Bairoko Harbor is situated along the northwestern shore of the island of New Georgia in the Solomon Islands.
During World War IIJapan used Bairoko Harbor to resupply its forces at Munda Point, an airstrip situated along the south coast of New Georgia. Allied forces deemed Munda critical for control of this section of the Solomon Islands and necessary for the continued progress northward toward Japan.
After capturing Enogai, a village situated a few miles east of Bairoko Harbor, the Northern Landing Group of United States Marines comprising the 1st and 4th Marine Raider Battalions assaulted the harbor on June 20, 1943. Greatly outmanned,[citation needed] the lightly armed Marines failed to overcome the deeply entrenched, heavily armed Japanese defenders in the resulting Battle of Bairoko and were turned back after losses in dense jungle fighting.
The loss marked the first time the Marine Raiders had failed to take an objective, and was blamed in part on failure of the United States Army Air Corps to provide air support for the operation as requested. The battle caused the Joint Chiefs to rethink the strategy of pitting lightly armed forces against well-fortified enemy forces, and the operation planners drew the criticism of the Joint Chiefs for having marginalized the entire operation "as if it had been a sideshow".
Unable to prevent the loss of Munda to the Allies due to assaults on the airstrip by other forces, the Japanese evacuated the entire island of New Georgia via Bairoko Harbor within a month of the initial attack. From New Georgia the Allies continued "up the slot" toward Japan, fighting next at Bougainville.[1]
Referencesedit
^Harry A. Gailey (2003). Bougainville, 1943-1945: The Forgotten Campaign. University Press ofKentucky. ISBN0-8131-9047-9.
This Solomon Islands location article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
bairoko, harbor, this, article, needs, additional, citations, verification, please, help, improve, this, article, adding, citations, reliable, sources, unsourced, material, challenged, removed, find, sources, news, newspapers, books, scholar, jstor, august, 20. This article needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Bairoko Harbor news newspapers books scholar JSTOR August 2007 Learn how and when to remove this template message 8 12 S 157 16 E 8 200 S 157 267 E 8 200 157 267Bairoko Harbor is situated along the northwestern shore of the island of New Georgia in the Solomon Islands During World War II Japan used Bairoko Harbor to resupply its forces at Munda Point an airstrip situated along the south coast of New Georgia Allied forces deemed Munda critical for control of this section of the Solomon Islands and necessary for the continued progress northward toward Japan After capturing Enogai a village situated a few miles east of Bairoko Harbor the Northern Landing Group of United States Marines comprising the 1st and 4th Marine Raider Battalions assaulted the harbor on June 20 1943 Greatly outmanned citation needed the lightly armed Marines failed to overcome the deeply entrenched heavily armed Japanese defenders in the resulting Battle of Bairoko and were turned back after losses in dense jungle fighting The loss marked the first time the Marine Raiders had failed to take an objective and was blamed in part on failure of the United States Army Air Corps to provide air support for the operation as requested The battle caused the Joint Chiefs to rethink the strategy of pitting lightly armed forces against well fortified enemy forces and the operation planners drew the criticism of the Joint Chiefs for having marginalized the entire operation as if it had been a sideshow Unable to prevent the loss of Munda to the Allies due to assaults on the airstrip by other forces the Japanese evacuated the entire island of New Georgia via Bairoko Harbor within a month of the initial attack From New Georgia the Allies continued up the slot toward Japan fighting next at Bougainville 1 References edit Harry A Gailey 2003 Bougainville 1943 1945 The Forgotten Campaign University Press ofKentucky ISBN 0 8131 9047 9 nbsp This Solomon Islands location article is a stub You can help Wikipedia by expanding it vte Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Bairoko Harbor amp oldid 1123670710, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
