The forces of the Southwest Pacific Area were ready to move on to the Philippines. Lieut. None of the senior officers present had been in post more than a few weeks and the senior air officer had been relieved following the destruction of his air forces at the beginning of April. Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter, who later became the director of the Central Intelligence Agency. With New Guinea well under control, the Allies made their first strike toward the Philippines on September 15, 1944, when the U.S. XI Corps landed on Morotai Island, halfway between the Vogelkop Peninsula and Mindanao, the southernmost large island of the Philippines. 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. 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). 10, Restoration of Captured Documents (June 28, 1945). Possibly the most important translations published by the 6th Army ATIS Advanced Echelon in February 1945, were files of orders of the Japanese 58th Independent Mixed Brigade. The Admiralty Islands having been seized a month ahead of schedule, MacArthur accelerated his advance. This information was immediately translated, relayed to naval and air units, and, coordinated with the translation of a captured map showing enemy positions, resulted in the repulse of the enemy attack by naval and aerial bombardment. The majority of the Allied force was provided by the United States, with the bulk of two United States Army infantry divisions being committed on the ground. During July and August 1944 the Japanese 18th Army, based on Wewak, mounted an attack on Aitape, employing more than 20,000 troops in the forward area. Also that summer, the 441st CIC unit established a clinical laboratory, which, among other things, restored charred documents. They were carrying Admiral Mineichi Koga, commander in chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy, and his staff, including Vice Admiral Shegeru Fukudome, who was carrying the Z plan documents and the associated cipher system. The fires around White 1 continued until 27 April when the engineers were released to return to the beach. The Japanese at Rabaul and other bases on New Britain would have easily overwhelmed any such effort (by mid-September, MacArthur's entire naval force under Vice Admiral Arthur S. Carpender consisted of 5 cruisers, 8 destroyers, 20 submarines, and 7 small craft). [36] The air and naval attacks succeeded in isolating the remaining Japanese forces in New Guinea. Historians acknowledge that the deciphering of the Z Plan was one of the greatest single intelligence feats of the war in the South West Pacific Area. 7 was cancelled and no record is held that No. [24][25] The operation was the 24th Infantry Division's first combat assignment after home defense duties in Hawaii and training in Australia,[26] but the 41st Infantry Division had previously taken part in the fighting in New Guinea in 19421943. Written orders including route, objective of raid, and extent to which enemy intended to rely on these new tactics were also included. Consequently, Japanese efforts to develop the area were delayed throughout 1943 and 1944. After the Japanese invasion of New Guinea the Americans, aided by Australian troops, organized a series of landings and other offensive actions against the Japanese in New Guinea. 11, Factors in Japanese Military Psychology was ever completed, although the material intended for this publication could have been used instead for Research Report No. [46] Yamamoto then turned his attention to New Guinea: 94 planes struck Oro Bay on 11 April; 174 planes hit Port Moresby on 12 April; and in the largest raid of all, 188 aircraft struck Milne Bay on 14 April. Adachi's decision may have been motivated by a belief that Hansa Bay would be the target of the next Allied amphibious landing and that he could reinforce Hollandia at a later date. Fukudome was still carrying the Z Plan and the cipher codes. Gen. Robert C. Richardson became commanding general of U.S. Army Forces, Pacific Ocean Area, in which capacity he remained subordinate to Nimitzs operational control. (Map 2) Invasion of Dutch New Guinea. The campaign resulted in a crushing defeat and heavy losses for the Empire of Japan. Allied planners believed that the two beaches were connected by a road, and that another road suitable for vehicle traffic ran inland towards Lake Sentani. By 22 August, about 8,500 Australians and 1,300 Americans were on site. Although the quantity of documents captured in South East Asia and China were not as voluminous as those found elsewhere, nevertheless there were major collections captured. Key Terms The report contained 28 pages of translations, each translation accompanied by a photostatic copy of the original document and authenticated under oath by the translation. 8, Kanji Abbreviations, Variants, and Equivalents; No. Having been organized along lines completely unorthodox, these were invaluable documents to the G-2 Section, especially as this Force was a major enemy unit on the left flank near La Union, Luzon, at that time. An A B and C priority system was established; with A being documents of operational value; B being documents of probable or general value; and, C being documents containing information of no apparent value. [14], Operation Mo was the designation given by the Japanese to their initial plan to take possession of Port Moresby. Interestingly enough, among these records was a complete listing of the Japanese Imperial Army Ordnance Inventory. The stores situation in the forward area grew more urgent as the supply line up the single road broke down. They immediately sent back to Australia approximately 3,500 pounds of records, letters, and other documentary material. They included: No. 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. 1, List of Japanese Military Conventional Signs and Abbreviations (March 4, 1943); No. [18], "[T]he Owen Stanley Range is a jagged, precipitous obstacle covered with tropical rainforest up to the pass at 6500-foot elevation, and with moss like a thick wet sponge up to the highest peaks, 13,000 feet above the sea. By the end of the war, ATIS had processed over 350,000 documents (or 1,680 cubic feet of records).[17]. [15] The only Allied response was a bombing raid of Lae and Salamaua by aircraft flying over the Owen Stanley Range from the carriers USSLexington and USSYorktown, leading the Japanese to reinforce these sites. Todays post is by Dr. Greg Bradsher, Senior Archivist at the National Archives at College Park, Maryland. graduate Hollandia. For his action during the Biak operation, Jack Y. Cannon, the commanding officer of the 41st CIC Detachment received the Silver Star. The Allied Air Forces acted promptly on this information and sank both Japanese submarines and supply barges. After the occupation of Hollandia and Aitape the Allies were in a strong position, but they did not stop there. In the Southwest Pacific Area, aside from the creation of the Far Eastern Air Force, there were few changes. [9] See Seventy Years Ago: The Makin Island Raid, August 1942., [10] The Armys Counter Intelligence Corps faced similar problems with souvenir hunters. Statistical and Accounting Branch Office of the Adjutant General 1953, p. 94, Craven & Cate 1948, p. 477 & 723 (note 15), Office of the Combined Chiefs of Staff 1943, p. 67, New Guinea: The US Army Campaigns of World War II, "Biography of Lieutenant-General Heisuke Abe () ( ) (18861943), Japan", United States Army Center of Military History, The Conquering Tide: War in the Pacific Islands, 19421944, "Report on Historical Sources on Australia and Japan at war in Papua and New Guinea, 194245", "The Campaigns of MacArthur in the Pacific, Volume I", "Japanese Operations in the Southwest Pacific Area, Volume II Part I", National Archive Video of Hollandia Bay, New Guinea Invasion, Allies Study Post-War Security etc. [47], I-Go demonstrated that the Japanese command was not learning the lessons of air power that the Allies were. The translation of documents captured in the Southwest Pacific Area began with those taken in the Milne Bay operation in August 1942. After July 1944, however, documents, including published translations, were prepared under the imprint of CINCPAC-CINCPOA, and the title JICPOA was used only for administrative purposes. For this, he ordered the air arm of Vice Admiral Jisaburo Ozawa's Third Fleet carriers to reinforce the Eleventh Air Fleet at Rabaul. This resulted in considerable fatigue for the air crews. }); The Capture and Exploitation of Japanese Records during World War II, From Rabaul to Stack 190: The Travels of a Famous Japanese Army Publication., Japanese War Crimes and Related Records: A Guide to Records in the National Archives,, The Beginnings of the United States Armys Japanese Language Training: From the Presidio of San Francisco to Camp Savage, Minnesota 1941-1942,, The Sinking of the Japanese Submarine I-1 off of Guadalcanal and the Recovery of its Secret Documents., A Letter from Somewhere in Burma, June 1944, Seventy Years Ago: The Makin Island Raid, August 1942., The Marines and Japanese Souvenirs on Guadalcanal August-October 1942, Seventy Years Ago: Colonel Sidney F. Mashbir and the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS), September-October 1942., The National Archives Arthur Evarts Kimberly and the Allied Translator and Interpreter Sections Document Restoration Sub-Section, 1944-1945., The Z Plan Story: Japans 1944 Naval Battle Strategy Drifts into U.S. Hands, Part I, Allied Translator and Interpreter Section. Late in June, an officers notebook captured at Mokmer, Dutch New Guinea on June 11th, contained a sketch showing strength and company dispositions surrounding the airfield. In the meantime another landing was made at Aitape in Australian New Guinea, about 125 miles (roughly 200 km) southeast of Hollandia, where Australian engineers soon completed an airstrip. 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. 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