Pulling machine-gun carts and ammo carts by hand, the best hiking outfit in the AEF marched from one front to another, usually on muddy bypaths and rain-soaked fields, to establish and incredible record of forty hiking days in a sixteen-day campaign. There in the desert, with the expectation that they were to be sent to North Africa, the Division were trained with a new, and then, secret-anti-tank-weapon, the Bazooka. of the equator. 163d Regimental Combat Team simultaneously waded ashore against no opposition Seventh. Force, with the 2d Engineer Special Brigade attached, carried the Australian An American infantryman with no time to think flung it back into the cave in one quick motion before it exploded in a shock wave and debris. as well as the specialized crews to man them. The same During the battle for Mt. his command. Until William F. Halsey, Jr., Commander in Chief, South Pacific Area, the U.S. 59 serious fracture cases. advance toward Rabaul impossible. had about the same number of warships as his predecessor, but Barbey's Enemy bombing raids were few, but one such raid scored a direct hit on the Division Command Post, killing five officers and men and wounding eight others. In addition infantry platoon strongpoints defended against German raiding parties which launched their attacks using liquid fire and grenades. The Japanese, however, The men of the 6th Division were to learn that these stereotypes, while not always true, were all too frequently what they would encounter. 6. Thus the U.S. Army faced a determined Japanese foe on concentrated all his might against the latter. in support roles- unloading ships, building roads, hauling supplies, preventing On New Years Day of 1945, the 6th Infantry Division was sailing in the largest landing force to be assembled in the Pacific for its landing at Lingayan Gulf, Luzon. This high ground overlooked the entire coastline about Finschhafen On November 25, 1942, the Division was ordered to the desert of Arizona and California where they were trained with the expectation that they would be sent to North Africa as a mechanized infantry division. Guinea in half, isolating Eighteenth Army in eastern New Guinea. Securing Central Luzon during CARTWHEEL. In sum, 40 American soldiers were killed and 107 wounded to If you are a veteran of the 6th Division or have special knowledge about the history of the Division, I would be honored and appreciate hearing from you, I can be reached at admin@6thinfantry.com. The limited sixty-mile range of the boats of the 2d Engineer Special using the rifle as a club until he was killed. About 8,000 officers and men trekked into the foreboding mountains. on the south crossed the Driniumor and probed cautiously eastward. The men learned that Jungle rot and fungus would not be confined to their feet, but would grow anywhere opportunity arose. Its north coastline Division found itself isolated in western New Guinea. Thomas E. Price, model P-38s whose extended range. Europe also had first priority, for long-range heavy bombers and fighters Despite a shakeup of commanders, track toward the vital airstrips. Wakde proved a tough nut to crack. days', First Wave at Los Negros, Admiralty Islands. to make the attack risked unacceptable losses. unchallenged by Japanese air power, on 5 September 96 C-47 transports, Maffin Bay, known as Teluk Maffin in Indonesian, is a small bay in the Pacific Ocean on the Northern coast of New Guinea. While the Americans pushed It was deactivated again in the 1990s. tropical rains, successfully performed every task that the limited nature New Guinea is the second largest island in the world. then sortie under air cover to seize a forward air. The American push by the 158th RCT ignited a sharp battle models while the 162d broke the infantry attack. execution. On 30 June a makeshift scratched out of the wilds, that stretched from engineers developing a to train and to prepare American forces for the amphibious assaults that answer depended on where MacArthur decided to go next. commanded Allied Naval Forces which included the U.S. victory. The doomed garrison fought tenaciously, No one forgot to wear his clothing which was both dusted and soaked in DDT. Never again would the enemy priority to the U.S. Navy's drive across the Central Pacific and naturally Some of my sources of information include the following: Taped interviews with Robert E. Price in 1998 and 1999. to cross the straits separating New Guinea from New Britain. Maffin Bay was a landing site in the New Guinea campaign of World War II, and was the location of the Battle of Lone Tree Hill. The They met no opposition on the ground and quickly secured the landing General Patrick was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, posthumously. to rifle squads or platoons. vicious night fighting typified the next five days. All this to advance the front line 300 miles in 20 months. The fighting which followed was typically short and furious. Finschhafen was the strongpoint that guarded the western side of the Others The 20th Infantry regiment was in for a night in hell. Lone Tree Hill. Major General Charles E. Hurdis succeeded Patrick and lead the 6th Division through to the conclusion of the War. But above all New Guinea was the story of the courage of the GI who MacArthur's intermediate objective was Madang, about halfway between Ray E. Eubanks led his squad to their relief. plus Luzon in the Philippines. about 350 enemy warplanes were concentrated near Hollandia where they believed on the Huon Gulf. light of flares, surged forward. assaulted the tiny island. Conference held during August 1943 in Quebec, Canada, the Combined Chiefs The Japanese at Sansapor were poorly organized and most were not looking for a fight. commander received official notification of the Combined Chiefs' decisions 3. With the high ground Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. orders on 17 December to capture Saidor, thereby severing the Japanese Maffin Bay was a landing site in the New Guinea campaign of World War II, and wa craft. On the morning of the 8th there were more attacks by aircraft and by Kamikazes mostly ineffective, except for a place that hit the quarterdeck of the USS Calloway. Saidor, the retreating Japanese left a trail of abandoned equipment. Thus the 186th Infantry was ordered from the high ground down to the airfield air base that extended his fighter range past Wewak. close range to save seven wounded Americans. Victory on the ground depended on local air superiority which enabled Men were rightly concerned that the Japanese had planned to allow them to reach the top for no good reason. Japan's 35th By 22 May Krueger had achieved his objectives near Sarmi. of a handful of cavalrymen like Sergeant McGill, had won an impressive MacArthur personally selected Lt. Gen. Walter Krueger had served as dress rehearsals for American GHQ planners as well as for 1944. into the concealment of the thick jungle. planned landings farther west. enemy discovered a half-buried trunk in a stream bed. Small patrols of volunteers from below had worked their way between the Japanese strong points to deliver ammunition and supplies from the rest of the Sixth Division. Our Jungle Road to Tokyo (1950); Walter Krueger, From Down Under 4) The Drive to the East Coast to Split Japanese Forces and the Retaking of Bataan. operations, over six months, culminating in the capture of Rabaul. maze of jungle trails, rain-swollen streams, marshy lowlands, and numerous He then enlarged Very Brief Recent History, V. Author,Thomas E. Price, Copyright 1996, all rights reserved. If any information is not accurate please advise me. Those accomplishments and sacrifices are forever his and deserve The Quebec In just two days Fourth Air Army lost three-quarters zone. along both enemy flanks, to commence on 10 July. lone infantry regiment. 1,000 soaked, oil-stained, and dispirited officers and men reached Lae. The Island of Luzon was a much more civilized experience for the men of the 6th Division. In contrast to the confusion at Nassau Bay just six The had accomplished its mission at Wakde and was an organic regiment of the Maffin Bay, known as Teluk Maffin in Indonesian, is a small bay in the Pacific Ocean on the Northern coast of New Guinea. The End of the War The 63rd Infantry regiment suffered 489 casualties 103 of which had been killed. Shipping shortages created logistics and transportation bottlenecks for Two weeks later the Japanese launched a combined ground and amphibious Fought from February 20th through April 30th of 1945, the battles waged there proved particularly harsh and pitiless. Infantrymen carrying sixty pounds of weapons, equipment, The following asked its hardened veterans to do the impossible. In Corps reserve, the 6th was used in place of an unavailable cavalry division to try to maintain contact with the rapidly retreating Germans. Range. Worries about whether supplies would be off loaded mounted. On the night of May 30, 1944, the Japanese attacked the 158th perimeter overrunning gun positions and turning the weapons on to the Americans. in Hansa Bay, midway between Madang and Wewak, could expect strong ground Maffin Bay, Sarmi Regency, Papua Province, Indonesia - Pacific Wrecks It was a trap, much in the style faced earlier at Buna New Guinea by the 32nd Infantry Division. The Drive to the East Coast to Split Japanese Forces and the Retaking of Bataan and numerous decrypted. Guinea urgently needed reinforcements. Places of Pride, the National Register of War Memorials, is a new initiative designed to record the locations and photographs of every publicly accessible memorial across Australia. was so successful that on 22 April the 24th and 41st Divisions, led by Enemy fire wounded Eubanks and smashed his rifle, yet he continued to lead Once again the Japanese found themselves forced to flee into the rugged months and then the monsoon starts.". Imperial Headquarters therefore established a revised main perimeter Sherman M4 tanks dispatched the inferior Japanese Effective October 11, 2008,this is the property of the National Association of the 6th Infantry Division, Inc., use by permission, only. fire. First stop for the Sixth was Camp Jackson, South Carolina where the original components of the Sixth Division were assembled: the 1st, 3rd and 20th Infantry Regiments, the 1st and 80th Artillery Regiments, the 8th Medical Battalion and the 6th Engineer Battalion. There were problems with Japanese snipers in the trees at Milne Bay. GIs fired their machine guns and automatic rifles until casualties while killing 1,759 Japanese and capturing another 889, mostly posthumous Medal of Honor. late November. of combined arms warfare, modern technology, and industrial might, Tokyo from the debilitating tropical heat and humidity; soldiers shook violently Slogging through mud and Jungle infested with leaches and malaria-carrying mosquitoes, the men of the Sixth learned what it was like to sleep in foxholes filled with mud and water smelling of mold and rotting vegetation. ea., Dear Miss Em (1972) and D. Clayton James' excellent biography machine gunners in foxholes, pits, and a few bunkers along the river nervously 1944 Australian forces began a slow, determined drive from the east toward The Jungle was cleared and camp was set up with all tents 12 inches above the ground to keep out the rain, the mud and the leeches. For historical messages pointed to an imminent offensive. their next operation. The patrol reached the top of the hill. Task Force, landed unopposed twenty-five miles apart at Hollandia. 1. windfall arrived exactly when MacArthur was most prepared to take advantage their equipment, and supplies forward into battle against the Japanese The jungle was near full strength. Shows islands, reefs, jetties, populated places, roads and trails, bridges, dromes at Maffin and Sawar, the Tor and other rivers, wetland areas, vegetation and terrain features. Albert E. Cowdrey, Fighting for Life, American Military Medicine in World War II (The Free Press, 1994). III. the Japanese infantrymen, killing and maiming hundreds or crushing others After three days of piecemeal attacks, the Japanese struck hard on the landings deep in the enemy rear area. aircraft graveyard of 340 wrecked planes that provided silent testimony Soon, the Division was ordered aboard LSTs headed for a landing at Finchhaven for more supplies and their first major offensive at Toem at Maffin Bay in Dutch New Guinea. Men dusted themselves with DDT. General Krueger demanded supplies or there would not be any movement anywhere. During the ten days from June 20 to June 30, 1944, in the Battle for Lone Tree Hill, the Sightseeing Sixth had suffered over eight hundred casualties, including over 150 killed in action. Japanese guns and suffered a continual pounding. and the War Against Japan, 1942-1945 (1992) analyzes MacArthur's use in just 100 days and complete the reconquest of the great island. The first wave landed exactly as planned, but strong Around this time, Fifth Air Force pilots consistently reported After ten of large formations. again for Port Moresby. and 1944. than 24,000 battle casualties; about 70 percent (17,107) were Australians. Forces and U.S. Fifth Air Force, sent repeated air attacks against the It was about 175 feet (53m) high, 3,600 feet (1,100m) long north to south, and 3,300 feet (1,000m) wide east to west. entire Noemfoor campaign, the task force incurred a total of 411 battle discuss New Guinea operations in general terms. at Aitape. [citation needed]. It is in Papua, Indonesia, below the Foja Mountains near Wakde, about 125 miles west of Jayapura. As part of the surrender process soldiers along the highway were ordered to salute the surrendering forces. (U.S.Air Force photograph). The luckless Japanese had to detour around the Australians blocking the Hollandia on 30 March. Battle hardened and experienced from war in China, these seasoned and well-led Japanese forces, totaled over 8,000 troops which had been underestimated by more than (estimated at 3,000 troops) half when a single regiment, the 158th Regimental Combat Team of the Cyclone Task Force, had been sent in against the Japanese 36th Division while the 41st Infantry Divisions 163rd Infantry Regiment landed to take Wakde Island off the coast of Maffin Bay. This was the revised RENO IV plan to jump an unprecedented All of his comrades in the 6th Division, many of whom also New Britain. During the same period the Division lost 853 killed in action or dead of wounds, 3122 wounded and 6 missing. For the first time there were prisoners; 269 were captured. They ordered MacArthur to establish Today located in Sarmi Regency of Papua Province in Indonesia. To secure the high ground overlooking Maffin Bay, Krueger There was no more talk of fines for trees. Division members counted nearly 1,000 Japanese bodies and Beyond exhaustion and fear, Murphy simply kept at it, going from one wounded man to the next throughout the night recalling the screaming, the barrage of weapons fire, and the unrelenting rain punctuated by bolts of lightning that captured the battle scene like macabre snapshots in the blackness. They were from the 25th Division but attached to the 6th as the first field artillery unit to go ashore to support the 6th in the philippines. They had little barbed wire, few bunkers, poor fields of fire, and miserable determined men could slow down a division. but dengue fever, dysentery, scrub typhus, and a host of other tropical On the ground, Eighteenth For Heroism After killing two more enemy and destroying another emplacement, Mayfiled rallied the battalion forward and led them in storming the hill. flank of the American beachhead. Relief shown by contours, spot heights and ocean depths. supplies. So named for obvious reasons, this would prove to be the toughest battle of the Lingayan landing. and appointed Maj. Gen. Charles P. Hall its commander. Navy photograph). In the weeks ahead more than 1800 cases of scrub typhus were treated by Red Star Medics working for 24 hour stretches or longer in treating the stricken men. Ambush and sudden death awaited the careless or unlucky month and eventually pushed the enemy away from its perimeter. Michael Green, MacArthur in the Pacific, (Motorbooks, 1996). There were towns, roads and an environment more like the Mediterranean than the Tropics. to reevaluate Pacific strategy. By exposed to an Allied envelopment. battle casualties. were not taken as scheduled, MacArthur ordered the capture of the strips MacArthur's air chief, Lt. Gen. George C. Kenney, commander of Allied Air By 1 September, there were still around 2,000 Japanese troops in the area, but they no longer posed a threat to Allied operations. Pvt. His best friend, Robert L. Proud, who was killed in Luzon, the Philippines Its coral airstrips, suitable During their time in Sansapor, the 6th Division continued to patrol and train deep into the Jungle, preparing for their next assignment. 9th Division to landing areas eighteen miles east of Lae. there were 7,600 enemy near Hollandia, most were assigned to service, airfield, Japanese casualties fighting the Division totaled 23,000 dead and 1,700 captured. the 6th Division remained there until it left for Luzon, Philippines, in GIs moved behind heavy artillery support to close off pockets of Japanese About - 6th Infantry The Australian War Memorial acknowledges the traditional custodians of country throughout Australia. trails capable of bearing basic logistic support made the direction of drive across the Central Pacific and to the U.S. Army's liberation of the distraction at a time when Krueger had his hands full juggling four other Only one in ten carried a rifle. The culmination of the battle and the penetration of the town were sparked by the heroic actions of Technical Sgt. advance and the 126th RCT's blocking position at Saidor. The Japanese had been trained from youth in the Bushido-Banzai cult of death. The final unit line-up for the Division was as follows: the 1st, 20th and 63rd Infantry Regiments (the last having been organized from a cadre of the 1st Battalion and the 3rd Infantry Regiment), the 1st, 51st, 53rd and 80th Field Artillery Battalions, Headquarters and Heaquarters Company, 6th Military Police Platoon, 6th Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop, 6th Signal Company, 6th Engineer Combat Battalion, 6th Medical Battalion, 706th Ordnance (LM) Company, 6th Quartermaster Company, Headquarters Special Troops and Division Band. Your generous donation will be used to ensure the memory of our Defence Forces and what they have done for us, and what they continue to do for our freedom remains today and into the future. to seize key bases en route to Mindanao in the southern Philippines. Operations farther west required the 158th RCT and the 163d Infantry. We recognise their continuing connection to land, sea and waters. A single sheet from the 1:63 360 Dutch New Guinea topographical map series covering the northern coastal area around Maffin Bay and the town of Sarmi. highest in the Southwest Pacific theater (43.94 per 1,000 men). to Sansapor where, on 30 July, 7,300 men of the 6th Division conducted Fighting in the Maffin Bay area did not end with Lone Tree Hill. losses were 9,500 battle casualties, mainly American, to leap 1,300 miles along the coast, Australian troops advanced on a western axis from Wau Casualties for the 6th Division totaled 1,174 dead, 3,876 wounded and 9 missing. Both the 20th Infantry Regiment and the 172nd Stryker Brigade, the last remaining remnants of the 6th Infantry Division, have since had several tours of duty in Iraq. An outbreak of scrub typhus in an area of Kunai Grass brought with it nine dead. 80-G-255396 Sansapor operation, New Guinea, July-August 1944. - NHHC A red cross was a target. awaited a Japanese attack. [1][2] After this battle, Maffin Bay was held by Task Force Tornado and defended it against Japanese attacks through the use of aggressive patrolling. The next morning Murphy watched as eighteen P-47sfirst strafed, bombed, and dropped their belly tanks on the hill below before strafing again to set them ablaze. in the southern Solomon Sea about 180 miles east of Buna during June 1943 he had expected a walkover. Maffin Bay was a landing site in the New Guinea campaign of World War II, and was the location of the Battle of Lone Tree Hill. Fought over the period 17 May 2 September 1944, the battle formed part of the Western New Guinea campaign. part of a frenetic Japanese effort to strengthen the western half of the Wewak and left 100 parked airplanes destroyed on taxiways or damaged in of the training designed to take full advantage of Southwest Pacific's This gave Sixth Army the time Second Lt. Dale Eldon Christensen, also jungle and worked its way behind the strung-out American advance. in New Guinea and neutralized. On December 29, 1944 the men set sail from Cape Sansapor thankful that they were finally leaving the Jungles of New Guinea hoping never to return. the barrels turned red hot, but the Japanese, eerily visible under the at Woodlark and Kiriwina respectively. This website depends on information that can be shared for all to see, learn and preserve the history of the 6th Infantry Division. S. Sgt. New Guinea. capture additional forward airfields from which to cover his further advance month-long battle of attrition in the New Guinea wilds. Still, the steaming Lt. Gen. Hitoshi Imamura, opened on Rabaul. Before the long battle for Luzon, the Divisions baptism of fire came in a battle at Maffin Bay, New Guinea, known as the battle for Lone Tree Hill. It was to prove to be the bloodiest ten days in the entire New Guinea campaign to take a stubbornly defended hill from a determined and well-entrenched enemy. The battle took place in a larger campaign better known as the Wakde-Sarmi Operation West of Hollandia, in then, Dutch New Guinea, now Iryan Jaya. from the direction of Hollandia, which placed it on the exposed eastern Christensen was later Download Image: Low (PNG, 319x319px, 75KB) Med (JPEG, 1280x1280px, 277KB) High (TIFF, 6256x5030px, 30MB) Title: Cape Sansapor Invasion, 1944. through the Markham Valley. Ridge. At dusk the ominous crack of two Japanese sniper shots rang out to, simultaneously, cut a radio antenna as well as a communication wire below. sealed other enemy soldiers forever in fortified caves. Meanwhile the advancing Japanese until it jammed, then fought them in front of the position, Orders were to accept surrender, but no surrendering Japanese were encountered at Lone Tree Hill among the hardened Imperial Marines of General Tagamis Division sworn to defend the Maffin Airdrome at all costs. GORDON R. SULLIVAN Muine Bay Resort The Japanese kept coming and the Americans, once again were in for a night of unrelenting battle. Instead, they used the opportunity to prepare a counter-offensive. The men were told that they would be fined if they cut down the trees. enemy ships. Second Lt. George W. G. Boyce, Jr., of Troop A, 112th RCT, threw himself Murphy gazed down to see a green carpet of dead Japanese soldiers covering the hillside below. On the squad-level, the reality was to take no chances, which meant take no prisoners, to never surrender and to kill every Japanese encountered. Add to this the more than 57,000 imperial They quickly The only thing missing in the Hawaii training would be the mud and the jungle diseases. Besides ruining the Australian 7th and U.S. 32d Infantry Divisions, However, the half century that now separates us from "Defending the Driniumor," Leavenworth Paper No. To exploit the success at Finschhafen, Sixth Army received the Admiralties two months ahead of schedule also led the Joint Chiefs Once again, the soldieries of the 20th Infantry hugged the rock and tried to rest as well as they could in the tropical heat. In the hot dank musty jungles of New Guinea, the sightseers would learn about jungle rot and the exhaustion of battling the environment on a daily basis. shipping, and skilled manpower. A two-echelon In one tough fight after another, he never lost a battle to the in early 1943 to force a decisive victory, and the campaign seemed likely While sailing through the China Sea on January 7, 1945 one of the 6th LSTs was struck by a Kamikaze. The 6th Division trucks were the ones that were to be used to transport the Japanese prisoners down the highway. log bunkers. In truth no Japanese reinforcements had At 8:30 a.m. the 20th Infantry Regiment embarked, laden with as much ammunition as they could carry. counterattack. contest air superiority over New Guinea. defended, the Australian airstrip at Wau seemed ripe for Eighteenth the campaign had severely taxed the Australian 5th and U.S. 41st Infantry To all Japanese Americans, many of whom fought bravely to defend the United States, I apologize for any descriptions in my narrative that sound racist. The 112th find was immediately returned to Central Bureau, MacArthur's Allied cryptanalytic The fighting for everyone was intense and the casualties came, even from friendly fire as the 6th Division learned, at high cost, the danger and confusion of doing battle in the Jungle at night. The 6th Division landed in Milne Bay, New Guinea on February 2, 1944. through the seizure of the Saidor in January 1944, the Allies suffered Someone shouted, Tonys wounded! The Japanese picked it up and shouted, Tonys wounded, hold your fire, Tonys coming in! The Americans did not fall for it. Captain Edgar C. Boggs (1918-1945) - Delaware's World War II Fallen After another short period of training, consisting primarily of forced marches, the Division hiked itself into the closing campaign of the war, the Meuse-Argonne offensive. I am interested in any information regarding this engagement including: unit records, after action reports . east of Sansapor. American artillery fell in clusters on The Sixth Division was organized in November of 1917 as a square division consisting of the 51st, 52nd 53rd and the 54th Infantry Regiments, the 16th, 17th and 18th Machine-Gun Battalions and the 3rd, 11th and 78th Field Artillery Regiments. As for the enemy, the men were briefed that the Japanese did not obey the Geneva Convention. Scattered, tiny coastal and supply base at Hollandia. Fifteen miles east, however, only three infantry battalions Sixth Army had once again split the Japanese forces To block the Allied counteroffensives on New Guinea and in the Solomons, Patrolling and preparing for combat continued. into Geelvink Bay and thence the Vogelkop Peninsula. in his war against the Japanese. troops from Lae to protect Salamaua.
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