World War II campaign between Allied and Imperial Japanese forces
New Britain campaign
Part of the Pacific Theater of World War II
US Army soldiers returning from a patrol near Arawe, December 1943
Date
15 December 1943 – 21 August 1945
Location
New Britain, Territory of New Guinea
Result
Allied victory
Belligerents
United States Australia
Territory of New Guinea
New Zealand
Japan
Commanders and leaders
Douglas MacArthur Julian Cunningham William H. Rupertus Rapp Brush Alan Ramsay Horace Robertson
Hitoshi Imamura
Strength
20,000
100,000
Casualties and losses
502 killed 1,575 wounded 4 missing
~30,000 killed (mostly from disease and starvation)[1]
v
t
e
New Britain campaign
Arawe
Cape Gloucester
Neutralisation of Rabaul
Talasea
Jacquinot Bay
Wide Bay–Open Bay
v
t
e
New Guinea campaign
1942
Battle of Rabaul
1st Lae-Salamaua
Coral Sea
Kokoda Track
Milne Bay
Goodenough Island
Buna–Gona
Lilliput
Merauke
1943
Wau
Bismarck Sea
I-Go
2nd Lae-Salamaua
Chronicle
Markham-Ramu-Finisterres
Wewak Raid
Huon Peninsula
New Britain
Bombing of Rabaul
1944–45
Neutralisation of Rabaul
Admiralties
Emirau
Take Ichi
Bombing of Hollandia
Western New Guinea
v
t
e
Pacific War
Central Pacific
Pearl Harbor
Marshalls–Gilberts raids
K
Doolittle Raid
Midway
Gilberts and Marshalls
Marianas and Palau
Volcano and Ryukyu
Truk
Ocean Island
Indian Ocean (1941–1945)
Japanese merchant raids
Andaman Islands
Homfreyganj massacre
Christmas Island
1st Indian Ocean
Ceylon
Bay of Bengal
2nd Indian Ocean
Southeast Asia
Indochina (1940)
Franco-Thai War
Thailand
Malaya
Hong Kong
Singapore
Indochina (1945)
Malacca Strait
Jurist
Tiderace
Zipper
Strategic bombing (1944–45)
Burma and India
Burma (1941–42)
Burma (1942–43)
Burma and India (1944)
Burma (1944–45)
Southwest Pacific
Dutch East Indies (1941–42)
Philippines (1941–42)
RY
Solomon Islands
Coral Sea
Timor
Australia
New Guinea
New Britain
Philippines (1944–45)
Borneo (1945)
North America
Ellwood
Aleutian Islands
Estevan Point Lighthouse
Fort Stevens
Lookout Air Raids
Fire balloon bombs
Project Hula
PX
Japan
Air raids
Tokyo
Yokosuka
Kure
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Mariana Islands
Volcano and Ryukyu Islands
Starvation
Naval bombardments
Sagami Bay
South Sakhalin
Kuril Islands
Shumshu
Downfall
Japanese surrender
Manchuria and Northern Korea
Kantokuen
Manchuria (1945)
Mutanchiang
Chongjin
Second Sino-Japanese War
The New Britain campaign was a World War II campaign fought between Allied and Imperial Japanese forces. The campaign was initiated by the Allies in late 1943 as part of a major offensive which aimed to neutralise the important Japanese base at Rabaul, the capital of New Britain, and was conducted in two phases between December 1943 and the end of the war in August 1945.
Initial fighting on New Britain took place around the western end of the island in December 1943 and January 1944, with US forces landing and securing bases around Arawe and Cape Gloucester. This was followed by a further landing in March 1944 around Talasea, after which little fighting took place between the ground forces on the island. In October 1944, the Australian 5th Division took over from the US troops and undertook a Landing at Jacquinot Bay the following month, before beginning a limited offensive to secure a defensive line across the island between Wide Bay and Open Bay behind which they contained the numerically superior Japanese forces for the remainder of the war. The Japanese regarded the New Britain Campaign as a delaying action, and kept their forces concentrated around Rabaul in expectation of a ground assault which never came.
The operations on New Britain are considered by historians to have been a success for the Allied forces. However, some have questioned the necessity of the campaign. In addition, Australian historians have been critical of the limited air and naval support allocated to support operations on the island between October 1944 and the end of the war.
^Australian War Memorial. "Australia-Japan Research Project: Dispositions and deaths". Citing figures of the Relief Bureau of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, March 1964. 30,500 Japanese troops are listed as dying in the Bismarck Archipelago.
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Global Information
New Zealand
Japan
Douglas MacArthur
Alan Ramsay
Hitoshi Imamura