The rains, and frequent rolling, gave a good water-bound surface. Part was sealed with Bitumen but delays caused by the weather prevented it all being sealed before being overlaid with Marston mats. The runway was declared ready for emergency landings on 4 February but the surface deteriorated under use. The runway was finally completed on 6 March. Construction of the taxiways and dispersal areas continued through April, with the airbase being complete and in operation on 7 May.
On 5 March, the engineers began construction of the bulk petroleum installation. Storage was provided for of avgas
Avgas
Avgas is an aviation fuel used to power piston-engine aircraft. Avgas is distinguished from mogas , which is the everyday gasoline used in cars and some non-commercial light aircraft...
in one tank and five tanks. A fuel jetty was constructed, allowing tankers to discharge into a pipeline which ran over a catwalk to the storage tanks. Work was completed on 8 April. Considerable effort had to be expended on road construction. The 808th Engineer Aviation Battalion had to be assigned to road work, the task being beyond the resources of the Shore Battalion. Gravel was laid up to 2 foot (0.6096 m) thick. By late January, the weather and damage to the roads by heavy military traffic forced the engineers to impose a ban on morning road use. By midday the sun had dried out the roads and traffic could resume. Initially, the Nakina River could be forded but the heavy seasonal rains turned it into a fast-flowing torrent. A portable bridge was flown in from Milne Bay and erected in a day but it took two weeks to construct the approaches. In the meantime the troops on the other side had to be supplied by water. To open up the most suitable area for camp sites, another bridge had to be erected over the Nakina. This was a permanent bridge with concrete abutments. A rise in the river level of 8 feet (2.4 m) complicated work, but the 112 feet (34.1 m) bridge opened to traffic on 17 February.
Local labour was supplied by an Australian New Guinea Administrative Unit
Australian New Guinea Administrative Unit
The Australian New Guinea Administrative Unit was a civil administration of Territory of Papua and the Mandated Territory of New Guinea formed on 21 March 1942 during World War II...
(ANGAU) detachment, initially consisting of eight Australian Army officers and eleven native police. A week after the landing, 199 native labourers were brought in from Lae. Initially, the ANGAU detachment found it difficult to lure the frightened local people in from the bush, but as the word spread that there was food and safety to be had within the American perimeter, large numbers began to walk in. ANGAU established a native settlement in the Biding River area. By 13 February, 680 native labourers were at work. They constructed camps for the Americans, carried supplies to units in the mountains and brought back the wounded, and worked in the hospital. ANGAU also carried out patrols, providing intelligence on the Japanese positions.
The amphibian engineers had brought six LCMs on the first day. These were joined by another six towed by the six LSTs that arrived on the second day. Unfortunately, within days the rocky beaches and reefs caused nine to be damaged so badly that they had to be sent back to Cape Cretin for repairs. Later in January, the rest of B Company, 542nd Engineer Boat and Shore Regiment was sent to Saidor. A 100 feet (30.5 m) lighter wharf was begun on 19 January and completed on 5 March. The unseasoned local timber used in its construction soon took a battering from heavily loaded barges bumping into them in high seas and had to be replaced with steel piles. A 330 feet (100.6 m) Liberty ship
Liberty ship
Liberty ships were cargo ships built in the United States during World War II. Though British in conception, they were adapted by the U.S. as they were cheap and quick to build, and came to symbolize U.S. wartime industrial output. Based on vessels ordered by Britain to replace ships torpedoed by...
wharf was completed on 6 May. Other construction activities included Jetties for servicing PT boat
PT boat
PT Boats were a variety of motor torpedo boat , a small, fast vessel used by the United States Navy in World War II to attack larger surface ships. The PT boat squadrons were nicknamed "the mosquito fleet". The Japanese called them "Devil Boats".The original pre–World War I torpedo boats were...
s, landings for LSTs, a 250–bed hospital opened on 11 May, a quartermaster dump, and a staging area for 9,000.
Air Operations
Saidor was soon in used by the Fifth Air ForceFifth Air Force
The Fifth Air Force is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force Pacific Air Forces . It is headquartered at Yokota Air Base, Japan....
. Its base at Nadzab was surrounded by mountains and was therefore unsuited for missions that had to take off after dark, but there was no such problem at Saidor. During March, B-24 Liberator
B-24 Liberator
The Consolidated B-24 Liberator was an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and a small number of early models were sold under the name LB-30, for Land Bomber...
bombers staged through Saidor for night attacks on Hollandia
Jayapura
Jayapura City is the capital of Papua province, Indonesia, on the island of New Guinea. It is situated on Yos Sudarso Bay . Its approximate population in 2002 was 200,000....
. A raid on Hollandia on 16 April 1944 encountered a weather front that closed Nadzab and the other fields in the Markham Valley. More than 30 aircraft made their way to Saidor. An F-5 Lightning and a B-25 Mitchell
B-25 Mitchell
The North American B-25 Mitchell was an American twin-engined medium bomber manufactured by North American Aviation. It was used by many Allied air forces, in every theater of World War II, as well as many other air forces after the war ended, and saw service across four decades.The B-25 was named...
collided on the runway, and two aircraft cracked up on landing, but the other aircraft that made it to Saidor eventually returned to their bases.
Conclusion
Krueger reported that "MICHAELMAS Task Force tried hard to block these escape routes. But the torrential rain, the ruggedness of the country with its impenetrable rain forests and jungles and impassable rivers, and the resistance of enemy troops pushed forward from Madang to guard the trails leading eastward, made this effort fall short of success". Australian commanders were critical. In a letter to Blamey, Berryman, who had visited Krueger in an attempt to ensure that the Japanese would not escape, wrote that "about 8,000 semi-starved, ill-equipped and dispirited Japanese bypassed Saidor. It was disappointing that the fruits of victory were not fully reaped, and that once again the remnants of the 51st Division escaped our clutches." Lieutenant General Sir Leslie MorsheadLeslie Morshead
Lieutenant General Sir Leslie James Morshead KCB, KBE, CMG, DSO, ED was an Australian soldier, teacher, businessman, and farmer, with a distinguished military career that spanned both world wars...
of New Guinea Force
New Guinea Force
New Guinea Force was a military command unit for Australian, territory of Papua and territory of New Guinea troops serving in the New Guinea campaign during World War II. Formed in April 1942 it was responsible for planning and directing all operations within the territory up until October 1944,...
reported to Blamey that MICHAELMAS Task Force appeared not to have made "any appreciable effort" to cut off the retreating Japanese. Sadly for the men of the 32nd Infantry Division, many of these Japanese would later have to be fought again under less advantageous circumstances in the Battle of Driniumor River
Battle of Driniumor River
The Battle of Driniumor River, also known as The Battle of Aitape, 10 July – 25 August 1944, was part of the Western New Guinea campaign of World War II. Japanese forces attacked United States forces on the Driniumor River, near Aitape in New Guinea...
. Krueger officially terminated Operation DEXTERITY
Operation Dexterity
Operation Dexterity was a military operation, part of Operation Cartwheel in the South West Pacific Area for the Allies in the Pacific theater of World War II...
, of which MICHAELMAS was a part, on 10 February 1944. All that remained now was the final act of the Huon Peninsula campaign
Huon Peninsula campaign
The Huon Peninsula campaign was a series of battles in the New Guinea campaign of the Second World War. Australian forces assaulted Japanese bases on the Huon Peninsula....
: the capture of Madang.