Leavenwort

Papers 

No. 9 

lc4p 

Defending the Driniumor: 

Covering Force Operations in 

New Guinea, 1944 

by Dr. Edward J. Drea 

Combat Studies Institute 

U.S. Army Command and General Staff College 

Fort Leavenworth, Kansas 66027 

February 1984 
FOREWORD 

The U.S. Army’s extensive amphibious campaigns in the Southwest Pacific Theater during 

World War II have been all but forgotten today. The conduct of those far-flung operations, the 

sustenance of more than twenty-seven U.S. Army infantry divisions, and the imaginative 

planning required for bold thrusts deep into the enemy’s rear areas offer timeless lessons for 

commanders. Moreover, a new aspect of the Pacific War has recently surfaced: the ability of 

the U.S. Army to read the most secret Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) codes-in short, to “see 

deep” for the purposes of operational planning. This Leavenworth Paper correlates, insofar as 

possible, the influence of Ultra intelligence on the conduct of General Douglas MacArthur’s 

Aitape, New Guinea, campaign. The signals intelligence community regarded the U.S. XI 

Corps’s destruction of the Imperial Japanese 18th Army as one of the singular achievements 

of the intelligence craft during World War II. 

Nevertheless, no matter how accurate one’s intelligence information or how superior one’s 

forces, in the final analysis it still falls to the infantryman to destroy the enemy. It is true 

that MacArthur’s Aitape invasion in April 1944 caught the Japanese totally unprepared, and 

it is also true that Ultra-derived intelligence revealed to the Allies the Japanese plan of attack 

against the U.S. covering force along the Driniumor River, about twenty miles east of Aitape. 

Despite the abundance of available intelligence, the Japanese achieved tactical surprise, broke 

through the U.S. defenders, and precipitated a month-long struggle in the primeval New Guinea 

jungle terrain. 

Dr. Edward 6. Drea’s use of interviews he conducted with U.S. Army veterans of the fighting 

adds the personal dimension to the campaign. Former riflemen described their experiences 

during the bitter campaign of attrition. By combining these first-person accounts with published 

sources and official Japanese and American records of the battle, the nature of jungle fighting 

and the tactics of both sides come into focus. The apparent lack of solid doctrinal basis for 

jungle fighting in either army is significant. Commanders at the highest level applied conventional tactics, despite the nature of the terrain, and ignored General George S. Patton’s dictum 

that “there is no approved solution to any tactical situation.” By the very brilliance of his 

operational maneuver, however, General MacArthur was able to capitalize on such orthodox 

or “‘approved” tactics on the Driniumor. 

Dr. Drea has adopted a twofold approach to the Aitape campaign. In the first part of his 

Leavenworth Paper, he examines the strategic and operational levels of the battle, particularly 

command decision making and its relationship to Ultra. The second part of the paper, however, 

shifts the center of attention to small unit tactics, usually at the company level and below, 

because the jungle terrain fragmented units operating within it. In this section, the author 

deals with such basic questions as combat motivation, effects of prolonged combat, and unit 

cohesion. The 112th Cavalry Regiment serves as the centerpiece of part two, and its fate 

becomes intertwined with that of the attacking Japanese units. While the focus is on the 

human dimension, Dr. Drea reminds the reader of the strategic and political context in which 

the battle was fought. 

Weapons, tactics, mobility, and national strategy evolve over time. No one would suggest a 

one-for-one transposition of 1944 doctrine and its application to the 1980s. The human factor 

in wartime, however, does remain unchanged. The reasons that American and Japanese soldiers 

fought and died in the New Guinea rain forests ultimately return to leadership and unit 

cohesion-the intangibles of combat that are crucial to success on any battlefield. 

CARL E. VUONO 

Lieutenant General, U.S. Army 

Commandant 
* Drea 

U.S. Army Corn 
Drea, Edward J., 1944- 

Defending the Driniumor: covering force operations 

in New Guinea, 1944 / by Edward J. Drea. - Fort 

Leavenworth, Kan. : Combat Studies Institute, U.S. 

Army Command and General Staff College; Washington, D.C., I For sale by Supt. of Does., US. G.P.Q., 

1984. 

xi, 182 p : ill., maps ; 25 cm. - (Leavenworth 

papers ; no. 9) 

“February 1984,” 

Includes bibliographical references. 

S/N 003-020-01000-6 

Item 359-C 

Supt. of Dots. no.: D 110.9:9 

1. World War, 193%1945-Campaigns-Papua New 

Guinea. 2. Papua New Guinea--History. I. United 

States Army Command and General Staff College. 

Combat Studies Institute. II. Title. III. Series. 

D767.95.D73 

Library of Congress 

1984 940.54”26-dc19 84-603862 

AACR 2 MARC 

For eale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Offhe, Washington, D.C. 20402 
Illustrations ............................................................ v 

Acknowledgments ...................................................... vii 

Preface ................................................................. ix 

Fart I. Strategic and Operational Perspectives 

Chapter 

1. Ultra and Pacific Strategy .......................................... 3 

Background ...................................................... 3 

Terrain ........................................................... 6 

Invasion Planning ............................................... 9 

Japanese 18th Army ............................................. 14 

2. American and Japanese Operational Deployments .................. 19 

&Elan&a and Aitape ............................................ 19 

18th At-my Moves West .......................................... 24 

3. Ultra and Operations ............................................... 31 

6th Army% Perspective ........................................... 31 

Part II. Tactical Perspectives 

4. 112th Cavalry’s Deployment to the Driniumor ...................... 45 

112th Cavalry Regimental Combat Team ......................... 47 

To the Driniumor ................................................. 51 

5. Breakthrough on the Driniumor .................................... 61 

18th Army Prepares to Attack ................................... 61 

Final Maneuvers ................................................. 66 

Breakthrough .................................................... 69 

6. Counterattack ...................................................... 81 

AflU ............................................................. 81 

7. Attrition ............................................................ 95’ 

. . . 

ill 
Conclusions 

-. 

8. Conclusions . . ,. . . . , . . . , . . , . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . S *. . . . , 135 

Notes . . ..~...,...‘....,......,*...,..1.~..~....‘......~................. 143 

Appendixes 

1. Ultra Documents Related to Driniumor . . . . , . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 

2. Evolution of Persecution Task Force Organization, 

22 April 1944-11 August 1944 ‘...,*......,......*...*.,........... 175 
1. 

2. 

3. 

4. 

5. 

6. 

7. 

8. 

9. 

10. 

11. 

12. 

13. 

14. 

15. 

16. 

17. 

18. 

19. 

20. 

21. 

22. 

23. 

24. 

25. 

26. 

27. 

28. 

29. 

30. 

31. 

32. 

I I 

Japanese controlled area, March 1944 ............................. 4 

Allied advance in New Guinea, January 1943-February 1944 ..... 5 

Terrain relief map, New Guinea ................................... 7 

Terrain relief map, Aitape region .................................. 8 

Anticipated and actual Allied landings, April 1944 ................ 12 

Japanese primary defense line, 30 September 1943 ................ 17 

Allied landings, New Guinea, 22 April 1944 ....................... 20 

Allied landings, New Guinea, 22 April-27 May 1944 .............. 27 

U.S. Army dispositions, Aitape, June 1944 ......................... 35 

Situation along the Driniumor, evening of 10 July 1944 ........... 46 

Move of 112th Cavalry to Driniumor .............................. 53 

Dispositions along Driniumor, early July 1944 ..................... 59 

Japanese plan of attack and estimate of U.S. situation, 

1 July 1944 ...................................................... 65 

Reconnaissance in force, 10 July 1944 ............................. 68 

Tactical situation, night of lo-11 July 1944 ...................... 71 

Destruction of Japanese 4th Company ............................. 76 

Japanese breakthrough, lo-11 July 1944 ......................... 77 

Situation, 12 July 1944 ............................................ 78 

SWPA G-2 estimate of enemy situation, 11-12 July 1944 ......... $3 

Sealing the gap, 13-14 July 1944 ................................. 86 

Sealing the gap, X-16 July 1944 ................................. 92 

Japanese attack against Afua, 18 July 1944 ....................... 98 

Encirclement of Troop C, 21 July 1944 ............................ 103 

Attempted relief of Troop C, 23 July 1944 ......................... 106 

Relief of Troop C, 24-25 July 1944 ............................... 108 

Situation, 112th Cavalry and 127th Infantry, 31 July 1944 ........ 114 

Japanese deployment and proposed plan of attack ................ 116 

2d Battalion, 127th Infantry, situation, 29 July 1944 .............. 119 

Japanese attack, 1 August 1944 ................................... 121 

Japanese attacks, 2 August 1944 .................................. 125 

Ted Force operations, 31 July-10 August 1944 .................... 128 

Japanese attack and Troop E counterattack, 4 August 1944 ....... 130 

V 
Figures 

1. Flow of Ultra information .......................................... 10 

2. Evolution of 112th Cavalry Regiment ............................... 49 

3. Comparison of U.S. cavalry regiment and infantry regiment ....... 55 

4. Japanese TO&E .................................................... 63 
Acknowledgments 

During the course of researching and writing this Leavenworth Paper, 

many persons and agencies contributed their time and resources to assist 

the project. In particular, Mr. John Taylor, National Archives and Records 

Center, Modern Military Branch, was especially helpful in sorting through 

the mass of declassified Ultra documents. The National Security Agency 

also provided valuable assistance in this study. At the U.S. Army Military 

History Institute, Dr. Richard Sommers and Messrs. John Slonaker and 

Dennis Vetock were very considerate and helped me to investigate many 

documents in a short period. 

As for the records of military units, the Washington National Records 

Center”s l&card Group 407 contains the 32d Infantry Division’s (Persecution 

Task Force) G-3 Journal and File; the division’s “‘Report After Action, 

Aitape, New Guinea”; “‘Persecution Covering Force After Action Report”; 

“‘Headquarters 112th Cavalry Regimental Combat Team Journal and Log”; 

“Diary, 2d Squadron”; and ““112th Cavalry Historical Report, 112th Cavalry 

Regiment, Aitape, New Guinea.” In addition, Mr. Claude Rigsby, then 

president of the 112th Cavalry Association, gave me a partial copy of the 

historical report. These documents, particularly the historical report, are the 

basis for this narrative, although I also compared their contents with the 

official Japanese military history of the campaign in order to present a 

balanced account of the battle. 

The members of the 112th Cavalry Association kindly allowed me to 

attend their 1981 and 1932 reunions in Dallas, Texas, and I also attended 

the 1982 reunion of the 32d Infantry Division in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. On 

all three occasions I had the opportunity to talk to veterans of the New 

Guinea fighting, and this essay has profited from their insights. Time 

limitations, unfortunately, meant that I could talk to only a handful of 

veterans, although ideally all of the members should have been able to 

contribute to the human dimension of this battle. I extend my deepest 

appreciation to the members of both organizations, particularly Mr. Rigsby 

and Col. (Ret.) Thomas Makal, past president of the 32d Infantry Division 

Veterans Association, for their help in arranging my interviews at their 

respective reunions. 

vii 
The &tape campaign is little remembered, and consequently few reliable 

secondary accounts of the fighting exist. General Walter Krueger’s memoirs 

provided details as did Jay Luvaas”s editing of General Robert Eichelberger’s 

letters in Dear Miss Em. Lt. Cal. Millard Gray’s Military Review article 

was illuminating because Gray had been G-3, 32d Division, during the 

operation. D. Clayton James’s work on MacArthur was helpful in understanding the strategic background. The standard work on the Aitape 

n remains Robert Ross Smith’s The Approach to the Philippines. 

This Leavenworth Paper adds tactical detail to a single phase of the 

complex operations that Smith describes so well. 

1982 Edward J. Drea 

Combat Studies Institute 

U.S. Army Command and General Staff College 

. . . 

Vlll 
Preface 

The Allied invasion of Aitape, New Guinea, on 22 April 1944 was one 

of three simultaneous invasions far to the rear of what conventional 

military wisdom considered the front line of Japanese resistance. It recently 

has been revealed that the U.S. ability to read the Imperial Japanese Army's 

(IJA) most secret codes, the information from which was disseminated as 

the so-called Ultra intelligence, contributed significantly to these bold 

operations. Armed with special intelligence, General Douglas MacArthur, 

commander in chief, Southwest Pacific Area (SWPA), conducted a series of 

amphibious flanking maneuvers that forced the Japanese to fight at places 

of MacArthur’s choosing. Aitape was one of those places. 

In the lexicon of historians of World War If, “forgotten” has become a 

popular modifier. One reads of the forgotten front, forgotten soldiers, the 

forgotten army, and so on. The operations in New Guinea aIso qualify for 

the forgotten label. As James Jones wrote about those campaigns, ““A year 

it had taken from Guadalcanal to Sansapor. And how many invasions? 

Fifteen? Almost all of them names people in the United States never .heard 

of, and still haven’t.“l The landings at Aitape and the subsequent 

Driniumor River campaign were two such names. 

If military readers related the historical lessons of the Driniumor River 

fighting to today’s doctrine, they would discover striking similarities, 

Although today’s FM 90-5 has incorporated many lessons from the past, 

it is intended to serve as a how-to-fight manual for the individual soldier. 

Guidance for the intricacies of larger unit operations-battalion and aboveis lacking. Current U.S. Army jungle warfare doctrine, for instance, uses 

the same terminology as its 1941 predecessor to describe the general’ conduct 

of operations in jungle terrain through the use of covering force, main 

battle, and rear areas. It does not, however, spell out the exact role of a 

covering force or how to establish the respective battle areas in such a 

situation. Instead, the interested reader is referred to FM 100-5, which 

describes the covering force in terms of a European style battlefield. In 

1929, B. H. Liddell-Hart wrote, ‘“The practical value of history is to throw 

the film of the past through the material projector of the present onto the 

ix 
screen of the future.“’ He naturally assumed that the audience paid attention 

to the film. If the ‘“film of tbe past” is forgotten, so too are the U.S. Army’s 

tactical and doctrinal legacies from World War II, 

As John F. Morrison Professor of Military History at the U.S. Army 

Command and General Staff College, D. Clayton James, MacArthur’s foremost biographer, often expressed his puzzlement about the U.S. Army’s 

historical neglect of its extensive campaigns in the Pacific theater. An 

exclusive focus on northwest Europe, he suggested, misrepresented not only 

the global role of the U.S. Army and its adaptability to the diverse 

conditions of World War II but also the very nature of that war. If we did 

not understand the Pacific War, we could not comprehend the nature of 

global conflict. Professor James spoke of the highest strategic levels, but 

he also suggested to the Combat Studies Institute that the battles along 

the Driniumor River would be a suitable topic for tactical analysis as 

a Leavenworth Paper. The immediate question was how to translate his 

strategic perspective into a tactical framework. In one sense, the paradox 

of New Guinea as a theater of war solved the problem. 

New Guinea was so large that it absorbed vast numbers of troops, more 

than nine U.S. infantry divisions by July 1944, but the jungle terrain 

fragmented the deployment of large formations attempting to operate en 

masse. At the tactical level, company- and platoon-size actions were the 

norm, The actual number of U.S. combat troops was small, their combat 

service support large .2 The Japanese situation was the reverse, mainly 

because MacArthur’s leapfrogging strategy had isolated the Japanese from 

their logistic support. From MacArthur’s strategic viewpoint, Aitape was 

hailed as a classic victory, but to the few men who actually fought the 

battle, it was a swirling, confused melee. 

Chronologically, the Aitape campaign fell into distinct phases, the 

strategic-operational and the tactical. The strategic and operationa phases 

begam in January 1944 when Southwest Pacific Area commander and staff 

first conceived the leap to Hollandia-Aitape. It culminated in early July 

when 6th Army completed the operational deployment of Persecution Task 

Force, the code name for the American forces at Aitape. Although 

occasional skirmishes punctuated this periad, the full tactical fury of 

protracted battle did not commence until the night of 10-11 July 1944, 

when the entire Japanese 18th Army attacked Persecution Task Force 

defenders along the Driniumor River. By extending this dichotomy, the first 

phase was preparatory as both sides deployed for combat. At this time, 

Ultra intelligence revelations about Japanese capabilities and attack plans 

were instrumental in American operational deployment. 

The planning and maneuvering that brought Japanese and American 

forces to the Driniumor River serve as the focus for the first part of this 

study. As the battle raged, however, the respective commanders had to 

depend on the collective skills of their individual sokliers and hope that 

X 
their operational deployments, training, and ta&ical doctrine would bring 

them victory. The tactical struggle, or second phase, then, was as removed 

from the strategic and operational phase as the experience of the officers 

and men on the front line was from the abstract map symbols that 

represented their units at higher headquarters. 

The purpose of this Leavenworth Paper is to integrate American and 

Japanese strategic, operational, tactical, and human dimensions into a 

narrative form. The focus is on the 112th Cavalry Regiment because that 

unit played a significant role in defeating a numerically superior Japanese 

force that tried to outflank an American covering force. Official histories in 

both English and Japanese languages illuminate the decision-making 

processes of the combatants at the strategic and operational levels that 

resulted in the deployment of men and their war-making equipment to the 

Driniumor. Ultra adds the intelligence dimension to American decision 

making. At the tactical level, however, events are less clear. For the 

purposes of organization, three major engagements occurred along the 

Driniumor River in July and August 1944. On the night of lo-11 July 

1944, Japanese troops of the 18th Army broke through and overran 

American covering force defenders an the Driniumor. An American counterattack characterized by bitter fighting eventually sealed this penetration. 

The third major battle-more correctly a series of company and platoon 

level engagements lasting three weeks-raged around the south flank of 

the American positions as the Japanese tried to turn the U.S. line. This 

more specific level is difficult to reconstruct with exaetitude because of the 

confused nature of jungle fighting when men only a few yards distant were 

out of sight and earshot. Small parties of Japanese and Americans fought 

and died in anonymity. Nevertheless, reference to contemporary military 

reports and war diaries makes it possible to impose a degree of order, 

necessarily arbitrary, on the operations and then to describe the fighting. 

The motivations of the troops who fought in such a hideous environment 

are central to an understanding of the battle from the small unit perspective. 

I relied on the personal accounts of American and Japanese veterans for 

an understanding of these complex and highly significant questions. Oral 

history, if obtainable, becomes invaluable because it personalizes the official 

accounts and fills in the gaps in the historical record. 

The US. Army’s 32d Infantry Division and 112th Cavalry Regiment 

fought for forty-five days along the Driniumor. Those who survived the hardship, terror, or rare exhilaration of the firing line can provide an insight 

into the emotions and impressions of their struggle. It was a savage battle 

in primitive conditions where no quarter was asked or given. 

xi 

Ultra and Pacifl’c Strategy I 

-cIp b 1 

Background 

In the early spring of 1944 the prospects for a quick Allied victory in 

the war against Japan seemed remote. It is true that the Allied counteroffensive in the Southwest and Central Pacific had forced the Japanese to 

assume the strategic defensive, but despite these blood-soaked Allied gains, 

the Japanese home islands remained secure behind a vast defensive perimeter. The Japanese primary defense line in March 1944 stretched from the 

Burma-India border through the Netherlands East Indies, most of New 

Guinea, the northern part of the New Britain and the Solomon Island chain, 

and then northward to the Kamchatka Peninsula. A glance at maps 1 and 

2 shows that in two years of hard fighting the Allies had taken the Gilbert 

and Marshall islands, Guadalcanal in the Solomon chain, and the south 

tip of New Britain and had pushed the Japanese back along the north 

coast of New Guinea. Nevertheless, Japan seemed a long way off to the 

common soldier as well as to the strategic planners. 

The Joint War Plans Committee in October 1943 estimated that in the 

spring of 1945 Formosa could be captured. This would be followed as soon 

as possible thereafter by an invasion of Hokkaido, the northernmost of the 

main Japanese home islands. These same planners envisioned an invasion 

of Honshu in the summer of 1946.l If, in retrospect, these men appear to 

have been unduly pessimistic, .one should recall that on 1 January 1944 the 

closest American infantryman to Tokyo was more than 4,800 kilometers 

away, at Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands or at Lae, New Guinea. The distances 

staggered the imagination. The area from Milne Bay on the southeast tip 

of Papua, New Guinea, where the Australians had first repulsed Japanese 

invaders in August 1942, to the most forward Allied base at Dumpu, Northeast New Guinea,* was approximately 800 kilometers and had taken the 

Allies sixteen months to recapture. 

*In 1828 the Dutch annexed the western half af New Guinea, bat in 1885 the British 

established a protectorate over the southeastern coast and its nearby islands. Twenty years 

Gater, Australia gained control of British New Guinea and renamed it Papua. During World 

War I, Australian forces accapied the German controlled region of Northeast New Guinea 

and, after the war, received that area as a mandated territory. 

3 
I . l 

. 1 

i&ONIN IS. \ MIDWAY I 

F'ACINC OCEAN AR;A‘RS 

AUSTRALIA 

j 

SWlM PA&/F/C 

AREA 

Map I. Japanese mntrollled area, March 1944 
. _ i.. 

-- .,_ _” __ 

() JA
6 

Terrain 

New Guinea is the second largest island in the world and covers more 

than 885,000 square kilometers. 2 If New Guinea were superimposed over 

the United States, Milne Bay would be south of Norfolk, Virginia, Lae at 

Pittsburgh, the major Japanese base of Wewak at Detroit, Biak 1sIand at 

MinneapoIis, and the westward extension of Dutch New Guinea wouEd extend 

well into the state of South Dakota. A rifleman could hardly be faulted if 

he thought the reconquest of New Guinea aIone would be an endless task, 

For many it was. 

The north coastline is about 2,400 kilometers long, and the island, at 

its widest point, is 645 kilometers wide, approximately the distance from 

Washington, DC., to Cincinnati, Ohio. The island extends from about tweIve 

degrees south latitude to just south of the equator and has a monsoon 

climate (see map 3). A major mountain range runs from the eastern end of 

the island to Geelvink Bay, but a spur just west of the Sepik River leads 

to a smaEler complex of mountains, the Torricelli Range, which runs near 

and parallel to the north coast from Wewak to the Mamberamo River. The 

Torricellis rise as high as 1,420 meters, but the mountains are considerably 

broken with many rough ridges and deep gorges that bar the passage of 

large military formations, The crest of the range, about twenty-five kilometers 

south of Aitape, canahzed Japanese westward deployment between the foothills and the coast. 

Bordered on the north by the Pacific Ocean, the Aitape area is a coastal 

plain covered by rain forest with numerous swampy places (see map 4). 

Streams and rivers running north from the TorriceIIi Range cut the narrow 

coastal plain at numerous places. The Driniumor is one of six main rivers 

in New Guinea, and it flows rapidly through the Torricelli foothills before 

it enters the plain at Afua, a native village on the river’s west bank and 

the scene of heavy fighting in August 1944. Normally the Driniumor can 

be waded. Et is 1 meter deep with a course of 145 meters and a bed 37 

meters wide, but both width and depth vary greatly depending on the amount 

of rainfall. 

Aitape receives nearly 250 centimeters of rain annually. The wet season 

during the northwest monsoon lasts from December to April. Although there 

is an appreciable difference in the amount of rainfall from May through 

November, monthly averages are more than 17.5 centimeters. During July 

and August (the period of the major fighting along the Driniumor in 19441, 

torrential tropical downpours are the rule, and quick runoff from the 

mountains results in rapid stream risings on the plain. Humidity is naturally 

high, as is the temperature range of 38O to 20.5” C. Clouds are least likely 

at the lower elevations in the morning after sunrise. Fog is not a problem 

near the coast, but inland it is quite common, especially in valleys and 

near rivers. In 1944 sunrise was at 0635 on 5 July, sunset at 1833. Comparable figures for 5 August were 0636 and 1835. There was a full moon 

on 6 July and 4 August, and moonrise varied from 1713 on 5 July to 1924 
7 

? 

. 

-- 

Iap 3. Terrain relief map, New Guinea 
8 

L- i 

Map 4. Terrain relief maps Aitape region 
9 

on 5 August. Aitape is not a particularly pleasant place to live. Deteriorating 

into a slithery morass capable of engulfing the unwary soldier, it is a worse 

place to conduct large-&ale military operations. 

Invasion Planning 

By early 1944 General MacArthur’s planners had begun the process that 

would bring Americans and Japanese to battle in this heretofore remote 

spot. Aitape was about ZOO kilometers east af the major Japanese base at 

Hollandia, but nearly 650 k&meters west of the nearest Allied ground farces. 

It was thus beyond the approximately 500-kilometer operational radius sf 

land-based Allied fighter aircraft and accordingly was lightly defended by 

the Japanese. Based on their previous experience fighting MacArthur, 

Japanese planners believed that the next Allied landing would be made 

between Madang and Hansa Bay. These Japanese estimates were remarkably 

similar to those of the Combined Chiefs of Staff in Washington. 

After the deliberatians af Allied statesmen at the Quadrant Conference 

in Quebec, 14-24 August 1943, the Combined Chiefs approved bypassing 

rather than capturing the major Japanese naval base at Rabauk, New Britain, 

and neutralizing the Japanese forces in eastern New Guinea to Wewak, 

about 160 kilometers east of Aitape.8 The decision to bypass RabauI and to 

give top priority to Admiral Chester A. Nimitz’s drive across the Central 

Pacific seemed to leave MacArthur in a backwater, far removed from the 

main action. As D. Clayton James has observed, the disappointing Quebec 

decisions set MacArthur to thinking of ways to adopt this bypassing or 

leapfrog strategy to his own operations. * The shaping of MsIcArthur’s strategy 

was enhanced by the availability of Ultra-derived intelligence about Japanese 

defensive preparations. While it remains difficu& to demon&rate a direct 

causal relationship between Ultra-derived i~te~~ige~~e and MacArthur’s leapfrog strategy, it does seem apparent that U%tra was instrumental in 

MacArthur’s decision to scrap his nations for an invasion af Rabaul in 

favor of a series of seaborne flanking maneuvers along New Guinea’s 

northern coast. 

MacArthur’s Southwest Pacific Area fSWPA> Comm,and had its own 

signals intercept organization called Central ureau. Central Bureau, which 

operated out of Brisbane, Australia, in ear 1944, had been activated on 

15 April 1942 as a combined Au atian-American intercept and decryption 

service.* Maj* Gen. S. B. Akin, S A’s chief signal officer, was the guiding 

farce in Central Bureau’s evolution and technical development. By 1943 the 

bureau had more than 1,000 members and had become a high quality 

intercept networks5 Its Washington counterpart was the Military Intelligence 

*Headquarters, Central Bureau, followed &fa.cArthur fmm Melbourne to B&bane (September 

1942j, to HolEandia (late ezbmmer 1944), to Leyte (October 19441, to San. MigueC (May 1945.h 

and to Tokya (September B45,l and was deactivated in November 1945. 

- 
Flow of Ultra information 
11 

Service (MIS) headquartered at Arlington Hall Stat&m, Virginia. Friction 

characterized the relations of these two intelligence organizations, but by 

e&y 1944 they were regularly exchanging information, althaugh MIS was 

never p1eased with Cent& Bureau’s and SWPA.‘s seemingly casual treatment 

and dissemination to field units of Ultra-derived intelligence information 

(see fig. 1).8 

Despite Herculean efforts and technical breakthroughs, the complete 

recavery of Japanese Army codes still defied the Central Bureaus skilled 

decryptanalysts, and cansequent1y much d the Japanese Army arder af battle 

inform&an depended on the less reliable system of traffic analysis.7 Then 

in late January 1944 the capture of the main Japanese Army codes and 

ciphers ““brought 8 sudden embarrassment of riches to Arlington Hall, and 

early in February the Japanese section began to be deluged with a daily 

flow of thousands of readable Japanese Army messages”8 With the veil 

shrauding the Japanese 18th Army’s dispasiticms in New Guinea pulled away, 

MacArthur and his staff were privy not only ta enemy order of battle information, but also to the very intentians of Lt. Gen. Adachi Hatazq, commander of that army. 

Japanese messages transmitted and intercepted in late January revealed 

to SWPA by early February the precise Ioeation of each Japanese unit 

assigned to the defense csf Madang, Hansa, and Alexishafen. Beyond that, 

Ultra provided the Allies specific figures cm Japanese casualties, personnel 

shortfalls, and s,upply shortages, especially of small arms ammunition. 

MacArthur’s decision to seize the Admiralty Islands on 29 February 1944, 

one month ahead of the originally scheduled invasion date, w&s based on 

his knowledge that Japanese air and sea arms were withdrawing from that 

area and that there was litt1e to fear from them.9 The Admiralty aperation, 

in turn, allowed him ta accelerate his drive up the New Guinea coast and 

provided him air bases in the Admiralties that could support operatians 

along that coast. lo The acquisition af those bases and Ultra revelations 

probably led MaeArthur to cance1 his proposed Hansa Bay speratians in 

favor af a direct jump to Hollandia. 1x A decrypted Japanese message, transmitted 28-29 February and available shortly thereafter, offered SWPA 

planners another opportunity to peer over the shouIders of their Japanese 

adversaries. 

The message formed the core of a staff appreciaticm of Japanese defensive 

planning for New Guinea and subsequent1y appeared in a SWPA G-2 (Intelligence), ““Memorandum to the Assistant Chief af Staff, G-3, (Operations) 

SWPA.” According to the intercepted communications, the Japanese foresaw 

the next major Allied amphibious operation occurring on the north New 

Guinea coast between Madang and Awar. Lt. Gen. Adachi Hataza, commanderz Japanese 18th Army, planned to counter such a landing by attacking 

fram the south with his 41st Infantry Division and from the north with 

his 20th Infantry Division, thereby ““ambushing’” any Ashed invaders (see 

map 5). In fact MacArthur originally had p1anned to invade the Hansa 

Bay area.12 Then on 5 March X.944, through his chief of staff, Lt. Gen. 
12 

Map 5. Anticipated and actual AlIied landinga, April 1944 
13 

Richard K. Sutherland, he instead proposed to the Joint Chiefs of Staff 

that two SWPA divisions, supported by the U.S. Pacific Fleet, attack 

Hollandia on 15 April as a step toward MacArt 

the Philippines. One week later, the JCS approv 

the understanding that Hollandia could be devd 

base for subsequent air operations against the ~~~~~s and Japanese air 

bases in western New Guinea and Halmahera.13 

Hollandia was attractive for SWPA fo 

potential harbor and airfield facilities offered 

and staging base to launch MacArthur’s muc 

pines. A leap to Hollandia would bring him 800 

goal and allow him to bypass the Japanese strong 

drawback to the Hollandia operation was 

air bases. Hollandia lay beyond the fighters’ e e range? yet SWPA 

required continuous fighter support for its amph s landing operation. 

To carry off the operation, MacArthur needed the er-b&~ed aircraft, but 

the Navy was in the midst of preparations for the invasion of the Marianas. 

Cognizant of the upcoming Saipan operation, and his earlier promise 

of air support for MacArthur, Admiral Chester its, commander in 

chief, Pacific, refused to allow his carriers to re in the Hollandia area 

for the eight-day period MacArthur wante 

air arm for the first three days after the 

sustained naval air support, MacArthur s s 

vital land-based air support for the Hollandia 

200 kilometers to the east, where the Japanese 

stages of construction and one strip operationa 

the forward bases for Army Air Force fighter aft. Furthermore, U.S. 

planners reasoned, American troops at Aitape coul rote& the eastern flank 

of Holland& against any westward counteroffe by the Japanese 18th 

Army. 

As SWPA intelligence officers well knew, 18th 

On 13 March a major redisposition of 18th Army a 

Throughout March, via Ultra, SWPA followed the 

Army’s withdrawal from eastern New Guinea. As e Japanese pushed 

westward, MacArthur responded by organizing P Task Force for 

the purpose of establishing an airbase at Aitape 

landings and to serve as a bitocking force against 

forces. In order ta confuse the Japanese about Mac 

G-2 developed and executed a classic deception 

vince the Japanese that the main targets of the rces were 

indeed Hansa Bay and Wewak. 

As part of the deception effort, 5th Air Force ~~t~nsi~ed its attacks 

against Madang and Wewak, and dummy paraebutes were dropped in the 

Hansa Bay area. Increased and conspicuous ~~~~~ ~iss~~~~ flights were 

sent on mapping and photographic missions over Hansa ay, and the Navy 
14 

was directed to make suitable demonstrations along the coast. SWFA ordered 

PT boats to stage isolated operations in Hansa Bay, and empty rubber 

landing boats, indicative of disembarked scouting parties, were spotted along 

the Hansa Bay shoreline. Ultra intercepts confirmed that the Japanese had 

swallowed the bait. So successful was this deception effort that on 21 April, 

just one day before the actual Allied landings, the Japanese still expected 

the Allied invasion behind their lines to occur between Madang and Hansa. 

Ultra also confirmed to SWPA intelligence analysts that the Japanese 

accepted the fact that the Allies intended to occupy Madang and Hansa. 

The Japanese, however, had no serious expectation of the Hollandia invasion 

and anticipated no major Allied operations before June. In the meantime, 

signals intelligence, confirmed by aerial reconnaissance, detected a major 

Japanese Army Air Force buildup near Hollandia. The mission of this 

Japanese 4th Air Army, according to Ultra, was ““to break up enemy 

operations and landings in the Madang area.” Forewarned, MacArthur’s 

5th Air Force and US. Navy carrier-based aircraft struck first and often, 

In a series of heavy raids lasting four days, U.S. airmen crippled 4th Air 

Army, reducing its effective strength to almost zero.15 

In addition, Ultra allowed Allied intelligence analysts to monitor the 

dispositions of Japanese ground forces near the invasion areas. An Ultraderived signal revealed that among the 16,OQO Japanese near Hollandia, 

more than 7,600 were Army Air Force personnel and that an “overwhelming 

number”’ of the remainder were service troops. Ultra also divulged the 

weakness of Japanese defenses at Aitape. On 14 April, for instance, the 

Magic Summary-Japanese Army Supplement (MSJAS) Summary reported 

that “at Aitape only two guns were available for AAA defense” and that 

3nalaria was rampant’” in the area. There is little doubt that Ultra”s eontribution at the operational level of the Hollandia-Aitape campaign was 

significant, but without SWPA’s skillful and imaginative planning and use 

of the intelligence information, it might have died aboming. Moreover, the 

employment of Ultra intelligence before and during the Aitape campaign 

was, regarded by SWFA G-2 and MIS-in a rare moment of agreement--as 

a classic application of special intelligence to combat operations. Such an 

assessment on the strategic and operational levels was justified; on the 

tactical level, it proved an oversimplification. 

Sapanese 18th Army 

On 9 November 1942 Imperial General Headquarters (IGHQ) in Tokyo 

had established the Eighth Area Army Headquarters at Rabaul to coordinate 

Japanese Army operations iu the Solomons and eastern New Guinea. The 

18th Army, organized that same day, was subordinated to the Eighth Area 

Army. Lt. Gen. Adachi Hatazo commanded 18th Army and was responsible 

for Japanese Army operations in eastern New Guinea. Adachi was sixtyone years old. His father had been an army officer, and two older brothers 
15 

were major generals. Ada&i graduated from the Japan Military Academy 

in 1910 and from the War College in 1922. He had commanded the 12th 

Infantry Regiment, 26th Infantry Brigade, and the 37th Infantry Division 

in combat. His operational experience was mainly in Manchuria and North 

China. In early 1943, IGHQ assigned the 2&h, 41st, and 51st Infantry 

divisions to Adachi’s command. 

The 20th Infantry Division arrived in New Guinea from China in 

January 1943.. Organized in 1917, this division had extensive combat 

experience in China dating from 1937. Its 78th and 80th Infantry regiments 

had distinguished combat records in North China, and the 79th Infantry 

Regiment had also gained extensive combat experience there. The 41st 

Infantry Division was organized in 1939. Its three infantry regiments, the 

237th, 238th, and 239th, had widespread operational experience in North 

China and Inner Mongolia. The 51st Infantry Division, organized in 1940, 

had garrisoned the Canton region in South China from the summer of 1941 

to November 1942, when IGHQ transferred the division to Rabaul. 

All three divisions had fought against the Americans and Australians 

on New Guinea and had suffered serious losses. In January 1943, the 51st 

Infantry Division, for example, had spearheaded General Adachi’s counterattack against Wau, where it had been repulsed by the Australian defenders. 

A convoy carrying reinforcements for the division’s 115th Infantry Regiment 

met disaster when Allied aircraft attacked the ships. Most of the reinforce 

ments perished when, after jumping from the sinking transports, they were 

strafed in the water by Allied fighters. The 51st and 20th Infantry divisions 

subsequently engaged combined American and Australian forces at Lae and 

Salamaua from June into September 1943 and at Finschhafen in late 

September and early October. The 238th Infantry Regiment, 41st Division, 

had participated.belatedly in the Salamaua fighting, and its sister regiment, 

the 239th, had counterattacked and driven back elements of the Australian 

7th Division from Kesawai in December 1943. The grueling jungle fighting 

had exacted a severe toll on the Japanese, in terms of both battle casualties 

and illness. Thus, in early 1944 Adachi was trying to rebuild the fighting 

strength of his units in anticipation of resisting future Allied attempts to 

retake eastern New Guinea. These preparations and Adachi’s urgent signals 

for resupply and reinforcement were what Ultra revealed to the Allies. 

As General Adachi reorganized his troops, Eighth Area Army Headquarters transmitted ambiguous orders that led to conflicting interpretations 

of Adachi”s mission. On 27 February 1944 they sent two orders to Adachi. 

The first directed 18th Army to defeat the enemy troops advancing towards 

western New Guinea in a holding a&ion at Nadang. According to IJA 

doctrine, a holding action was designed to gain time in order to readjust to 

the changing operational situation, to deceive the enemy, or to delay the 

enemy’s advance so that a stronger maia defensive position might be 

established. Simultaneously, Adachi received a second signal directing him, 

together with the Japanese 4th Air Army, to defeat the enemy advance in 
16 

eastern New Guinea. Was Adaehi’s defense to be passive, simply holding a 

line, or active, counterattacking vigorously to disrupt the enemy’s offensive 

preparations? Apparently higher headquarters left this decision to Adachi. 

Moreover, the Japanese expected the next Allied attack to fall on 

Madang, particularly after MacArthur’s seizure of the Admiralty Islands 

put Madang within range of Allied fighters. The Japanese used the rule of 

thumb that the effective fighter range for the continuous type of support 

required in Allied amphibious invasions was about 430 kilometers. Madang 

fell within that range, but Hallandia and Aitape were beyond it. General 

MacArthur had heretofore not used carrier-based fighters for tactical air 

support, so Japanese planners downgraded the immediate threat against 

Hollandia and Aitape because of their distance from Allied airfields. They 

concentrated 4th Air Army near Hollandia, presuming that it was beyond 

effective Allied fighter range and that the Allies would not attack the base 

with unescorted bombers. They overlooked the possibility that MacArthur 

might employ carrier-based aircraft not only against the major concentration 

of Japanese aircraft at Hollandia, but also in a close air support role at 

Hollandia and &tape. Consequently, defenses at both bases languished as 

the Japanese strengthened those areas where they believed MacArthur’s next 

blow would fall. Based on these assumptions, Japanese staff offiders concluded 

that MacArthur’s next landing would occur between Madang and Hansa 

Bay.16 Accordingly, IGHQ ordered 13th Army to abandon Madang and to 

withdraw rapidly west of Wewak, but only after striking a “heavy blow” 

against the invaders.17 General Adachi deployed his 51st Division at Madang, 

his 26th at Bogia, and his 4lst at Wewak. From this disposition he hoped 

to trap Allied invaders between Hansa Bay and Wewak in a pincer move 

ment, a stratagem Ultra revealed to Allied planners.18 

MacArthur’s capture of the Admiralties also isolated Rabaul. As Eighth 

Area Army at Rabaul could no longer effectively control 18th Army, IGHQ 

assigned 18th Army and 4th Air Army to General Anami Korechika’s Second 

Area Army, headquartered at Davao, Netherlands New Guinea. Anami’s 

command was responsible for the defense of western New Guinea, a strategic 

area controlling the southern approach to the Philippines and the Caroline 

Islands. The Japanese primary defense line, decided at an imperial conference 

on 3Q September 1943, ran south of Timor and Tanimbar islands, through 

the western side of Geelvink Bay, thence to Truk, the major Japanese naval 

base in the Caroline Islands. Second Area Army’s front line included 

Tanimbar and Aroe islands, extended to Sarmi, and then swung back through 

Sorong to Halmahera (see map 6). 

General Anami ordered Lieutenant General Adachi to move 18th Army 

westward to Wewak, thence to deploy his forces to defend Wewak, Aitape, 

and Hollandia. The 13th Army’s main strength, however, still remained east 

of Hansa Bay, In order to implement Second Area Army’s orders, Adachi 

had to move his battle-depleted, poorly supplied, and scattered units’ 500 

kilometers west9 from Wewak to Aitape, and nearly 350 kilometers from 
17 

Map 6. Japanese primary defense line, 30 September 1943 
18 

Wewak to Hollandia. In mid-April 1944, during the redeployment, the elements 

of the 51st Division had just reached Wewak, the 20th Division was passing 

through the vast swamp between the Ramu and Sepik rivers, and the 41st 

Division was stretched out between Madang and Hansa. More than 30,000 

Japanese troops were scattered east of Hansa, and 18th Army staff officers 

estimated that they would need another fifty days to get through the rugged 

terrain.l* The main reason for the slow pace was a lack of gasoline-powered 

transport. The 18th Army lacked both trucks for overland movement and 

barges for sea transport. A forced march was their last resort Beyond the 

sheer physical demands of such a move, they made their trek under 

increasingly dangerous circumstances. Intensified Allied aerial activity made 

all movement hazardous. While sudden tropical downpours would temporarily 

curtail the air threat, the rain would wash out jungle tracks and turn 

swamps into small lakes, further impeding the westward progress of the 

Japanese. Thus, at the time of the Allied landings at Hollandia and Aitape, 

18th Army had not completed its major redeployment. Instead, its combat 

units were scattered along a 470-kilometer stretch of New Guinea coastline. 
American and Japanese 

Operational Deployments 2 

‘JLP 

Hollandia and Aitape 

The combined Hollandia-Aitape operation was the largest SWPA operation 

to date, involving 217 ships, nearly 80,000 men, and their supplies moving 

more than 1,700 kilometers to conduct three sin~ultaneous amphibious landings 

(see map 7).20 The multiple invasions caught the Japanese Eighth and Second 

Area armies completely unprepared, the former expecting an invasion of 

Rabaul, the latter an Allied landing near Madang. SWPA’s successful 

deception effort thoroughly baffled the Japanese, who although warned by 

aircraft sighting reports of two Allied convoys moving north of the 

Admiralties, were unable to predict the exact objective of these armadas. 

On 21 April, one day before the landings, hundreds of American and 

Australian aircraft struck Hollandia, Aitape, and the Wakde-Sarmi vicinity. 

The magnitude of the strikes was such that local Japanese forces in each 

area believed that their sector was the main invasion target.*1 In addition 

to the obvious last-minute deception value of the air attacks, marauding 

Allied aircraft also destroyed the remnants of Japanese air strength in the 

region and guaranteed Allied air superiority throughout the subsequent 

campaigns. 

The main American landings at Hollandia met only scattered Japanese 

resistance. At Aitape, Persecution Task Force, commanded by Brig. Gen. 

Jens A. Doe, landed more than 12,000 men, about 7,000 of them combat 

troops of the 163d Regimental Combat Team (RCT), reinforced. They 

encountered no resistance as the nearby Japanese rear service support troops 

fled into the jungle. By dusk U.S. troops had taken their primary objective, 

the three airfields at Aitape, known collectively as the Tadji Drome. Engineer 

troops who had accompanied the landing forces quickly set to work rehabilitating the airfields. 

This was the first major landing in which units from the 3d Engineer 

Special Brigade participated. The 27th Combat Battalion, discovering no 

Japanese mines or booby traps, worked mainly on widening roads and 

strengthening bridges to support M4 medium tanks.22 Three Royal Australian 

Air Force mobile works (engineer) squadrons had a fighter strip operational 

19 
* 

. 

‘* 

+. 

&‘!np 2’. Allied landings, New Guinea, 22 April 1944 
21 

within two days of the landing, but heavy rains and poor drainage soon 

turned their labor into a quagmire. Work at a nearby bomber strip proceeded 

more slowly, even after the arrival in early May of the 872d and 875th 

American Airborne Aviation battalions. In fact. the bomber strip was not 

ready for use until early July, by which time the need for it had been 

overtaken by events. 

1st wave, .&tape, Dutch New Guinea. 

The engineers (40 percent of the invasion force) also unloaded seven 

Landing Ship Tanks (LSTs) the first day and began constructing roads. 

Unloading was sZowed by the lack of Landing Craft Mediums (LCMs). Only 

eight LCMs and one Landing Craft Tank (LCT) were available to unload 

the cargo ship, auxiliary (AK) Etamin, which remained stationary, unloading 

its cargo near the beachhead. 23 On 28 April, a lone Japanese aircraft slipped 

through the air defense net and bombed and damaged the Etamin, forcing 

it to scuttle its cargo in order to remain afloat. Ordnance support units 

consequently lost all their tools and spare partsz4 To add to the confusion, 

as their tension broke after the unopposed landings, the troops became very 

nonchalant about their personal belongings. Pilfering was common, and 

within twenty-four hours of the invasion, individual rations littered the entire 

beach. Soldiers discarded so many items of equipment and ammunition, 
22 

especially hand grenades, that one officer later commented on their “strong 

lack of discipline” and the need for more guards and military police to 

maintain order on future beachheads.25 

Moreover General Doe felt that the commander of the 163d Regiment 

was not moving quickly enough to secure his flanks. His tardiness ultimately 

led General Doe to recommend, and Lt. Gen. Walter Krueger, commander, 

6th Army, to approve, the relief of the 163d’s commander. He remained in 

command only until the 163d had been withdrawn to participate in the 

Wakde-Sarmi operation, 400 kilometers northwest of Aitape, General Krueger’s 

Ultra-derived knowledge of Japanese weakness near Aitape might have 

facilitated his concurrence in the relief of the overly cautious regimental 

commander. 

Gen. Douglas MacArthur and Lt. Gen. Walter Krueger. 

In any case, the 32d Infantry Division, veterans of the vicious Buna 

fighting, relieved the 163d RCT in early May. The 32d Division had trained 

and reorganized in Australia for seven months after Buna. Their training 

schedule stressed living in a jungle environment, individual combat training 

both day and night, basic and advanced amphibious training, and unit 

training, including night exercises. 26 The division’s 127th RCT had landed 
23 

at Aitape in late April, and the rest of tbe division, less the 128th Infantry 

Regiment, arrived on 4 May, The 128th re amo Force (6th Army) 

reserve at Saidor until 15 May, when it too Maj. Gen. William 

H. Gill, commander of the 32d Division, als and of Persecution 

Task Force. Gill, a Virginian and a grad rrgn-na Military Institute, 

was fifty-eight years old. He was a decorated World War I veteran with 

extensive staff and command experience and had commanded the 32d Division 

since March 1943. Gill dispatched elements of his 127th RCT to push eastward 

to uncover the whereabouts of General Adachi’s 18th Army and to learn 

its intentions.* At the sa e time, other ~~ttal~~~~ from the regiment would 

patrol and prepare defe ve ~ositiQ~s~ Minor patrol skirmishes aside, the 

first prolonged engagement” fought between Company C, 127th RCT, and 

the Japanese 78th Infantry Regiment, 20th Infantry Division, erupted on 

14 May near Marubian, about fifty kilometers east of the landing beaches. 

The inconclusive fight and the distance from potential reinforcements convinced General Gill not to push farther east.27 

As the Americans probed the Japanese forces, the Japanese scouted 

American units. On 10 May, 18th Army sent four long-range reconnaissance 

platoons westward to gather intelligence about American dispositions, to 

obstruct American efforts to collect battlefield intelligence about 18th Army, 

and to reconnoiter American entrenchments and positions near Aitape.28 

These Japanese troops probably ambushed a U.S. ration train on 31 May 

and clashed with the 1st Battalion, 127th Infantry, near Afua in early June. 

As both sides stepped up their patrol activity, clashes were bound to occur. 

A particularly sharp battle broke out near Vakamul, about thirty kilometers 

east of the beachhead where, from 31 May through 6 June, casualties on 

both sides exceeded one hundred killed and wounded.29 Increased sightings 

of Japanese patrols east and west of the Driniumor continued into early 

June, as it became abundantly clear that 18 Army was nearing Aitape 

in force. General Gill decided to protect the dji airstrip by establishing 

an outer defensive line, in the form of a covering force, along the Driniumor 

River. 

Covering force doctrine defined the purpose of such a defensive line as 

to provide time for the main force to prepare itself for combat, to deceive 

the enemy as to the actual location of e main battle position, to force the 

enemy to deploy early, and to provid a deeper view of the terrain over 

which the attacker would advance .s” If forced to withdraw, the covering 

force was expected to fight a delayin action against the enemy attacker. 

Covering force doctrine for jungle operations had languished. The 1944 version 

*Ultra intelligence (identified as such) was not supposed to be disseminated below army 

level, and even there distribution was restricted. But 6th Army pointed out that in the Pacific 

theater, corps operated as armies did in the European theater and that corps in the Pacific 

could thus receive Ultra intelligence. Moreover 6th Army also disseminated Ultra-derived intelligence in sanitized (source concealed) farm to army, corps, and division. staffs via the SWPA 

G-Z’s so-called Daily Summary, a secret-level daily intelligence bulletin. See SRH-107, “Problems 

of the SSO System in World War I&” 30-31, and Brief History, 18. 
24 

of the Jungle Warfare Manual restated verbatim chapters from the 1941 

edition on retrograde movement and delaying action. That meant that the 

112th Cavalry Regiment and the 32d Infantry Division were ordered to 

conduct operations according to a doctrine that had officially remained 

unchanged despite nearly three years’ combat experience in jungle warfare.31 

Nonetheless, Gill’s decision was consistent with his principal mission, which 

was to protect the Tadji airfields against Japanese attack. The inconsistency 

lay in the doctrine and the small number of troops available to defend an 

extended river line in jungle terrain. 

By doctrinal theory, a rifle battalion in the defense would be assigned 

frontage of 900 to 1,800 meters, depending on the defensive strength of the 

terrain.32 The depth of such a defense would vary from 720 to 1,260 meters. 

In theory, the defense of a river line with extremely wide frontages corresponded to any defense on a wide front, depending on the type of terrain, 

Again, according to the manual, if the terrain at the riverbank was unsuited 

for close defensive fires, the main line of resistance might be withdrawn 

from the river to obtain improved fields of grazing fire. In practice, on 7 

June 1944 the 1st Battalion, 128th Infantry, held a 1,800-meter front running 

south from the mouth of the Driniumor. The 1st Battalion, 127th Infantry, 

defended a 3,300-meter front that extended north from the vicinity of Afua. 

Patrols covered the approximately 2,700-meter gap between the units.33 The 

two rifle battalions were greatly overextended and, given the jungle terrain, 

were in fact isolated. Japanese reconnaissance patrols easily infiltrated 

through the porous American lines. 

These Japanese long-range patrols were so successful at remaining 

undetected deep behind the U.S. front lines that the Americans thought 

that Japanese reconnaissance patrol activity near the Driniumor had slacked 

off in early June. The stealth of the reconnaissance patrols contrasted sharply 

with the bold activity of Japanese fighting patrols, whose ambush and 

surveillance tactics proved singuIarly effective in preventing American 

reconnaissance patrols from crossing Niumen Creek, about 2,700 meters east 

of the Driniumor. Nevertheless, the combination of ground activity, patrol 

reports, and aerial reconnaissance, combined with Ultra, revealed that 18th 

Army was inexorably moving west. Sixth Army’s May “Summary of Operations” noted the increasing Japanese pressure on Persecution Task Force’s 

eastern flank and warned that the enemy had “strong forces” moving towards 

Aitape.34 

18th Army Moves West 

The 22 April Allied landings at Aitape and Hollandia naturally 

provoked an immediate Japanese reaction. Lieutenant General Adachi 

thought that if he attacked at Aitape with the entire 18th Army 

immediately, he might be able to break through the American defenses 

there and move on to seize Hollandia. Given the condition of his troops 

and the enormous distances involved, it is doubtful that even Adachi 
25 

seriously believed such a grand scheme was possible. More likely he 

reasoned that, at the very least, a counterattack would retard the enemy’s 

westward advance and thereby contribute to the overall operations of 

Second Area Army .35 Adaehi hoped to cooperate with Second Area Army, 

which could attack the beachheads from the west as 18th Army attacked 

them from the east. 

General Anami, commander of the Second Area Army, already had 

ordered two battalions of his 36th Infantry Division, located near the SarmiWakde area, eastward to check the Allied landing at Hollandia. When he 

received Adachi’s signal outlining 18th Army’s plan, Anami was receptive 

to the concept of a pincer attack against the invaders. ConsequentIy, on 

the night of 24 April, Anami alerted the entire 36th Division for an attack 

against Hollandia. In the midst of these preparations, Anami transmitted 

his intentions to Southern Army at Singapore. Unless the Japanese could 

retake Hollandia, he warned, it would jeopardize Second Area Army’s fkture 

operations. 

Southern Army and IGHQ, however, disagreed with Anami’s assessment 

and, rather than endorse the Hollandia attack, instead ordered Second Area 

Army to prepare against possible future Allied attacks in western New 

Guinea and the approaches to the Fhilippines and Palau, as well as against 

raids by AIlied task forces against the western Caroline Islands. Moreover, 

because of Allied air superiority, IGHQ was reluctant to commit ground 

forces to the Hollandia counterattack without adequate air cover. The 

Imperial Navy Combined Fleet also opposed such an operation, deeming it 

“‘difficult to expect the Hollandia counterattack to succeed” because of 

enemy air superiority east of Sarmi, New Guinea.36 

On 2 May 1944, in consonance with its strategic appreciation, IGHQ 

ordered 18th Army to move west “‘as quickly as possible” in order to link 

up with Second Area Army and thereby to improve Japanese defenses in 

western New Guinea. Simultaneously, .IGHQ redefined Second Area Army’s 

primary defense line as extending to the inner part of Geelvink Bay, 

Manokwari, Sorong, and the Halmahera Islands. The withdrawal of Second 

Area Army units around Sarmi increased the separation between 18th Army 

from Second Area Army and made it necessary for Adachi’s troops to cover 

even greater distances to achieve a linkup. In effect, IGHQ had written aff 

18th Army. General Anami, however, had not. He continued to advocate a 

more active defense and took his case to Southern Army at Singapore, 

where during a two-day conference on 5 and 6 May, Anami pressed for 

approval of his plan to counterattack the Allied forces at Hollandia. 

Reinforcements en route could be used for that purpose. 

IGHQ previously had ordered the 32d and 35th Infantry divisions then 

in the Philippines transferred to western New Guinea in order to reinforce 

Anami’s command. On 6 May, however, U.S. submarines attacked this 

convoy just south of the Philippines, and the two divisions lost most of 
26 

their artillery and infantry weapons in the attacks.37 This latest disaster 

again forced IGHQ, Southern Army, and Second Area Army to reevaluate 

Japanese operations in the New ‘Guinea theater. 

Anami still wanted the survivors of the two ill-fated divisions sent to 

his command. IGHQ rejected this alternative because it remained unwilling 

to send the units to forward combat areas where the Japanese lacked air 

superiority. Instead, IGHQ again redefined the “primary defense line,” this 

time to exclude Geelvink Bay, although the bay, Biak, and Manokwari were 

to be held “as long as possible” against Allied attacks. The decision pulled 

Second Area Army even farther away from 18th Army. MacArthur’s 17 

May landings at Sarmi, about 250 kilometers west of Hollandia, put Anami 

on the defensive, and he had to forsake any plans for a counterattack 

against Hollandia. Then, on 27 May, the U.S. 41st Infantry Division, less 

one regiment, stormed ashore at Biak (see map 8). The subsequent loss of 

Biak cut the last direct line of communication between Second Area Army 

and 18th Army. 

With dogged determination, 18th Army was pushing slowly west. On 

15 May, Adachi had one of his staff officers fly from Wewak to Davao to 

tell General Anami that he intended to attack Aitape.38 The fall of Biak, 

however, had altered General Adachi’s chain of command. Isolated from 

Second Area Army, 18th Army found itself, on 16 June, subordinated 

directly to Southern Army by IGHQ. IGHQ also limited Adachi’s mission 

to conducting “a delaying action at strategic locations in eastern New 

Guinea “a9 That meant Adachi no longer had any military reason to attack 

Aitape,’ 

Adachi’s personal reasons, however, remained. To General Adachi’s 

thinking, 18th Army’s entire reason for being a fighting force was 

inextricably bound to the Aitape attack because of the deployment and the 

condition of his units. By late June his units had already begun to deploy 

for battle. The main elements of the 20th Division, for instance, had reached 

the Driniumor River on 18 June. They had started their two-month march 

through the jungle from Hansa, averaging ten kilometers a day. By the 

time they arrived at the Driniumor, they were making about half that 

distance daily. Their personal hardships on this trek exemplified the 

enormous difficulties Japanese units had to overcome during this overland 

move. Adachi could not concede that their hardships had been for naught. 

A shortage of all classes of supplies and communications equipment 

also plagued 18th Army: a lack of expendable signal equipment, such as 

battery cells and tubes; shortages of wire cutters (essential for use against 

wire entanglements), antitank equipment, and hollow charge shells for the 

Type 94 mountain gun and the Type 92 infantry gun; only 300 trucks for 

the three divisions; and but twenty-seven landing barges to shuttle troops 

along the coast. 40 Furthermore, 4th Air Army could provide neither effective 

air defense nor aerial reconnaissance and aerial photographs to guide the 
.._ . .^ 

I 

PAL-/F fC OCEAN 
28 

soldiers during their march. Following the destruction of 4th Air Army, the 

Allied air arms had switched their main efforts to attacking ground troops 

on the march and in their laager areas. Nearly 800 of the 2,600 tons of 

Japanese supplies were lost to Allied air strikes. 

Individual formations likewise suffered. The 51st Division had only 

thirty trucks to move its equipment and supplies, leaving the division 

commander no alternative but to mobilize 1,700 of his combat troops as 

bearers to carry the division’s baggage. Movement along coastal waterways 

became exceptionally dangerous as Allied aircraft, PT boats, and warships 

made numerous ‘forays to interdict these transportation routes. Everyone 

realized that no major resupply convoys could be expected. Officers therefore 

ordered their men to take care of their equipment and clothing; in order to 

preserve their boots, troops were ordered to go barefoot in rivers and 

swamps and to wear &zbi (thick-soled stockings) in camp instead of the 

precious boots.41 

The move by the 2d Battalion, 80th Infantry Regiment, illustrated in 

microcosm the extent of 18th Army’s problems. On 20 June the battalion 

neared the Driniumor and sent scouts to reconnoiter the so-called Paup 

Hamlets, four small native villages. About 1400, an American fighting 

patrol, numbering an estimated thirty to forty men, attacked the neighboring 3d Battalion’s position. Later in the day, Allied aircraft bombed and 

strafed near the 2d Battalion’s bivouac. The next day Allied aircraft 

continued to bomb and strafe randomly throughout the area. Allied artillery 

exploded a few hundred meters from the battalion area, but there were no 

casualties. On the twenty-fourth, patrols reported that the Americans had 

established outposts along the Driniumor, and other patrols clashed with 

American patrols, losing one man killed and another wounded. The 2d 

Battalion was readying an attack against U.S. positions in the Paup 

Hamlets for 29 June when it received word from division to postpone the 

assault because of the delay in moving supplies forward to support the 

other combat units involved in the operation.42 On 27 June, around noon, 

Allied aircraft bombed and strafed near the battalion’s positions, and about 

0200 on 29 June Allied warships shelled the area. Neither incident caused 

casualties, but they were disruptive and unsettling. Yet all the 2d Battalion 

could do was dig in, block American reconnaissance patrols from moving 

through its area, and await further orders. Meanwhile, malnutrition and 

disease stalked the Japanese troops with deadlier effects than the Allied 

shelling and bombing. 

Despite the hardships, 18th Army had little choice but to move west. 

Army staff officers estimated that with its normal organization and supply 

requirement it would be able to remain in the Wewak area until the end of 

September.43 As 18th Army chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Yoshihara Kane, phrased 

it, the Japanese could die where they were or die advancing. Both ways 

were perilous, but the Japanese finally decided to carry out their duty to 

the nation. They advanced.d4 
29 

As early as 5 May, preliminary intelligence reports about American 

forces at Aitape filtered into 18th Army. The reports, based on extensive 

Japanese patrolling in the Aitape vicinity, correctly noted that the Aitape 

airfields were the center of the American position and described a semicircular defensive perimeter about ten kilometers east of the airstrips. 

Probably because of the lethargic U.S. movement to establish flanks, 

Japanese patrols reported that the U.S. lines appeared anchored on the 

Nigia River, about halfway between Aitape and the Driniumor River. This, 

Adachi decided, was the defensive line he had to capture. 

General Adachi’s initial plan was simple, but risky. He planned to 

concentrate all available combat units on, a narrow, 500-meter front, to 

echelon them in depth, and to launch a surprise attack that would penetrat% 

the entire depth of the American defenses. Following their breakthrough of 

the American covering force, the Japanese attackers would regroup at 

Chinapelli and then attack Aitape from the south. Planners estimated that 

the entire operation would take three days.45 

Confusion about the exact timing of the attack contributed to conflicting 

Allied interpretations of Ultra evidence. According to Japanese documents, 

the attack was to commence in mid-July. That date, however, originally 

seems to have referred to the second-phase attack planned against the 

Aitape perimeter after the destruction of covering force defenses. The 

Japanese initially had set a mid-June date for their attack against the U.S. 

covering forces supposedly on the Nigia River. Based on the recoIlections 

of an 18th Army staff officer, the attack was indeed to commence in midJune, but the delays in moving men and supplies through the jungle 

necessitated several postponements because only about 10 percent of 

Adachi’s forces were in their attack assembly areas by mid-June. The 

confusion and postponements paradoxically worked to 18th Army’s 

advantage. Ultra provided so much information to 6th Army about the 

Japanese maneuvers that intelligence analysts might have been unable to 

see the forest for the trees. 
Ultra and Operations 3 

IcIp 1 

6th Army’s Perspective 

The German-born commander of 6th Army, Lt. Gen. Walter Krueger, 

was sixty-three years old and near the pinnacle of his career. His remarkable military life began as an enlisted man in the Spanish-American War, 

and he would cap his career in 1944 with a fourth star. In his memoirs, 

General Krueger wrote that increasing Japanese activity in June and the 

capture of enemy documents revealed that the enemy planned an intensive 

reconnaissance of the Aitape area. 46 Krueger could not then write about the 

role of Ultra in forewarning his command of Japanese intentions. SWPA’s 

Central Bureau indeed provided a running intelligence commentary on the 

activities of General Adachi’s 18th Army. Much of this Ultra information, 

in turn, appeared in sanitized form in SWPA’s Daily Intelligence Summary, 

which was much more widely available to field units. Concealing the source 

of the precise information on Japanese activities, usually with the caveat 

“According to a Japanese PW,” enabled SWPA G-2 to pass enormous 

amounts of Ultra-detected intelligence to its lower echelon units. The very 

volume of available intelligence information perhaps tended to confuse 

rather than to enlighten the intelligence analysts. 

Without the complete Special Intelligence Bulletin (SIB) issued by 

SWPA, it is impossible to reconstruct with exactitude the Central Bureau’s 

analytical process. The results of those labors, however, also appear in the 

Daily Intelligence Summary and, coupled with the Ultra information in the 

Magic Summary-Japanese Army Supplement, do show the unfolding 

intelligence estimate of 18th Army’s situation. This tactical appreciation 

reveals Ultra in a far different light from its heralded strategic value. The 

Ultra-derived perception of the enemy came to rule the conduct of operations 

as a weapon whose tactical benefit was, at best, enigmatic. 

Only two days after the Aitape landing, SWPA intelligence analysts 

first surfaced the idea that the Japanese would probably bypass Aitape in 

order to attack Hollandia. Exactly where this interpretation originated is 

unknown, but it colored General Krueger’s perception of the Aitape covering 

force’s role until late June and, perhaps, even later. Krueger feared that 

31 
32 

Persecution Task Force might be contained within the main line of 

resistance (MLRl while the Japanese bypassed it and attacked Hollandia. 

During the next few weeks, for example, SWPA 6-2”s Daily Intelligence 

Summary reported that although a Japanese attack on Aitape was within 

enemy capabilities, it was not considered probable because the enemy 

“gains nothing.‘” Allied troops at Hollandia would still be athwart 18th 

Army’s supply lines (30 April--L May 1944). 

A few days later, G-2 reversed itself and suggested that an attack on 

Aitape would achieve more than one against Hollandia (3-4 May 19441, 

but shortly thereafter, it analyzed such an attack as diversionary in nature 

to allow the main body of 18th Army to slip around the south flank of the 

Aitape defenses (8-9 May 1944). The mid-May Japanese attack against 

Company 6, 127th Infantry, at Rabiang was initially believed to be the 

expected Japanese counterattack, and analysts thought that Japanese 

maneuver units would try to reach Aitape as quickly as possible (E-17 

May 1944). Because the Japanese, however, did not follow up their attack, 

G-2 in late May again advised that all indications pointed to a Japanese 

attempt to bypass Aitape (25-26 May 1944).47 When Ultra illuminated 18th 

Army’s exact battle plans, overreliance on the Ultra sources blinded 

analysts to subtle shifts and variations in the Japanese scheme of 

maneuver. 

The first Ultra-derived indication of Japanese intentions to attack 

Aitape appeared from the decryption of a 28 May message from Southern 

Army to Tokyo. Available to SWPA on 1 June, the message was a plea to 

rush supplies to Wewak by the end of June ‘“due to the attack on Aitape 

by Mo [l&h Army].“@ This information, plus additional SWPA intelligence 

garnered from two letters written by Japanese officers of the 239th Infantry 

Regiment stating that their division would join the 20th Division in an 

attack against Aitape and Hollandia, appeared in the 2 June MSJAS.49 

The following day the more widely distributed Daily InteIligence Summary 

mentioned the possibility of a Japanese attack against the Aitape 

perimeter.50 Around this time Ultra eavesdropped on the Japanese staff 

deliberations concerning operations against Aitape, and as the Japanese 

hammered out a consensus, Ultra provided SWPA all the Japanese options. 

It thus became more and more diffieult to reconcile seemingly contradictory 

messages. A 7 May order, for instance, instructed 18th Army to use 

“aggressive tactics” during its withdrawal, but to attempt no ““suicidal’” 

moves. Other messages showed l&h Army hardly prepared for offensive 

operations, existing an reduced rations with only half the ammunition 

required for a major engagement. Beyond Ultra, SWPA depended upon the 

cumulative intelligence evidence, human intelligence (HUMINT), aerial 

reconnaissance, POW interrogations, captured documents, and patrol reports 

to piece together their mosaic of Japanese intentions. Amidst this welter of 

conflicting, incomplete, and sometimes contradictory evidence, it is not 

surprising that G-2, SWPA, clung to its original assessment that although 

the Japanese might be able to complete their attack preparations by the 
33 

end of June, the attack would only be a cover for further withdrawals, 

with no “desperate” moves planned. s1 In short, they attributed their own 

rationality to their Japanese opponents. 

Although the week of 11-18 June provided only minor contacts between 

roving Japanese and American patrols, on 17 June Genera1 MacArthur 

offered General Krueger the use of a regiment of the 31st Infantry Division 

to meet the impending Japanese threat near Aitape. Krueger, who by that 

time was planning his own ‘%igorous counteroffensive” against 18th Army, 

informed MacArthur that he preferred the veteran 112th Cavalry Regiment 

to a green unit from the 31st Division. Krueger’s conviction that veteran 

troops could fight and kill the enemy better, faster, and with fewer friendly 

casualties was almost universally accepted among Army officers. Postwar 

studies, based admittedly on limited comparative data, lend support to this 

popular notion .52 MacArthur agreed with Krueger’s recommendation and, 

on 24 June, ordered the 112th Cavalry RCT* to Aitape. Although earlier 

Krueger had been reluctant to request reinforcements, that same day a 155- 

mm howitzer battalion was sent to Aitape to replace artillery sent to new 

operational areas in western New Guinea. Number ‘71 Wing, Royal 

Australian Air Force, simultaneously received orders to remain at Aitape. 

Krueger also reversed himself and ordered the 124th Infantry Regiment, 

31st Infantry Division, to Aitape and a speedup in shipping the 43d 

Infantry Division from its New Zealand staging area to Aitape.53 These 

reinforcements would bring U.S. forces near Aitape to more than two 

divisions, leading Krueger to form a corps-level headquarters. He selected 

Maj. Gen. Charles P. Hall to command this newly created XI Corps. Born 

in Mississippi in 1886 and graduated from West Point in 1911, Hall was a 

highly decorated World War I veteran and had spent nine of the interwar 

years at the Infantry School. Hall and his staff, however, had only recently 

arrived in New Guinea fresh from the United States and, according to 

General Gill, “didn’t know anything about jungle fighting,” being 

“untrained in this thing from the top down.“54 Krueger’s instructions to 

Hall were: 

Recent information indicates that the Japanese are planning an all-out attack 

against our- farces in the Aitape area. It is estimated that the enemy can 

concentrate in the area south and east of Yakamul, by 30 June, a combat force of 

20,ooO. Additional units of a strength of approximately 11,000 are reported to be in 

the Wewak area. 

Missions assigned to the Persecution Task Force remain unchanged (defense of 

the Tadji Drome and other installations at Aitape). In carrying out these missions 

you will conduct an active defense, breaking the initial impetus of the Japanese 

attadk against a flexible defense system and following up with a vigorous counteroffensive when the strength of your force and the tactical situation permits [sic1.s5 

*The fl2th’s official designation was the 112th Regimental Combat Team (RCT). For the 

Aitape campaign, however, its 148th Field Artillery Battalion did not accompany the rest of 

the unit. So although identified as an RCT, the 112th at Aitape was in faet a dismounted 

horse eaualry regiment. 
34 

Persecution Task Force had evolved rapidly during May and June as 

additional reinforcements and support troops poured into the Aitape area.* 

Major General Gill, now placed in command of Eastern Defense Area, 

realized that any serious Japanese threat would develop on his eastern 

flank, and he therefore devoted his energies ta strengthening that line. Gn 

10 June, Gill’s West Sector was held by the 126th Infantry Regiment (minus 

its 2d Battalion); his Center Sector was held by the 123th Infantry (minus 

its 1st Battalion); and the East Sector, by the 127th Infantry and the twa 

battalions taken from West and Center, respectively. This reinforced 

covering force was commanded by Brig. Gen. Clarence A. Martin and 

designated Eastern Defense Command, Its defensive line was anchored on 

Driniumor’s west bank, about, thirty-five kilometers from the Tadji airfields 

(see map 9). This distance, most of it through jungle terrain, and the 

increased manpower required that logistic priority be given to the covering 

force, 

At the 32d Division command past at Aitape. Fram ireft to right: Maj. Gen. C. P. Hall, commanding general of task forces; Maj. Gen. William R. Gill, commanding general of 32d Division; and Maj. Gen. Leonard F. Wing, commanding officer of 43d Division. 

*See app. 2 for argankational charts depicting evolution of Persecution Task Force. 
35 

Map 9. U.S. Amy dispositions, Aitape, June 1944 
36 

Resupply reached the units along the Driniumor through a variety of 

means. Small boats moved supplies along the coast, and native-portered 

ration trains carried provisions along the coastal track. MaterieP destined 

for Afua moved south inland from the coast along the Anama- a trail 

or, later during the campaign, over an inland track running from the Tadji 

aifields through Chinapelli and Palauru. After the Japanese ambush of a 

ration party in early June, the command resorted to air drops for resupply. 

A dropping ground about 2,OQO meters north of Afua served as the main 

resupply point for U.S. units operating near Afua. 

Members of 128th Infantry Regiment, 32d Division, move np to the front along the beach at 

&tape. 

Units defending the Driniumor used radio to communicate with each 

other, but telephone to talk with higher headquarters. Radio range, however, 

was limited by the thick jungle vegetation, its impenetrable canopy, and 

atmospheric conditions. Most radio communications at night simply deteriorated into static. Telephone contact depended on easily broken wire. Friendly 

troops walking over it, artillery exploding on it, humidity rotting it, or, 

worst of all, Japanese patrols cutting it made wire communications as 

undependable as radio. StilI, jungle trails and defensive perimeters were 

soon crissmossed with telephone wires, because as the official historian notes, 

it was usually less hazardous to string new wire than to attempt to splice 

breaks in the line, particularly when the Japanese laid ambushes at those 

places where they had cut the wire.56 
37 

Artillery and air support at Aitape were also augmented as the Japanese 

threat Zmmed ever closer. After the original three P-40 squadrons of No. 78 

Wing, Royal Australian Air Force, departed at the end of May, only the 

110th Reconnaissance Squadron of the U.S. 5th Air Force remained. Then 

on 9 June, No. 71 Wing, R&AF, equipped with Beaufighters, arrived at 

&tape and provided close air support throughout the campaign. The 5th. 

Air Force A-2& and B-25s provided additional air support, staging first 

from Nadzab and later from HoHandia. Fifth Air Force C-4%, also flying 

from those two bases and occasionally from the Tadji strips, flew the aerial 

resupply missions that dropped rations and ammunition to US, troops along 

the Driniumor.57 

The 181st Field Artillery Battalion’s 155-mm howitzers reinforced the 

organic 105~mm howitzers of the 32d Division and provided artillery support.58 

Artillerymen worked under severe handicaps at Aitape because photomaps 

were too inaccurate to provide them a basis for a firing chart to enable 

them to plot accurately the locations of friendly troops. Air observation and 

numerous fire registrations partially alleviated, but never solved, the problem. 

To compensate for their deficiency in accuracy, artillerymen resorted to 

quantity. An Army historian described the “tremendous expenditure” of 

artillery ammunition, estimated by XI Corps to be the largest expenditure 

in any campaign up to that time in SWPA.59 As will be seen, their profligacy 

would also require an enormous logistical effort just to keep the guns supplied 

with ammunition. In the defensive perimeter around Aitape, artillerymen 

positioned their batteries in diamond-shaped formations to obtain all-around 

fire. They located their batteries near the beach line to get minimum range 

necessary. AH howitzers were dug in, and positions contained protective 

cover for ammunition and crews $60 These guns would be decisive in disrupting 

one Japanese attack after another. 

With reinforcements either in place or on the way, Krueger, though 

confident be could meet any contingency, believed that “the expected attack 

could not be met successfully by Aitape Task Force standing on the 

defensive.“61 Here; it seems, Ultra dictated his operational directives.” On 

25 June the first translations of the ‘“complete plan of attack by the 20th 

and 41st divisions became available.“62 Central Bureau had intercepted and 

decrypted a Japanese signal that announced that the attack against Aitape 

“is scheduled to begin about 10 July and to be made by approximately 

20,000 troops, according to an 18th Army (HQ Wewak) message dated 20 

Junfe].” It should be noted that the signal made no mention of a flanking 

attack against Afua. Central Bureau apparently derived that perception from 

the analysis of Ultra together with captured letters, written by Japanese 

officers of the 239th Infantry Regiment in mid-May, documents captured on 

31 May, and the reported disposit;ion of the Japanese 78th Regiment. Nonetheless, the 27 June MSJAS paraphrasing SWPA’s special intelligence reports 

described the plan outlined in the 20 June intercept as calling for the 20th 

Wee app. 1 far a sampling of pertinent ll%bwmbtecl intelligence assessments. 
38 

Division to attack west across the Driniumor, while the 41s.t moved south 

and attacked north and northwest toward the Aitape and Tadji airfields. 

Accompanying this information was a band-drawn map illustrating the 20th 

Division% frontal attack across the Driniumor about three kilometers from 

the mouth of the river, concurrent with the 41~0 Division”s envelopment of 

the southern U.S. ank, thence north towards &tape. Such a plan of attack 

reflected Central ureau’s translators’ and analysts’ interpretation of the 

20 June message.*63 According to the original Japanese attack order, the 

final assault against Aitape would indeed originate from the south, but it 

would not involve a flanking maneuver. After both Japanese divisions broke 

through the center of the American covering force, the Japanese planned 

to envelop these American defenders from the rear, destroy them, and then 

regroup to attack Aitape from a southwest axis. 

The very next day, SWPA reported that according to another intercepted 

message the Japanese intended to make a preliminary attack across the 

Driniumor on 29 June. This 24 June signal emanated from Headquarters, 

20th Division, whose commander, Lt. Gen. Nakai Matsutaro, wanted his 

troops to drive back the American covering force “‘as early as possible” to 

facilitate the second, and main, Japanese attack against the American main 

line af resistance near &tape. Nakai communicated his plans for such a 29 

June attack to 18th Army. But because units of the 41st Division were 

unable to deploy properly by that date, he postponed the attack until 3 

July and later was ordered to wait until 10 July.64 The SIB for 27-28 

June reported this development along with the facts that Japanese units 

were far understrength, suffering severe supply difficulties, and cut off from 

possible reinforcement. Furthermore, additional fragmentary intercepts 

revealed that the Japanese had expressed doubts about their ability to 

accomplish this mission on time, The cumulative evidence led SWPA G-2 

analysts to conclude that “supply difficulties may force the date of the attack 

to be shghtly delayed.“@ 

The 24 June intercept, however, probably did prompt General Krueger 

to fly from Hollandia to Aitape on 27 June to confer with his new corps 

commander, General Hall.66 Also present at the 28 June meeting was General 

GilI, now commanding the Eastern Defense Area, Gill voiced his concern 

over his force being overextended and thus unsupportable because of the 

difficulties in moving artillery and supplies through the jungle from Aitape 

to the Driniumor. Cognizant of the possibility of an imminent Japanese 

attack on the covering force, he requested reinforcements and permission to 

withdraw his force into the main defensive perimeter. Krueger not only rejected 

Gill’s proposal, but also ordered General Hall to strengthen the Driniumor 

covering force and to take steps necessary to meet the Japanese attack 

*The possilde reasons for the interpretation are numerous: first, the ambiguity of the 

Japanese language; second, missing groups or “u~ords~~ in the message; third, Ultra in cambination with other intelligence sowces altered perceptions; fourth, and not least, the intelligence 

analysts worked m&r fremeadeus pressure trmslating more than %,OOO intercepts in 1944 

alone and did not have the leisurely retrospective powers time confers on historians. 
39 

with a powerful counterattack .67 Because Ultra had indicated the possibility 

of a Japanese attack the next day, 29 June, perhaps Krueger meant that 

Hall should be ready to counterattack when the opportunity arose. Wall’s 

G-2 revealed XI Corps’s concern about the reliability of 6th Army’s intelligence 

when he questioned the source of Krueger’s detailed information about the 

impending Japanese attack. In reply, Krueger sent a top secret signal to 

XI Corps G-2 that explained that the Japanese scheme of maneuver and 

the objectives of the 29 June Japanese attack were “based upon further 

interpretation of ultra information.“6& 

After 29 June had passed without a major Japanese attack, intelhgence 

analysts reassessed their work and concluded that while the order of battle 

information in the 24 June message was accurate, the date of the attack 

had been postponed, exactly as they had foreseen. The 10 July date mentioned 

in the earlier 20 June intercept now appeared to be the day that the attack 

would commence. Further complicating the situation, on 30 June General 

Hall sent a priority message to General Krueger stating that a Japanese 

prisoner captured near Yakamul had reported an “attack to be made between 

first and tenth July’” against U.S. lines along the Driniumor.69 The Daily 

Intelligence Summary for l-2 July, again resorting to the cover of a POW 

report, provided extensive details of the Japanese tactical order of battle 

for the impending attack, including the two-pronged plan of maneuver. The 

interpretation of a Japanese frontal assault to fix U.S. defenders, while the 

main force units maneuvered south around the covering force’s flank, had 

taken on a Eife of its own.70 Its origins may be found in the original SWPA 

assessments that 18th Army would try to bypass Aitape to the south. In 

short, overwhelming evidence indicating a Japanese attack was available, 

but the framework of analysis remained flawed. 

As the Japanese maneuver battalions worked their way into their attack 

positions, their headquarters elements followed closely, negating the need 

for wireless communications between command echelons and reducing the 

number of Allied intercepts. In addition, atmospheric conditions and numerous 

breaks in Japanese landlines forced the Japanese to forsake both wire and 

signal communications and resort to runners to insure the delivery of critical 

orders. These factors influenced both the Japanese and American conduct 

of the battle, as a brief background of the situation demonstrates, On 30 

June General Adachi and 18th Army Headquarters staff arrived at Charov, 

where a subsequent conference among Adachi and his division commanders 

eventually ratified his plan to conduct a frontal attack in deep echelon on 

a narrow front. No flanking maneuver was planned. After the initial breakthrough and destruction of the U.S. covering force, the Japanese would 

reorganize and press on toward Aitape. These verbal orders to division 

commanders naturahy were unavailable to SWPA analysts who continued 

to think in terms of a two-pronged attack. Even more significant, runners 

hand-carried Adachi’s final attack order, issued 3 July, to the respective 

division commanders resulting in two inadvertent consequences. First, it 

delayed significantly the receipt by Japanese units of their operational orders. 
40 

In the case of the 41st Division, for instance, orders did not arrive until 

the morning of 7 July and forced the division to deploy and attack over 

ground that it had no time to reconnoiter V71 Second, with Ultra dried up, 

CentraI Bureau never did intercept the definitive Japanese plan of attack 

against Aitape.* 

American patrols took up the Ultra slack and reported increased enemy 

activity.72 Moreover, on 7 July so-called secret information, most likely di&illed 

from the reevaluation of availabIe intercepts and captured documents, reached 

the covering force. This information indicated that the Japanese planned 

to attack the Driniumor line on 10 July. 73 With four infantry battahons 

and one cavalry regiment deployed on or in reserve along the Driniumor, 

the covering force, alerted and prepared for an attack, seemed in perfect 

position to wreak havoc on any Japanese assault. In fact, however, the 

Japanese achieved tactical surprise, broke through the U.S. lines, and 

precipitated a bloody month-long fight for control of the Driniumor, Genera1 

Krueger’s own tactical decisions facilitated the Japanese breakthrough. 

Krueger chafed at standing on the defensive. He perceived from Ultra 

that the Japanese intended to attack the Driniumor covering force, and he 

understood the pitiful supply situation plaguing the Japanese maneuver units. 

Furthermore, Ultra assessments led him to expect a two-pronged Japanese 

attack that would develop as a holding action to cover a Japanese envelopment of the covering force from the south. Simultaneously, Krueger’s 6th 

Army was conducting major operations at Hollandia, Wakde, Biak, and 

Nbemfoor and preparing for the Sansapor invasion. Krueger was under 

enormous pressure, and rather than let the A&ape situation linger, he decided 

that “it was desirable to develop the situation and bring matters to a head. 

Accordingly he ordered a reconnaissance in force to proceed to the Harech 

River and be prepared for further operations on Task Force order.*‘74 

The reconnaissance in force, ordered on 8 July, would proceed west along 

the northern and southern flanks of the covering forces. The northern force 

would disrupt any Japanese attempts to use the coastal road to transport 

supplies to their attack staging areas. The southern force would disrupt 

Japanese enveloping forces by forcing them into action before they were 

completely ready. The reconnaissance, however, required Krueger to strip 

away all reserves from the covering force, denuding, in Gill’s words, “the 

pitiful force we had on the defense,“75 The operation began on the morning 

of 10 July. That night thousands of Japanese would storm the U.S. lines. 

American patroIs had been reporting increased Japanese pressure. But 

it had been strangely quiet in the Company F, 2d Battalion, 128th Infantry, 

sector, where only one patrol contact was reported between 29 June and 10 

July. The absence of Japanese activity convinced the members of Company 

*SRiY-059, 0.26, argues that the IO July attack followed the same pattern as the abortive 

29 June plan. Although the plans were similar, the change of dates caused analysts difficulties 

in ferreting out Japanese intentions. 
41 

F that they were the target of an impending Japanese counterattack. They 

reasoned that the Japanese avoidance of the entire 2d Battalion sector 

suggested that the Japanese intended to attack there.76 Japanese troops were 

active, however, in the 3d Battalion, 127th Infantry, sector, which bordered 

the 2d Battalion on the south. During the morning of 10 July, 3d Battalion 

patrols sighted several strong Japanese fighting patrols, but whether or not 

they reported these sightings back to Persecution Task Force commander 

remains uncertain. Even if they had, the reports probably would have made 

little difference. 

At Task Force Headquarters, General Hall was not unduly concerned 

about an imminent Japanese attack. He had been expecting a Japanese 

attack since 5 July and had no reason to believe that the night of 10-11 

July would pass any differently from those preceding it. General Gill felt 

that his G-2 had not impressed Hall sufficiently, and consequently his 

warnings of an imminent attack were disregarded. For instance, Hall would 

not believe the Japanese could bring mountain artillery through the jungle 

nor would he give total credence to intelligence estimates developed by the 

32d Division G-2 section .77 Hall signaled Krueger about 2330 that the 

reconnaissance in force eastward would continue the following day.78 Maj. 

Gen. Charles A. Willoughby, SWPA G-2, was even more certain that the 

Japanese attack had again been postponed. On 10 July the MSJAS reported 

that 18th Army’s attack 

which was scheduled to begin on that day had not been attempted and that there 

were no signs of the patrol activity which would be expected to precede the attack. 

G-2 SWPA suggested that the attack might have been postpaned until urgently 

needed supplies could be received by submarine and plane and supplies in the 

forward area built upT9 

The UItra card, it seems, had been misplayed. 

7 12th Cavalry’s Deployment 

to the Driniumor 

4 

+e 

Map 10 shows the disposition of U.S. forces along and across the 

Driniumor River about two hours before the Japanese attack. The headquarters map and its unit symbols were operational tools. They represented 

battlefield reality, the commander’s operational deployment, and the enemy 

situation. They were ready reference aids for the commander and his staff. 

The artificial structure of battle necessarily imposed by higher headquarters 

could not accurately represent every event at the tactical unit level. The 

vast increase in human activity at the lower links in the chain of command 

precluded that. From the idealized solitary figure of the commander pondering 

his next order to the range of complex preparations of a rifle squad before 

patrol-and the squad was only a tiny fraction of a battalion-generalizations 

based on individual unit reports could place a patina of order on the chaos 

of battle. For instance, 6th Army Headquarters’ knowledge of the location 

of its subordinate units was fairly accurate. The 32d Division, however, 

probably had a better grasp of the friendly and enemy situation near Aitape. 

Line units, like the 112th Cavalry, understood better than those two higher 

echelons the deadliness of the Japanese infantryman. Individual cavalrymen 

saw, heard, smelled, or fought their enemy. They were, conversely, almost 

totally ignorant of how 6th Army had structured the cavalrymen’s fight. If 

order and precision were keynotes of command at the top, confusion and 

uncertainty over the larger picture were hallmarks at the bottom. To be 

confused was normal, and uncertainty bred the caution needed to stay alive. 

Japan’s 18th Army confronted similar circumstances. When General 

Adachi scanned a situation map, his reactions were probably quite similar 

t,o General Krueger’s Adachi knew that Japanese patrols had worked their 

way across the Driniumor and had observed, heard, smelled, and fought 

their American foes at close range. Along or near the Driniumor, small 

groups of armed men moved cautiously through a reeking jungle whose 

mangrove swamps and twisted roots made even walking an exhausting 

business. Small fighting patrols from both armies groped blindly in the 

primeval jungle for their enemies. When they found each other, higher 

headquarters could add or subtract another map symbol. Such was the grim 

45 
46 

Map 10. Sitnation along the Driniumar, evening of 10 July 1944 
47 

reality behind the 112th Cavalry’s symbol on the &tape mapboard. That 

symbol, a snapshot of the present, said precious little about the soldiers 

who filled 112th’s ranks. 

112th Cavdry Regimental Comb@ Team 

Three weeks earlier, on 21 June 1944, the/ll2& Cavalry RCT had received 

verbal orders to prepare for a move from iti base at Finschhafen. According 

to the commander of the 112th Cavalry Regiment, Col. Alexander M. Miller 

III, members of the regiment knew that %.omething was in the works,” 

perhaps even the invasion of the Philippines. Nevertheless, the initial information Colonel Miller received was purposefully vague, and the men in the 

unit had really no idea where it was going or what to expect once it arrived. 

Their only certainty was that they eventually “would contact the enemy 

and elimmate them.‘“1 

The 112th was a Texas National Guard regiment. When it was federalized 

in 1940, draftees from Brooklyn, New York, Chicago, Illinois, and Iowa 

augmented’its ranks. When it received orders for a Paoific Ocean deployment 

at Camp Clark, Texas, the regiment had to search for a jungle warfare 

manual. Once a copy was discovered, Maj. Philip Hooper had to read it 

aloud to the regiment’s NCOs assembled in a poorly ventilated orderly room 

on a sweltering Texas day. Page after page of the manual described the 

dangers of snakebite, insects, and tropical diseases. For men .who had never 

been outside the United States and knew little, if anything, about the Pacific 

islands, it stimulated more fear than enlightenment about their assignment. 

Furthermore, the regulations dwelled on what could not be done in jungle 

terrain and unintentionally slighted what could be accomplished. So without 

much doctrinal assistance, the 112th shipped overseas in July 1942. 

The officers and men did have the chance to become accustomed to the 

environment of New/Caledonia,*‘where they spent nine months of intensive 

training. Brig. Gen. Julian Cunningham’s rigorous discipline and realistic 

training helped to make the members of the 112th physically tough and 

would enable them to endure. the hardships of living and fighting in the 

tropical rain forest that lay ahead. The 112th had the time, nearly three 

years, to train and to prepare itself for combat. 

Its first combat operation was an unopposed landing on Woodlark Island 

in July 1943. After occupying Woodlark for six months, the regiment moved 

to Goodenough Island, was strengthened by the 148th Field Artillery Battalion, 

and was redesignated the 112th Cavalry Regimental Combat Team. The 

112th’s next operatian, 15 December 1943, was a diversionary effort to assist 

the US. Marines’ invasion of New Britain and resulted in near catastrophe. 
Lt. Cal. Philip L. Hooper, executive officer, 112th Cavalry, telephones operational orders received 

from Erig. Gen. Julian W. Cunningham, commanding general, 112th Cavalry. 

Troop A, 2d Squadron, attempted a forced landing at Arawe, New Britain, 

using rubber boats. Japanese 25-mm gunfire sank all but three of the fragile 

craft before they reached shore. Only the courage and willingness of the 

U.S. Navy minesweeper commander who sailed his ship into the cove and 

smashed the Japanese batteries with gunfire averted disaster. The survivors 

regrauped, eventually rejoined the 112th, and fought on New Britain for 

the next six months. The jungle fighting, sickness, and incessant enemy 

bombing whittled the units down to about 1,100 from their authorized strength 

of 1,728. In June 1944, the 112th finally received orders for rest and reconstitution at Finschhafen. That respite lasted only a brief two weeks. During 

that time, though, replacements and troops returning to duty increased unit 

strength to 1,458, or 85 percent of TO&E strength (see fig. 2). 

A variety of circumstances molded the 112th Cavalry. The men who 

formed the nucleus of the outfit had known each other and soldiered together 

for a long time. By 1944 it was not uncommon for the members from the 

former National Guard regiment to have served with their unit for five, 
49 

(1,550 autharized) 

(1,522 assigned) 

(944) (631 

(9401 wJ* 

(1,728 assigned) 

(1,534 present] 

1 JULY 1944 

La x2** L/I WPN 

l a &I 

(104D) (174) (63) 

/1069) (1741 W-4 

SQDN (1940) 2% SQDFE (19443 

(406) 

A 

E+JQ hx3 [fiNI bX3 

WI (3901 (20) (501)C”’ 

*Figures from 112th Cavalry Regiment troop manifest, 1942. 

**Assigned strength in rifle troops varied from 166 to 177. 

***Rdditienal manpower drawn from disbanded ME Company. 

Fig. 2. Evolution of 112th Cavalry Regiment 

six, or even ten years. They knew, in the words of one veteran, whom they 

could count on and who were the deadbeats. Draftees were organized around 

this core of Texans. The veterans inculcated the new arrivals with their 

traditions and the esprit of a cavalry outfit. Pride in themselves and their 

unit developed naturally, and no artifice was involved. The distinctive 

cavalrymen’s uniform-breeches, knee-high boots, and cavalry hats-identified 

them as different, and therefore special, compared with other federalized 

National Guard units. The unit’s longevity was its strength; it provided 
50 

continuity, identity, and a sense of responsibility at a time when those 

qualities were much in demand. In addition, even after its mobilization, the 

112th was a small unit, about 1,700 authorized officers and men, or roughly 

half the size of the standard TO&E infantry regiment. The identity neither 

of the men nor of the unit was overwhelmed by a vast influx of newcomers 

in the form of draftees or volunteers. Officers at regimental or squadron 

level knew their men on a first-name basis and bred identity, cohesion, 

and a sense of comradeship into the ranks. In short, the 112th Cavalry 

possessed a high degree of unit cohesion.2 

hike any other unit, it bad its share of problems. Brigadier General 

Cunningham commanded the 112th Cavalry RCT, but Colonel Miller had 

commanded the 112th Cavalry before it became an RCT. Their headquarters 

were collocated, and Cunningham would, at times, supersede Miller as regimental commander. Cunningham was a strict disciplinarian from the “Old 

Army” and was not the easiest commander to work with or for. The regiment 

relied on its company-grade officers for leadership, but at least one junior 

officer failed to carry out his ‘combat assignment at Aitape for no apparent 

reason. Moreover, junior officer losses on New Britain had been heavy. Their 

replacements were either promoted from the 112th”s enlisted ranks or sent 

fresh from the United States. Only a few of the original troop officers 

remained by June 1944, as the currents of warfare had taken their toll of 

young officers or pushed them into higher, more responsible, command 

positions. Among the ranks was petty jealousy over promotions or lack of 

the same. Some replacements responded to the indoctrination administered 

by the 112th veterans, but others resented the Texans’ brashness. The men 

alternately feared, despised, or admired their officers. All felt that higher 

headquarters selected the unit for dangerous reconnaissance missions because 

of its cavalry designation, conveniently forgetting that the 112th was a 

dismounted cavalry regiment, in effect a half-strength rifle regiment. They 

had few illusions about ever going home before the war was won. No one 

doubted that they would win, but everyone knew that, the price could be 

high. Most regarded their service as a job that someone had to do. 

They lived in the open in an oppressive tropical climate that debilitated 

the health of even the strongest among them. But that condition was only 

incidental to their mission to track down and kill other men in the jungle. 

Those exposed to the greatest danger, the riflemen and machine gunners 

an the front line, received the least rewards. As a postwar report noted, the 

infantryman “can look forward only to death, mutilation, or psychiatric 

breakdown. He feels that no one at home. has the slightest conception of 

the danger his job entails or of the courage and guts required to do one 

hour of it.“3 Added to this was the constant fear. Most were afraid all the 

time, but at least their fear kept them alert and probably made some of 

them fight. There were those few whom S. L. A. Marshall described as 

Qatural fighters,” and they excelled in combat. But, for most, it was a 

constant strain to check their natural inclination for serf-preservation. Given 

their dismal prospects for survival, why would they fight? Self-preservation 
51 

motivated them as did the fear of severity of court-martial. The essential 

motivations that kept these men going were “‘pride (self-respect) and the 

strong bond with [their] fellow soldiers”4 They fought by themselves for 

themselves, and little else beyond that mattered. 

To the Driniumor 

On 24 June, three days after the verbal alert, the 112th received formal 

orders to embark for Aitape. Two days later General Cunningham and his 

staff arrived by air at the Tadji strip. The 112th, less its rear echelon of 

about 100 officers and men, embarked aboard twelve Landing Graft Infantry 

(LGIs) on 26 June. The unit was understrength, averaging between 140 and 

150 men per troop of an authorized 162-man strength, The men were coming 

off a two-week “rest” at Finschhafen, which meant that they lived in campany 

tents, ate communal meals, and remained exposed to the elements and exotic 

diseases of New Guinea. But at least they were not shot at by the Japanese. 

As they embarked, the troops carried individual equipment and weapons, 

five days’ ten-in-one rations, one unit of fire, kitchen equipment, and a small 

amount of canvas.5 These items were the infantryman’s basic survival kit, 

SQ it is worthwhile to examine their contents. The ten-in-one ration was 

meant to feed ten men for one day, providing, in theory, about 3,660 calories 

per man per day. 6 The ration held a breakfast, lunch, and dinner meal, 

given variety by different dehydrated cereals, meat, and vegetables. About 

one soldier in three considered the food sufficient, but another third did not 

like it.7 The popularity of the ten-in-one ration resulted from its sundries, 

packs of cigarettes, matches, toilet paper, halazone tablets, and a can opener 

in each ration-luxuries to the combat saldier. The other basic ration was 

the K ration, with three meals separately wrapped in waxed paper or cellophane, making it lighter in weight and more compact, allowing the soldier 

an easier time carrying his food supply. Unfortunately, it was not packaged 

for the tropics, where after three days, the boxes would come apart in the 

high humidity. Troops in the 112th also “had a tendency to carry too much 

equipment for personal comfort,” and their officers worried that the soldiers 

might discard essential articles to compensate for the load.8 Men, for 

example, generally kept their ponchos to ward off the rain, but occasionally 

discarded blankets or half-blankets and spent the chilly tropical night 

shivering. To sum up, on any given night a rifleman’s lot was to be afraid, 

perhaps hungry, probably wet, and surely cold. 

The dismounted cavalryman’s weapon was his most important tool for 

survival. IIis uniform could be in tatters and his boots rotting away, but 

the working parts of his weapon had to be spatless. The high humidity of 

the rain forest, coupled with the varieties of dirt, sand, and bugs that could 

work their way into a weapon and jam it, forced the men to spend extra 

time and care cleaning their weapons. Browning automatic rifles (BARS) 

and carbines required special care. Each man carried his ammuntion, a 
52 

unit of fire. This varied from 750 rounds for a .30-caliber BAR operator to 

150 rounds for a rifleman. Machine gunners obviously required more 

ammunition and thus had teams to carry the gun and its ammunition, 

2,060 rounds far a light machine gun and 1,200 for a water-cooled heavy 

machine gun. The 60-mm mortar crews of the 112th Cavalry had fifty rounds 

per mortar. To lug these weapons and their accompanying ammunition 

through the jungle in the sweltering heat was exhausting labor. The men 

compensated by reducing their loads-that is, by not carrying complete units 

of fire. 

The 112th’s voyage to Aitape was uneventful, and the RCT, less its 

artillery battalion, landed there on 28 June. Japanese scouts of the 1st 

Battalion, 237th Infantry Regiment, 41st Infantry Division, observed some 

phase of these landings and reported to 18th Army that “many enemy 

transports and LSTs” were active near Aitape.9 Japanese patrols, however, 

could get no closer and, thus, were unable to identify the 112th, a deficiency 

for which they would later pay heavily. 

The evening of the next day, Brig. Gen. Clarence A. Martin, commander 

of the Eastern Defense Command, ordered the 112th to join the covering 

force along the Driniumor River. Its mission was “‘to delay the enemy to 

the maximum extent possible without sacrifice of troops.” Martin also 

instructed the 112th to assume responsibility for the defense of Afua, the 

southern anchor of the Driniumor line, and assigned to General Cunningham’s 

command the 3d Battalion, 127th Infantry Regiment, plus attached medical 

personnel. 

There was little time for sleep, for most of the men spent the night 

preparing for the move inland. Two men per troop (twelve total) and a 

portion of the Service Troop remained near Aitape as a rear echelon. 

Regimental bandsmen became litter bearers. All heavy weapons @l-mm 

mortars, 37-mm antitank guns, and rocket launchers) were left behind. The 

antitank platoon, Headquarters Troop, instead carried heavy machine guns 

and functioned as a machine gun platoon. The .%-mm mortar crews from 

the Weapons Platoon converted to ammunition bearers and served as an 

oversized rifle platoon. Riflemen, BAR operatars, and submachine gunners 

carried a modified unit of fire; machine gunners, a unit; and 60-mm 

mortarmen, a half unit. Everyone* carried three days’ ten-in-one rations in 

their packs.10 Replacements carried ammunition and supplies so that the 

experienced combat veterans could be put on the firing line.ll Their lowly 

status as porters was not lost on the replacements. Native bearers also 

transported supplies. 

The regiment moved by truck from Aitape on the morning of the twentyninth and dismounted at the Nigia River, where an engineer ferry boat 

transported the troops acrass the river (see map 11). The limited fifty-man 

capacity of the ferry made the crossing a slow affair. Prom the river, Eastern 

Defense Command expected the 112th merely to make a five-mile forced 
ii -a J 

Map 11. Move of 112th Cavalry to Driniumor 
54 

march through no-man’s-land and, after reaching Chinapelli, to establish a 

defensive position there. A tropical rainstorm made this “normal” activity 

more difficult than usual. Shoes muddy, beads down, carrying thirty to forty 

pounds of equipment, the men plodded though the downpour toward 

Chinapelli. Torrents of rain washed over the long column and over the 

men who were slipping and sliding through the now deep mud of the trail. 

Exhausted by the march, they still had to form their defensive perimeter. 

After the skies bad cleared, a C-47 flew over and dropped provisions at 

Chinapelli. Cold rations, wet clothing, and a night in the jungle were the 

cavalrymen’s reward for their first day in the fieId at Aitape. 

Orders from Persecution Task Force directed the men to continue their 

eastward move in order to establish defensive positions and a patrol base 

along River X, which ran parallel to and about 4,100 meters west of the 

Driniumor. Meanwhile, the 2d Squadron would advance to the Driniumor 

and organize defensive positions near Afua. Their deployment would allow 

the 3d Battalion, 127th Infantry, then occupying the ffia positions, to shorten 

its line by closing to the north. I2 General Martin’s 32d Division G-3 had 

prepared careful tactical plans for the 112th Cavalry premised on the 

assumption that the 112th was equivalent to a fulI-strength infantry 

regiment.13 Instead of the 3,000 men he expected, Martin found himself with 

slightly mare than 1,500 men to cover a frontage originally designed for 

two or three times that number (see fig. 3). They would have to do. 

The next day’s march was even worse than the first. A seventy-fiveman detachment remained at Chinapelli to patrol between there and River 

X, as well as to cover the Palauru-Afua trail. In addition, they were expected 

to maintain wire communications from River X to the rear, a dangerous 

job, for Japanese patrols would cut the wire and wait in ambush for repair 

crews. The rest of the men marched to River X in another downpour. The 

hilly terrain crisscrossed by many small streams made this trek more 

physically demanding than the previous day’s The first few men up an 

incline would strip off the vegetation, and the constant tramping by those 

following in the long column would soon reduce slopes to muddy slides. 

Just reaching the top of such a slope burdened with thirty or forty pounds 

of equipment on one’s back required the use of every muscle and expended 

enormous energy. But there were no stragglers, except for two sick men 

who returned to Chinapelli shortIy after the 112th’~ departure. The regiment, 

less the 2d Squadron, which had pushed ahead toward the Driniumor, put 

up a defensive perimeter along the west bank of River X. After two days of 

exhausting marches in heavy rains and mud, eating cold rations, and sleeping 

in we% clothes, Persecution Task Force moved the 112th’s unit symbol to 

River X. In peacetime, this feat alone would have been considered an 

accomplishment; now it was merely a prelude to bitter days ahead. 

The 2d Squadron spent the night of 30 June southeast of River X and 

the next morning moved to the Driniumor. Under scattered clouds and 

intermittent showers they relieved the 3d Battalion, 127th Infantry, at 1100, 
55 

lls. 

TO&Es 

Cavalry Regiment 

I I I 1 

w I (521) 2 L/I WEAPONS La SW 

: SQLMDRON 

I I I 

*aa 

IZIHQ L/IA 

/201 (1671 TROOP 

c 

067) 

Standard Rifle Regiment 

(1931 

Company Weapons 

Fig. 3. Comparison of U.S. cavalry regiment and infantry regiment 

placing Troops E and F forward on the riverbank and Troop G in reserve, 

the approved “two up-one back” configuration, despite the rugged, close 

terrain, Everything was quiet, and no patrols were sent out. Regimental 

headquarters, however, did dispatch four patrols to check the security of 

the 112th’s flanks. After the 3d Battalion had moved out to the north, the 

2d Squadron was alone anchoring the covering force’s south flank. Its 

isolation, in part, was a function of the jungle, terrain features that 

fragmented large formations into scattered pockets remote from one another. 

The men knew what was within a few yards of their particular entrenchment 

and little more. As for the enemy situation, they depended on their patrols, 
56 

Native bearers, with soldier escort, evacuate a casualty across the Driniurmr River near A&a 

Village. Note the shallowness of the river. 

the reports sent by wire fram neighboring units, and those transmitted from 

higher headquarters. The so-called big picture af the campaign did not interest 

them. Their concera was more basic: ts stay alive. 

Members af 2d Squadron spent their first full day at Afua eanstructing 

a defensive perimeter, improving fields of fire by clearing the kunai grass 

from the small islands or sand spits in the river as well as cutting jungle 

vegetation on the flanks and rear of their perimeter. They established telephone communications with the main bady of the 112th. A liaison party 

from the 120th Field Artillery Battakm joined regimental headquarters. The 

2d Squadron then proceeded ta register artillery and mortar fire on locations 

in front of bath River X and the Driniumcrr. 
57 

Meanwhile 1st Squadron and the rest of the 112th worked feverishly 

on their defensive positions near River X. Generally speaking, troops engulfed 

in jungle fighting had no shelter. The only efficient protection combat troops 

had was the “jungle poncho” (a rubberized cloth about five by six feet}, 

which was thrown over the back and head and strapped under the chin.‘* 

In place af rain, the men now worked on 3 and 4 July under a broiling 

sun that burned and blistered their exposed skin. Mosquitoes, insects, worms, 

and leeches latched onto their sweating bodies as the soldiers excavated 

the pits that would be their crude shelters and fighting positions. Resides 

the work on entrenchments, twenty-five men cut a trail through the jungle 

vines and ferns from the command post toward the Tiver River for use as 

a medical evacuation route. An Australian and forty natives arrived at River 

X to assist in evacuation and supply efforts. Although the extra labor was 

helpful in stockpiling supplies at the 112th’s base, the natives’ blissful 

disregard of the 112th’s sanitary regulations within the perimeter made their 

presence a mixed blessing. The 112th’~ small buildup continued as the troops 

laid ground panels on dry portions of the riverbed to identify a drop zone 

for aerial resupply. The original site proved too rocky, and about half of 

the air-dropped supplies broke on impact, Yet another nearby drop zone 

had to be cleared by machetes of brush and vegetation. Meantime, the original 

drop zone became so contaminated, smelled so bad, and became so thick 

with flies that a third drop zone had to be constructed. Air resupply then 

functioned better and provided ten-in-one rations, blankets, mail, and new 

boots for the troops. Officers had to badger some of the men about sanitation 

and digging proper latrines. Troop commanders handed out Atabrine, salt 

tablets, and ha&one to the unit, Threatening court-martial, they ordered 

troops not to use kunai grass for beds or shelters because of the danger of 

bush typhus.* The concern was as much practical as humanitarian. A sick 

man would have to be evacuated, and that meant fewer combat soldiers 

available to fight. Losses from disease most affected rifle companies, which 

seldom had more than two-thirds of their authorized strength at any one 

time, so every man was precious. ** Paradoxically these same men had to 

live in the harshest natural surroundings and were exposed to the greatest 

danger in combat. They compensated by building themselves what amounted 

to a primitive fortified village, which a time traveler from the Middle Ages 

would probabIy have recognized as a defensive hamlet. 

After 2 July, intensive patrolling north and south along the Driniumor, 

east to Niumen Creek, and west along the trail to River X characterized 

the 112th’s activity. Patrol leaders were under orders to observe the enemy, 

not to fire on them.*5 These patrols had a dual purpose. The obvious, stated 

goa1 was to collect intelligence about the enemy and, if possible, to capture 

*During the entire campaign, i3 total of 279 typhus cases resulted in sixteen deaths. 

**For example, of an autharized J52 officers and 3,JtM men, the 128th Infantry Regiment 

had 121 officers and 2,649 men present for duty on 29 June 2944. The 127th Infantry caunted 

If7 officers and 2,661 men available. On 1 July the 112th Caualry”s six line troops had 46 

officers and 685 men present of an authorized 48 officers and 972 men. 
58 

a prisoner. Likewise, patrols provided terrain information unavailable on 

the inadequate maps issued to the units, A third, but unstated, purpose of 

patrolling was to build the men’s confidence, to familiarize them with the 

terrain, and to train replacement officers and enlisted men in overcoming 

their initial fear of the unknown. But patrolling was dangerous work, The 

stress and tension of men on patrol never slackened. 

The IlZth, like other American units fighting in the Pacific, did not 

believe in taking Japanese prisoners. Prejudice tinted the American soldier’s 

view of the Japanese and increased the savagery of combat. If the .sneak 

attack on Pearl Harbor brought the cauldron of anti-Japanese feeling to a 

bubble, U.S. military and civilian propagandists continued to stir the witches’ 

brew in order to foment a hyperpatriotism they believed would be beneficial 

to the war effort. Japanese atrocities, such as using captured 112th troopers 

for bayonet practice on New Britain, served to confirm stereotypes of the 

Japanese as subhuman creatures who had to be killed. This refusal to take 

Japanese prisoners had important operational ramifications. In the 32d 

Division”s G-3 Journal for 4 July 1944 appeared the entry that ““I unarmed 

Jap killed. on E bank of Driniumor River.” Appended to this entry was the 

following handwritten note: 

Another prisoner that could have told us if the 41st (Division) had arrived. 

What effect our bombing had had, possibly when the attack was expected, where 

were what units. These troops seem to want to f’ight this war the hard way, they 

won’t take a prisoner.‘” 

The savagery went far beyond the 112th Cavalry. It infected troops of both 

nations. 

So the patrols went out daily to find the enemy and to kill unwary 

opponents. On 2 July, a Troop E patrol was the first from the 112th to 

spot the enemy when it saw six Japanese crossing the Driniumor 540 meters 

south of Afua, but the Japanese soon vanished into the deep jungle. The 

same day the 112th suffered its first casualty, a band member who accidently 

shot himself. 

During the next few days, patrols gradually extended their range and 

their fighting strength. For example, on 6 July a forty-eight-man patrol 

from Troop B, led by two officers, left Afua to destroy a suspected Japanese 

radio installation near Charov. According to their maps, Charov appeared 

just west of the Drindaria River, but it was actually on the east bank. By 

staying close to the Torricelli foothills and scouting only the west bank, 

this fighting patrol inadvertently sidestepped the Japanese 20th and 41st 

Infantry divisions, which were then massing about halfway between Afua 

and the coast for their planned 10 July attack. The inaccurate maps probably 

saved the men’s lives. The terrain was so rugged and thick with vegetation 

that the Americans could pass undetected near hundreds of Japanese troops 

and return to their base unharmed. Other patrols reported evidence of 

Japanese activity, but no sightings, probably because of recurring showers, 
i 

- 

\ 

- 

Map 12. Dispositions along Driniumor, earl9 July 1944 
60 

which further masked enemy activity. By about 6 July, the cumulative patrol 

reports had suggested that the Japanese were forming counter-reconnaissance 

screens along the Niumen Creek vicinity, where 112th patrols met determined 

Japanese opposition for the first time during the campaign. 

On 6 July, about 1,000 yards northwest of Afua, a platoon from Troop 

F walked into an ambush triggered by dug-in Japanese troops supported 

by machine guns (see map 12). The Japanese probably were a screening 

force for units of the 41st Infantry Division, which had arrived in the area 

that same day. Troop F”s men blindly exchanged gunfire with the Japanese, 

but could not penetrate or flank the Japanese trail block. The patrol leader, 

Lieutenant Inskeep, was killed, after which the Americans withdrew. Two 

days later a patrol led by Lt. Ray A. Titus again tried to penetrate the 

Japanese screening force to retrieve the body. The Japanese had set another 

ambush on a heavily jungled bank overlooking the ravine. Again there was 

a sudden outburst of gunfire followed by initial terror and confusion. Two 

American enlisted men were shot and wounded, but they claimed to have 

killed one Japanese soldier. Nevertheless, Titus’s patrol could not retrieve 

the bady. This minor skirmish typified the hazards of jungle patrols. Sudden 

ambushes triggered at close range meant a high incidence of gunshot wounds. 

The abrupt stutter of a light machine gun or bark of rifle fire was fohowed 

by shouting, screaming, confusion, initial panic, and then more gunfire or 

a muffled grenade explosion as both sides reorganized. More likely, after 

the first gunshots, one side or the other (sometimes both) would run back 

into the thick vegetation for safety. This type of small unit action occurred 

over and over as the American patrols brushed against the Japanese screening 

forces who were covering the assembly of the main Japanese units. 
Breakthrough 

on the Driniumor 

18th Army Prepares tol Attack 

As more and more Japanese soldiers were arriving daily along the 

Driniumor, long-range Japanese reconnaissance patrols were also sending 

detailed reports on the American defenses west of the Driniumor. On 19 

June, for example, Japanese officer scouts provided precise information 

about U.S. positions along the Driniumor. Based on that intelhgence, Col. 

Ide Tokutaro, commander of the 80th Infantry Regiment, already deployed 

near the Driniumor, suggested that his men infiltrate deep into the 

American position rather than make a potentially costly frontal assault, 

General Adachi was thinking in other terms. 

Eighteenth Army had correctly estimated in mid-June that three U.S. 

Army infantry battalions were defending the Driniumor, thinly stretched 

out from the coast to Afua. Adhering to his original May plan for a 

penetration that would carry all the way to the airfields, Adachi decided to 

commit the 20th Division and available units of the 41st Division to a 

frontal attack against the center of the American covering force. Aromd 

30 June, Adachi and his staff arrived at Charov to coordinate final attack 

preparations with the 29th Division’s headquarters staff. One of Ada&i’s 

staff operations officers, Maj. Tanaka Kengoro, had preceded Adachi to 

Charov in order to conduct a firsthand staff appraisal of the situation. After 

he had reported his evaluation of the U.S. covering force along the 

Driniumor and the enemy situation at Aitape to Adachi, Tanaka wondered 

aloud if the attack against Aitape should be reconsidered. Would the 

intangibles of battle like morale, unit esprit, fighting spirit-the quahties 

the Japanese relied so heavily on to compensate for materiel deficienciessuffice to see them through a successful frontal attack on the Aitape 

defenses? Adachi said nothing, but asked his assembled staff officers to 

consider the matter. Next morning Tanaka again told Adachi that the 

attack should not be launched as planned, Adachi replied that he had not 

changed his mind. He would not allow radical alterations in tactical 

planning to negate the efforts each Japanese unit had made just to reach 

the Driniumor.17 Furthermore, the general’s personal notion of officership 

dictated the attack, 
62 

General Adachi”s concept of battIeEeld leadership had its roots in his 

understanding of the heroic Japanese military tradition. Death in battle 

was sufficient reward for faithful service to the emperor. Like most Japanese 

officers, he was imbued with the spirit of the offensive and therefore always 

looked for opportunities to attack. Rather than watch his army rot and 

disintegrate in a passive, defensive role, Adachi felt that even in unfavor 

able circumstances the more aggressive commander could emerge victorious. 

He fully understood that the odds against reaching Aitape were heavily 

against his understrength, poorly supplied troops. But he also was convinced 

that if troops followed his high standards of leadership and capitalized on 

enemy mistakes to exploit their initiative, 13th Army could severely damage 

the U.S. forces near Aitape. I8 Already having asked much of his men, 

Ada&i was about to demand more. 

The Japanese infantrymen who figured so prominently in General 

Adachi’s plan were nearing the end of their remarkable endurance. 

Compared to the Japanese soldiers’ existence, the 112th Cavalry troopers, 

for all their hardships, lived in luxury. In early July, 18th Army had 

perhaps 55,QOO personnel, including about 3,000 hospitalized. About 15,000 

were in the forward combat area, with approximately 5,000 frontline combat 

troops, 1,500 in the rear echelon, and the remainder filtering into their 

assembly areas (see fig. 4). They were weary, dirty, and hungry. Rations 

were meager. Men of the 3d Battalion, 80th Infantry Regiment, subsisted 

on rations of less than 330 grams per man per day, supplemented every 

two or three days by biscuits and once every ten days by cigarettes-three 

cigarettes to be exact. For additional nourishment and starches, Japanese 

ate saga palm leaves. A general lack of essential condiments, especially 

salt, debilitated the Japanese soldiers in the heat. Malnutrition eases 

became alarmingly commonplace. Medicines were also in short supply, 

although a few daring transport pilots did fly night missions across the 

Celebes Sea to drop quinine and surgical alcohol to the beleaguered army.19 

Ultra had, of course, alerted General Krueger to 13th Army’s plight, perhaps 

leading him to underestimate the tenacity of his opponent. 

Compounding the materiel deficiencies, a command and control problem arose when the staffs of the 20th and 41st divisions were killed during 

their approach to the Driniumor. On 10 May Lt. Gen. Katakiri Shigeru, 

20th Division commander, and his staff departed Hansa Bay for Wewak. 

Just before their gasoline-powered landing barge reached Wewak, it struck 

a floating mine, and all aboard perished, Shortly thereafter, six staff officers attached to Headquarters, 41st Division, died in an Allied bombing 

attack. Both of Adachi”s frontline divisions had to plan and fight with 

reduced staffs that lacked the extensive planning experience of their late 

predecessors, a severe impediment to smooth operational planning for the 

Aitape attack.20 

Isolation from normal resupply channels accounted for 18th Army’s 

pitiful condition. Capricious weather and rugged terrain further complicated 
63 

Japanese TO&E 

I ,.*a I I I 

$J &x3 pJ (+J fKJ 

(3,800) (7501 Km~ Ek8fW 

Actual Japanese TO&E 

Driniumof River Operation 

14s OF 18 JUFIE 1944 

r I I I I 

Ekl 5 7 w 8 &I MG 

(74) 0% 15 4% 

406 assigned, 138 on sick call, and 28 used as porters. 

Total of 242 available for duty. 

238 

@ 

239 

(L8423 

ti X2 IXI x3 

[used as porters) 

xx 

(?!ooor 

I I 

@ 

66 I!23 porters 

I% X3 

(only 3 66 regarded cambat worthy) 

I3 . 1,427 

(1 gun per battery) 

Fig. 4. Japsnese TO&E 
64 

the situation. To supply combat forces attacking the Driniumor positions, 

Adachi had planned to construct a dirt road from Wewak to Aitape, about 

130 kilometers, and to employ landing craft to ferry provisions as far west 

along the coast as Allied interdiction operations would permit. His idea 

foundered as tropical rainstorms turned the track into a quagmire. The 

sea route lacked suitable ports and shelters. Beyond those functional 

concerns, Allied floating mines, PT boat attacks, and air strikes preyed on 

Japanese coastal traffic Finally, Adachi had to resort to human porters, 

including his precious infantrymen, to manhandle 13th Army”s supplies 

through the jungle. General Yoshihara later estimated that it took six 

porters per one combat soldier just to maintain the trickle of supplies.21 

Adachi proceeded with his plan, determined that human spirit could 

overcome physical obstacles to victory, At 1500 on 3 July, he issued the 

attack order, the gist of which was: 

1. The 18th Army will attack the enemy occupying the Driniumor 

River, drive back the enemy in the Paup and Afua vicinities, and then 

advance to the Nigia River to prepare for the next or main attack against 

the enemy’s main positions. 

2. The attack will begin at 2200 on 10 July. 

3. The 20th and 41st divisions will attack in column formation, cross 

the Driniumor, annihilate the American defenders on the covering force, 

and complete the aperation by 12 July. 

4. Both divisions will finalize their preparations for the main attack 

against Aitape by 15 July,22 

Adachi selected the sector his men would attack based on scouts’ 

reconnaissance reports. It was about 2,700 meters inland from the coast, 

across three small islands in the Driniumor, the largest of which the 

Japanese called Kawanakajima” (literally, Island in Middle of River). A 

patrol report of 1 July outlined the positions of Company L, 127th Battalion, 

in detail, Scouts estimated that perhaps fifty Americans with one field 

artillery gun, misidentified as a 105mm howitzer, held the outpost line. 

Japanese scouts even pinpointed foxholes occupied by American NCGs on 

that line.23 

A situation map accompanying Adachi’s 3 July attack order dramatically revealed the efficiency of Japanese patrolling. In early July, 18th 

Army had a fairly accurate picture of U.S. defenses not only along the 

Driniumor, but also to Chinapelli and beyond. The key Japanese assumption 

was that three American infantry battalions held the Driniumor line (see 

map 13). 

*The name also evoked martial sentiments because the Kawanakajima Battlefield in Japan 

wa8 as well known to Japanese as Gettysburg was to Americans. 
65 

Map 13. Japanese plan of attack and estimate of U.S. situation, 1 July 1944 
66 

The two divisions that would make the attack, the 20th and 41st, 

adapted their tactics to conform to 18th Army’s original concept of breaking 

through on a narrow front, regrouping, and continuing the attack towards 

Aitape. The division staff officers, however, -privately wondered whether a 

breakthrough in the center of three widely dispersed enemy infantry 

battalions would enable them to destroy those foes. The extreme frontage 

of the U.S. defenses could conceivably isolate the Japanese attackers in the 

narrow corridor of their planned penetration. At least one operations officer 

felt that an attack south against Afua would be a better alternative, because 

the Japanese could then outflank the U.S. defenders and drive them toward 

the sea.z* The new commander of the 20th Division, Maj. Gen. Miyake 

Sadahiko, however, said flatly that the worsening physical condition of his 

troaps made it difficult to conduct the long and arduous march entailed in 

the flanking attack. He concurred with Adachi’s plan to attack at the center 

of the enemy line.25 

There were other advantages to such a straightforward plan of attack. 

The Japanese expected to mass their battalions on a very narrow, 300- to 

X&meter front, regiments abreast in three-deep echelonment. This simple 

tactical formation allowed them to concentrate the limited firepower of their 

understrength infantry battalions and also permitted the commanders to 

exercise better command and control over their respective units. An attack 

on an extended frontage would preclude Japanese company commanders 

(let alone those at battalion or regiment} from such control of their maneuver 

elements. The inherent risk of the narrow frontal attack was that massed 

infantrymen crossing a river offered themselves as densely packed targets 

that alert defenders could hardly miss. Success thus depended on two 

factors. First, the Japanese had to achieve tactical surprise by crossing the 

river in silence. Second, Japanese intelligence efforts had to identify and 

report the presence of any American units reinforcing the Driniumor 

defenses. The Japanese failed on both counts. 

Final Maneuvers 

While General Adachi urged on his tired men with his fiery instructions 

on 6 July, General Krueger decided to preempt the anticipated Japanese 

attack with a reconnaissance in force, which would make the Japanese 

reveal themselves so that Krueger might crush them with a counterattack. 

He knew from Ultra sources that the Japanese were near the Driniumor 

and preparing to attack. American patrols from the 127th Infantry, 112th 

Cavalry, or 128th Infantry, however, had been unable to penetrate the 

Japanese infantry screen that shielded the exact whereabouts of 18th 

Army’s formations. To break through this blind, Krueger ordered a reconnaissance in force along the northern and southern flanks of the Driniumor 

covering force. Moreover, General MacArthur’s pressure on Krueger “to 

hurry up and get through this New Guinea thing”’ caused a ripple effect 

throughout the command. Each subordinate commander in turn found him- 
67 

self subjected to orders “to get the job done,” Thus, while Generals Gill 

and Martin wanted to delay the reconnaissance, Krueger and Hall, anxious 

to please MacArthur and to end the campaign, insisted that the operation 

go forward.2” 

In the north, the 1st Battalion, 128th Regiment, drew the assignment, 

and in the south, the 2d Squadron, 112th Cavalry, was designated (see map 

14). On 9 July at 1700, General Martin ordered 2d Squadron to move 

forward on the following morning to the Harech River, 7.7 kilometers east 

of Afua. This operation required, in turn, a redisposition of US. forces to 

cover the positions about to be vacated. Troop A, 1st Squadron, would 

replace the 2d Squadron. At 1700 Troop A departed and took a little more 

than an hour to cover the two plus miles from River X to Afua. They had 

to move rapidly to reach Afua before nightfall, for after dark anything 

moving was considered unfriendly and likely to be shot. Commanders 

simply expected that Troop A would cover the distance and be in position 

to guard Afua until the rest of the regiment could reach them next morning. 

In the unthinkable event &at Troop A did not carry out its mission, the 

entire south flank of Persecution Task Force’s covering force would be 

exposed to Japanese envelopment. 

At 0730 the next day, the Iciernainder of the 112th Cavalry set off for 

Afua in a long column, Troop B leading and Troop C bringing up the rear. 

Thirty-minute intervals between ‘each of the six units* in the order of march 

stretched the column almost the length of the march. It took the command 

group nearly three hours to reach Afua, As soon as they arrived, 2d 

Squadron began to move forward to conduct its lonely mission. First 

Squadron prepared its defenses with Troop A on the right, Troop B to the 

left, and Troop C behind the Squadron Command Post located at Afua. 

Regimental Headquarters and the Weapons Troop moved about 1,400 meters 

north, nearer task force headquarters. Patrols from Troop A were dispatched 

to reconnoiter in front of the position, and in late afternoon, a squad 

patrolling toward Niumen Creek surprised severa Japanese absorbed in 

setting an ambush. The ambushers became the ambushed as the cavalrymen shot and killed two Japanese and claimed to have wounded several 

others who ran into the jungle. The American squad then searched the 

Japanese corpses and withdrew quickly, fortunate to have suffered no losses, 

Elsewhere along the 1st Squadron”s front, two- and three-man teams 

established listening posts across the Driniumor before dusk. 

Meanwhile, the 2d Squadron underwent its own ordeal. After fording 

the Driniumor, the men had to hack and cut their way with machetes 

through the thick jungle vegetation. They were moving in the deep jungle, 

where no sunlight broke through the canopy and where the stench of rotting 

vegetation and human sweat filled their nostrils. Even more lonely was a 

*The order of march was Tramp B, 1st Squadron Efeadquarters, Command Group, Headqtmrters Trap, Weapons Troop less deetachments, native carriers, Troop C. 
128 

Map 14. Reccmnaissanee in force, 10 July 1944 
69 

Troop G platoon that had to move parallel and about one kilometer south 

of the main column in order to provide flank security. To the physical strain 

was added the mental stress of not knowing what danger might suddenly 

appear from the tangled bush that they were laboring to cut through. It 

took their single file column several hours to “march” about one and onehalf kilometers east through the virgin jungle. It was a grueling and 

draining effort. When they finally found a defensible, high-ground position 

anchored on the Torricelli Mountains, they settled in for the long, black 

night. Their communications failed as usual at night, so the 2d Squadron 

spent the night of 10-11 July alone and isolated in the jungle. 

The men used tactics they had learned in combat on New Britain, two 

men per foxhole, one always awake. No one left his hole at night, or he 

risked being shot by his own comrades. This particular night the squadron 

formed a “doughnut defense,“’ with the command position in the middle 

and the three troops encircling it. 27 Besides the exhausting march, cold food, 

exertion from digging a foxhole, and no communications, every man on 

that perimeter had to face the isolation and darkness seemingly alone. 

The black jungle night made it impossible to see anything, even the 

man sharing the foxhole. Yet, their senses magnified every jungle noise. 

Palm leaves brushing together became objects of menace. The effect was 

cumulative and infinite, yet the energy and stamina of the men were only 

finite. They had expended enormous energy just to get to their night laager, 

and now they had to call on even more to stay alert, Then shortly before 

midnight, they got a shot of adrenaline as artillery and heavy machine 

gun fire broke out to their north. Everyone was tense, but alert, fearful the 

Japanese might overrun them at any moment. 

Breakthrough 

In the few hours remaining before the Japanese attack, American frontline troops were apprehensive about the possibility of such an assault, as 

was their commander, Brigadier General Martin. Despite this unease, there 

was no uniform stage of readiness among U.S. units covering the river; no 

reinforcements came from the MLR; no reserve moved east of the Nigia 

River to replace those troops used for the reconnaissance in foree. Lt. Cal. 

Edward Bloch’s 3d Battalion, 127th Infantry, “certainly expected some 

action during the night.” The 1st Squadron, 112th Cavalry, on his south 

flank, merely recorded a 7 July alert from the commander, Eastern Defense 

Command, about increased enemy activity near the north center of the 

Driniumor line. The 2d Battalion, 128th Infantry, believed that the Japanese 

would attack sometime between 1 and 15 July and that its sector would be 

the target.28 

Until 9 July, the 2d Battalion’s sector had about a 1,600-meter frontage, 

with the 1st Battalion, 128th Infantry, and the 3d Battalion, 127th Infantry, 

covering its northern and southern flanks, respectively. When General 
70 

rough Major General Hall, ordered the 1st Battalion to conduct 

a reconnaissance in force, 2d attalion had to occupy the line vacated by 

the 1st Batt~~~~n. In order to accomplish this, the 2d Battalion committed 

its reserve, Corn F, to hold the 1st Battalion’s former line, about 2,700 

y E, with one heavy machine gun platoon attached, 

ank an additional 900 meters, which made the company 

O-meter defensive frontage, normally a battalion-size 

frontages and the many small islands covered with 

dense foliage in the Driniumor made an adequate defense impossible.29 

ough, were orders, so during the day of 10 July the men of 

dug their individual fighting positions. The company 

Thomas Bell, placed three or four men at those places 

vulnerable, although everyone realized they were incapable 

ermined Japanese attack. The four-man fighting positions 

also allowed one man to stand guard while the three others slept at night; 

et should e enemy attack, the men could disperse to their nearby fighting 

ales for e battle. On Company E’s south was Company G, which 

occupied a front about 500 meters south along the river. There Capt, Ted 

Florey, Company G commander, had his men string a single strand of 

barbed wire from rock to rock all over the riverbed. It was little more #an 

re, but it was all that he had available. On the night of 10 July,’ 

lion found itself defending almost 4,500 meters of river line in 

rain wit~~~~ any reserves to plug a possible enemy breakthrough 

(see map 15). 

The Japanese also had ~roblern~~ The 237th Infantry was to spearhead 

the attack across the ~~~iurn~r against Company E’s sector. Col. Nara 

Masahiko, the regimental commander, echeloned his three battalions in 

is left, the 80th Infantry, 20th Division, lined up for its 

assault. On its left, the 78th Infantry had its 3d and 1st battalions on line 

along the ~verba~k~ The 6th Company, 2d Battalion, 237th Infantry, and 

the 1st Mountain Artillery Battalion would create a diversion against 

Company F along the coast, The 26th Field Artillery Regiment would 

support the 78th and 80th regiments’ offensive. 

t the plan was already unraveling. The 237th Infantry did not reach 

niumor until the afternoon of 10 July because of the delay in handcarried orders reaching its parent 41st Division. With the exception of the 

attalion, no other Japanese had even seen in daylight the 

they had to attack over in darkness in just a few hours. 

Although there guides and trail markers to lead them to their 

assembly areas, g forward after nightfall further confused soldiers 

unfamiliar with rrain. Moreover, the Japanese would launch their 

attack believing that they faced three U.S. infantry battalions. Only later 

did they learn that their previous reconnaissance had missed the arrival of 

avalry, and consequently, they could not know that the 

ad shortened and strengthened their line.30 The attack plan 
71 

L tt K 3 f 

J 23 

Map 15. Tactical situation, night of IO-11 July 1944 
72 

had also been revised. According to the original pIan, the Japanese attack 

would begin at 2200, about thirty minutes after moonrise, but this was 

changed to provide for a ten-minute artillery and mortar preparation to 

start at 2150 and to continue to the time of assault.31 Not all the Japanese 

units, however, received word of this important alteration. 

As the American reconnaissance in force advanced along the U.S. 

northern and southern flanks, they moved past the assembly areas of six 

Japanese battalions, five infantry and one artillery. The reconnaissance in 

force, as well as American patrols operating on the east side of the 

Driniumor, also missed the arrival of the 237th Infantry Regiment during 

10 July, although an “‘unknown number of Japanese soldiers”’ were reported 

two miles southwest of the mouth of the Driniumor, and the sergeant who 

sighted them felt that a strong Japanese attack was imminent.“z Opposite 

Company E’s front, the Japanese were less than ninety meters from the 

Driniumor’s east bank. Along this sector, the width of the Driniumor 

riverbed varied between 70 and 120 meters, with a meandering stream 30 

to 50 meters tide. The water was waist deep with a slow current. The 

stream bed was rocky and shallaw in normal weather, but the banks were 

steep; the west bank (the American side) was about one to two meters high. 

Reeds or canebreaks grew to the height of a man’s head and extended 

forty-five meters inland from either bank. These were major obstacles to 

men whose strength had so greatly deteriorated during their march to the 

Driniumar.33 

Maj. Yamashita Shigemichi, commander, 1st Battalion, 237th Infantry, 

was about to lead the advance elements of these units across the Driniumor. 

He 1ate.r recalled that, at the time, he and his men were so hungry that 

they were thinking more about breaking into the American positions to 

seize American rations than they were about the possibility of being killed. 

Yet Yamashita reahzed the crossing might be a costly, difficult attack, The 

afternoon of 10 July he confessed his misgivings to his regimental 

commander. Colonel Nara simply told Yamashita, “It’s an order. Let’s get 

on with it.‘“34 

Maj, Kawahigashi Moritoshi’s 1st Battalion, 78th Infantry, would spearhead the 20th Division% attack. His battalion had about 400 effectives, one 

70-mm battalion howitzer, and four heavy machine guns, making it the 

strongest of the 7&h’s battalions. Unlike the 237th Regiment% predicament, 

Kawahigashi enjoyed detailed reconnaissance information about the terrain 

he was about to fight on. ISt was, however, too much to ask the exhausted, 

nearly spent troops who subsisted on short rations during a two-month 

jungle march to conduct a silent night attack. The attackers had left their 

assembly area and even crossed the river in comparative silence, but the 

cumulative fatigue finalfy overwhelmed them. Along the east bank, the 

weary troops could not climb up the two- or three-foot bank without 

excessive slipping, sliding, and banging of equipment. Muffled threats and 

curses to keep quiets did no good. Their limit had been reached, and they 

could do no more. 
73 

Several men of Companies E and G heard noises from across the river, 

but they remained crouched in their foxholes and passed no word of the 

sounds to their comrades. What these Americans heard was Major 

Kawahigashi’s men moving across the Driniumor. Finally, an American 

defender from Company E or G fired, and then a hail of small arms and 

automatic weapons fire lashed the struggling Japanese soldiers. The volume 

of deadly fire stunned Kawahigashi’s officers and men, who, based on 

previous reconnaissance reports, thought that they would need little firepower support to force the river. Consequently, their battalion machine guns 

had not been sited for firing, because the battalion, like the division, like 

the army, had anticipated an easy crossing. The battalion’s 70-mm gun 

had only two rounds of ammunition brought forward-in part, because 

Japanese artillery doctrine insisted on conserving ammunition with a aneround-one-hit philosophy. Under heavy fire, the men of the 1st Battalion, 

78th Infantry, fired their grenade dischargers all along their attacking line 

and charged forward to Company G’s defenses. 

Major Kawahigashi led his men in the attack. In the moonlight he 

could see forty or fifty meters, about halfway across the river. His men 

had crouched along the eastern riverbank for about five minutes before they 

heard a battalion gun open fire. Into the riverbed they went, and suddenly 

a tremendous roar of artillery fire crashed around the battalion. The 

artillery fire splintered trees like matchsticks along the east bank, and the 

sheared limbs and trunks plummeted to the ground, crushing or pinioning 

Japanese troops in the forward platoons of the second echelon who had 

not dug themselves into the earth. 35 Screams, explosions, and noise 

punctured the darkness. Once the firing had erupted, the three or four 

Americans sharing a single large foxhole rapidly fanned out, running or 

crawling to their individual emplacements, and began shooting into the 

densely packed Japanese infantry. 

The American defenders in Company G who had time to look across 

the river saw the astonishing sight of hundreds of Japanese soldiers 

screaming and waving their arms as they lunged through the shallow water 

or pulled themselves up the riverbank. Artillery explosions had stripped 

away the canes and reed cover, exposing massed targets for American 

machine gunners and BAR men. Machine gun barrels turned red hot from 

constant firing, and still the Japanese charge would not be stopped. 

Kawahigashi’s men then ran into barbed wire strung low to the ground 

just in front of Company G’s perimeter. Many were entangled, slowed, and 

killed as they struggled to free themselves. The attack by the 78th and 

80th regiments hit near the company boundaries of Companies G and E, 

so the fighting spilled over to E’s sector, where an intrepid BAR operator 

fired twenty-six magazines, more than 500 rounds, in a period of fifteen 

minutes into the massed Japanese attackers. Even when his weapon overheated, this anonymous infantryman continued to fire single shots into the 

Japanese troops. According to his company commander, this one man was 

instrumental in breaking up the first two enemy attacks against Company E. 
74 

Friendly artillery was falling so close to the American positions that 

men on the firing line would instinctively duck their heads as the shells 

flew overhead. Shrapnel, rocks, and pebbles from the explosions showered 

the American lines. When the Japanese first echelon finally did break into 

Company G’s perimeter, American automatic weapons fire killed the 

Japanese captain commanding the battalion machine gun company leading 

that last-ditch charge. The Japanese attack broke, and the survivors 

retreated to the east bank. Of the 400 men who had started across the 

Driniumor, only ninety remained. 

To the left of the 1st Battalion, 78th Infantry, the regiment”s 3d 

Battalion soldiers, watched horror-struck as the American artillery blasted 

Japanese soldiers along the Driniumor, Maj. Koike Masao, the battalion 

commander, saw Kawahigashi’s men advance into the sheets of flame 

spurting from the American positions. Then it was Koike’s turn, and he led 

his battalion across. Again artillery fire ripped into the Japanese ranks, 

shredding limbs and torsos. Despite the carnage, the 3d Battalion managed 

to get across the river in Company E’s sector and pass through holes in 

the American line shortly before midnight. The rest of the 73th Infantry 

Regiment followed, except for the pitifully few survivors of the 1st Battalion, 

who tried again and again to break the Company G positions. Their otherwise futile attacks might have distracted Company G just sufficiently to 

permit the 3d Battalion to reach the west bank. 

Farther to the north, near Kawanakajima, Major Yamashita was also 

leading his 1st Battalion, 237th Infantry, into the river. Two machine gun 

squads had arrived just one hour before his attack, but he had no idea of 

the whereabouts of his battalion artillery and its crews. Regardless, he had 

to get his troops across the Driniumor. Along the densely packed, 100-meter 

front, the three companies of the Japanese first echelon were halfway across 

the river when the second echelon began its passage. The second wave of 

Japanese, two infantry companies, drew scattered tracer rounds from 

Company E’s positions. One by one, Japanese machine guns began to lay 

down suppressive fire for the skirmishers. Suddenly, from the south, where 

Yamashita knew the 20th Division attack was underway, came the thunder 

of artiElery explosions. The Americans seemed to remember that a bugle 

sounded, but that is doubtful. Then everyone seemed to open fire. Japanese 

artillery hit just to the rear of Company E’s thinly held lines. Japanese 

blue tracers streaked across the Driniumor, appeared to converge with the 

red and yellow tracers fired by the Americans, and then split off on their 

deadly paths. Flares burst over the river. 

Company E% commander, Captain Bell, thought that the Japanese had 

fired the flares because they burst directly over his command post and 

company mortar positions. Major Yamashita, conversely, believed that the 

Americans had fired the flares to ifluminate his attacking forces, which 

were now exposed massed in attack. Under the eerie Eight, which caused 

shadows to flicker and dance, turning trees and bushes into enemy soldiers, 
75 

American artillery shattered Japanese formations. The men of Company E 

struck the screaming Japanese with small arms and automatic weapons 

fire. Four Japanese heavy machine guns, in turn, raked the American lines, 

concentrating their fire on Company E”s now revealed machine gun and 

automatic weapons positions. 

Major Yamashita heard Japanese soldiers shouting that their machine 

guns were running low on ammunition. The pandemonium reached a 

crescendo as human screams, shouts, curses, and crashing artillery 

accompanied by the popping and banging of small arms fire combined to 

ereate acoustics for the tracers and flares, During a brief lull, as flares 

temporarily flickered out, Yamashita heard more reports of small arms fire 

to his north and realized that his 6th Company had engaged the Americans. 

The roar resumed. Trapped under the massed American firepower, 

Yamashita’s 4th Company veered south, the wrong direction (see map 16). 

The din of battle was too loud for them to hear other Japanese soldiers 

screaming to turn back. The unlucky 4th Company reached Kawanakajima 

and began to crass the little island. Company E defenders loosed another 

sheet of small arms fire that knocked down almost the entire 4th Company 

and turned the island’s pebbles blood red under the brightly burning flares. 

Yamashita still heard reports of heavy Eiring from the south, which meant 

to him that the 20th Division had not reached its objectives. 

After the destruction of 4th Company, Company E defenders believed 

that the Japanese attack had then shifted to their north, but in fact, that 

had been the original Japanese plan. Yamashita led the remnants of his 

1st Battalion across the Driniumor and over its western bank. The rest of 

the 237th Infantry followed shortly thereafter. As American artillery and 

mortars shifted their fires to repel these breaches, Japanese troops from 

the 78th and 80th Infantry regiments again struck Company E’s southern 

flank. Visibility deteriorated as the flares were nearly used up, and smoke, 

debris, and dust from artillery explosions drew a grayish pall, stinking of 

cordite, over the river. The distance between Company E’s strongpoints was 

too great to cover all the gaps. Their small arms ammunition was depleted, 

artillery fire had shifted to other targets, and although firing at ranges 

down to 135 meters, the company’s 31-mm mortars alone could not stop the 

renewed Japanese assault. Company E was overrun (see map 17).36 

Japanese infantrymen broke through Company E’s line, rushed into and 

through the American command post and mortar positions, and then started 

to regroup in order to move inland to the high ground southwest of the 

main attack sector. The 1st Battalion, 78th Infantry, suffered terrible losses, 

290 men out of 360 effectives, and altogether about 600 men of the 78th 

Infantry died in the breakthrough. The 237th Infantry had also picked its 

way through openings in Company E’s extended front and worked northwest toward the Americans’ rear. Badly mangled by American artillery, the 

237th attackers’ efforts to regroup in the jungle at night, after such a 
76 

Map 16. De&m&ion of Japanese 4th Campany 
Map 17. Japanese breakthrough, lo-11 July 1944 
78 

Map 18. Situation, 12 July 1944 
ferocious hour-long battle, proved beyond them. Instead, small groups of 

Japanese and American infantrymen isolated or encircled one another in 

turn along a l,lQO-meter-wide opening that a few hours previously had been 

the front line for Companies E and G. 

Company E lost perhaps ten killed and another twenty wounded before 

it exhausted its ammunition and pulled back from its defensive positions. 

Its contingency withdrawal plan was impossible because of the chaos, 

darkness, and lack of communication. All land lines had been severed an 

hour before, either by U.S. artillery or by Japanese troops. Suffering about 

30 percent casualties and overrun, Company E was thoroughly scattered 

and, as far as higher headquarters could determine, had ceased to exist.37 

The disintegration of Company E meant that Company G’s left (north) 

flank was wide open. The company cammander, Capt. Ted Florey, thus put 

his reserve platoon on the open flank to continue his makeshift line back 

to the battalion mortar positions. Until 0400 on 11 July, heavy enemy small 

arms fire and irregular mortar or artillery fire struck the Americans, but 

after that, quiet ensued, About 01200 Company G lost contact with higher 

headquarters, but could communicate through the artil,illery liaison officer’s 

radio. Shortly after dawn, with “‘no reserve to restore the break in the line,” 

General Martin ordered Florey to withdraw to River X, about 4,500 meters 

to his west (see map 18). Company G, plus assorted units and remnants of 

Company H, spent the next three days marching and fighting those 4,500 

meters.38 They were alone, exhausted, and afraid. The Japanese 78th and 

80th regiments were in similar straits, and their officers and NCQs were 

urging them to move southwest to mop up the rest of the American covering 

force. That Japanese enveloping maneuver brought them into contact with 

the 112th Cavalry near Afua. 
Counterattack 6 

t 

.3!? 

Afua 

As for the cavalrymen of the 112th, they knew only from the heavy 

sustained volume of fire to their north that a large battle was in progress. 

The XI Corps commander, Major General Hall, knew about as much. Hall 

contacted General Gill for an assessment of the fighting. Ameriean Tech. 

Sgt. Serph Smigiel, who was monitoring the communications equipment to 

insure circuits were not in use during a cutover procedure, overheard Gill 

say that although the “Japs” had broken through, the overall situation 

was all right. Gill’s flanks were holding, and his reserves were intact. Hall 

told Gill to carry on and that he, Hall, was going back to sleep,39 The men 

fighting and dying on the line did not quite share Gill”s sanguine appreciation of the battle. 

The sergeant then contacted regimental signalmen closer to the covering 

force, because many of the infantrymen were from his home town, and he 

was anxious to learn their fate. He heard that the Japanese indeed had 

smashed through the covering force, even using their weapons as clubs 

against the American defenders. No one knew exactly what was happening, 

but ominous reports were filtering back that Company E had been overrun 

and annihilated.*O 

Meanwhile, on the periphery of this confusion, the 112th Cavalry had 

its forces divided. Half its units were east of the Driniumor and completely 

out of contact with the regiment at this critical time. The 1st Squadron 

along the Driniumor was not under attack, but it did receive scattered artillery 

and small arms fire, possibly some of the latter from its own understandably 

nervous sentries. Sometime between midnight and 0300 on II July, the 112th 

Headquarters command post learned that the Japanese had broken through 

the 3d Battalion’s sector, when the neighboring battalion commander called 

for artillery fire through the 112th command post to cover his withdrawal.*l 

Later a preliminary report reached the 112th that about fifty Japanese had 

broken through the 2d Battalion’s sector. That grim news meant that the 

Japanese were in the 112th’s rear and that the unit might already be cut 

off. 

81 
$2 

At higher headquarters as well, the progress of the battle was still unclear. 

The “G-2 Estimate of the Enemy Situation’” of 11-12 July reported that 

“At 0430 hours, 11 July an estimated battalion (but possibly a regiment) 

penetrated our covering position,” It recounted that the first two Japanese 

attacks had been repulsed, but that Allied units, after suffering heavy 

casualties, were ordered to withdraw (see map 19). Ultra added nothing 

substantial to clarify the situation. Based on their own preconceptions 

reinforced by a patrol report from the 112th Cavalry, G-2 estimated that 

the 78th Infantry Begiment might have crossed the Driniumor south of Afua. 

In other words, G-2 concluded that the long-awaited, two-pronged Japanese 

attack was underway and planned its operations accordingly.42 

The morning of 11 July the 112th had to discover whether any Japanese 

troops were nearby and reestablish contact with the 2d Squadron. At first 

light, 1st Squadron dispatched patrols from Troop A south and southeast 

to search for enemy formations on the 112th’s flank. Lieutenant Boyce and 

twenty men were about 2,700 meters southeast of Afua when they heard 

an enemy column approaching them. The Japanese were marching in calumns 

of two’s, closed up, laughing, and talking loudly. Boyce quickly deployed 

his men in ambush and waited until the Japanese were within twenty-five 

meters before springing it. He saw eight Japanese troops topple as his patrol’s 

submachine gun and light machine guns fired into their column. More 

Japanese fell screaming as they ran for cover. Boyce and his men then 

took advantage of the enemy’s confusion to withdraw and beat a hurried 

retreat to Afua, where they arrived at 1300.43 

Earlier that morning, another 112th patrol, this time from Traop C, 

under Lieutenant Smith, was resting at a waterfall about 1,800 meters south 

of Afua, when the men spotted an eleven-man Japanese patrol marching 

up the river straight toward them. Smith also set a hasty ambush and 

waited until the first six Japanese were within three meters of him before 

firing. He personally killed two Japanese with point-blank rifle fire, two 

more Japanese died in the explosion of a white phosphorus grenade, and 

two others were wounded. The survivors fled into the jungle. Smith continued 

his patrol and about 500 meters west of the river discovered what he thought 

was a large Japanese bivouac, He reported his news back to Headquarters, 

112th Cavalry, shortly after noon. 

Another patrol to the northwest, this one from Troop B, reached Niumen 

Creek, where the men discovered fresh boot tracks and heard Japanese 

talking. At one point, the men in the patrol had the chilling experience of 

feeling sure that Japanese were trailing them, but they managed to return 

around noon without incident. All these patrol contacts indicated to General 

Cunningham that large numbers of Japanese were attempting to outflank 

his exposed position from the south. Later that afternoon, reports of large 

numbers of Japanese crossing the Driniumor south of Afua seemed to confirm 

it. His perception, in turn, colored SWPA G-2’s estimate that the 78th Infantry 

was conducting a flanking operation southeast of Afua. 
I 
84 

In the meantime, telephone communication with 1st Squadron Headquarters failed because of a fault in the line, thus delaying until 0730 orders 

for the immediate return of 2d Squadron from east of the Driniumor. About 

two and one-half hours later, as 1st Squadron waited the arrival of 2d 

Squadron, General Hall contacted the 112th’s command post and ordered 

the unit to destroy supplies and equipment that the men would be unable 

to carry in their withdrawal to River X. * Supply sergeants ordered the men 

to bury all supplies in foxholes before moving out, and the men destroyed 

what could be neither buried nor carried, Everyone worked in haste, fearful 

that each passing moment gave the Japanese time to tighten their grip on 

the unit. To this point, except for scattered small arms fire during the night 

of lo-11 July, the 112th had not been engaged in the fighting. Nevertheless, 

their perception af that battle rested on the fragmentary reports they had 

received, and the so-called fog of war had produced extreme apprehension. 

Thus, while General Martin approved General Cunningham’s request to 

withdraw at 1100 instead of the scheduled 1500, he did so only after 

emphasizing that the mission of the covering force was to delay the enemy, 

not to give up ground without resisting.44 

General Martin faced a series of decisions he had to make on the basis 

of incamplete information. He had no forces left to plug the breakthrough 

beeaus,e the reconnaissance in force operations along either of his flanks 

required all his reserves. He judged, correctly, that the Japanese were across 

the Driniumor in force and were threatening his rear. General Krueger did 

not agree with Martin’s estimate of the seriausness of the situation. As 

limited as his information was, Martin did realize that there were no U.S. 

forces between the Japanese and the American main line of resistance near 

&tape, and consequently he ordered a general withdrawal to River X, where 

he would reorganize his forces to combat future Japanese attacks.b5 A signal 

from the Japanese 80th Infantry put it more bluntly, “Under our eyes the 

enemy is retreating in boats and along the trails.“46 

As General Curmingham led the first echelon of the 112th in retreat to 

River X, 2d Squadron finally appeared at Afua. Fear propelled the Americans 

as they covered in an hour the same distance that had taken them most of 

the previous day. Everyone pushed himself at an exhausting pace or risked 

being left alone in the jungle again that night. By 1200, 2d Squadron had 

replaced the 1st at Afua, and the 2d, in turn, withdrew three hours later. 

Native bearers helped carry the squadron’s baggage, particularly by 

dismantling and portaging the 5th Portable Hospital, then assigned to the 

112th. The 2d Squadron’s luck again failed as a torrential downpour punished 

them all afternoon. The heavy trail and slippery going slowed the native 

bearers, who, in turn, retarded the column’s progress. So, near midnight 

the 2d Squadron, less Troop F, wearily reached River X. It had been a 

physically exhausting and mentally terrifying ordeal. Troop F, whose men 

brought up the rear, did not close with the main column and, fearful of 

crossing the River X in darkness, spent the night alone. The night march 

*S&L&M orders were issued to the 2d/12&th and the 3d/127th. 
85 

over a narrow jungle trail was later described in the unit history as “a 

great hardship.” Litter bearers got lost in the black maze, requiring the 

column to halt until they could be found. After that, men caught hold of 

the belt or shoulder of the trooper in front of them and led each other in a 

procession of darkness. The men stumbled along, and when they tripped 

and fell over slippery roots or bush on the trail, it caused a chain reaction 

as several beltholders crashed down together in the mud. Weapons were 

consequently covered with mud and not in firing condition. The 2d Squadron 

was no longer a fighting unit, and the men were too exhausted to care. 

They were too fatigued even to eat. Only a day’s rest and refitting would 

reconstitute the unit. 

Both combatants needed time to regroup and reorganize. The 112th’~ 

troopers were drained not from fighting, but from ‘the physical demands of 

making a hasty withdrawal during a tropical deluge, as well as from the 

mental strain from a night and day of unrelieved tension. The 3d Battalion, 

127th Infantry, had not participated in the fighting either, but it too was 

scattered in retreat. Farther north, Companies E and G were in disarray 

somewhere in the heavy jungle between the Driniumor and River X. Nearer 

the coast, small groups of men from Company F were fighting Japanese 

soldiers from the 237th Infantry. The Japanese 78th and 80th Infantry 

regiments had swung southwest after their breakthrough, but both had 

suffered dreadful personnel losses. Their, turn south was too late to cut off 

the retreat of the 112th. In short, despite the initial Japanese breakthrough 

and severe losses on -both sides, the fighting so far had been inconclusive. 

Once again the respective commanders had to make the operational decisions 

that would set in motion another desperate melee in the New Guinea wilds. 

General Krueger at 6th Army still refused to believe that Martin’s retreat 

from the Driniumor had been necessary. On 12 July, he ordered General 

Hall to drive the Japanese back eastward across the Driniumor. General 

Hall, in turn, ordered General Martin’ to retreat no further, except before 

overwhelming odds, and he forbade the withdrawal of any unit not in actual 

contact with superior enemy forces. To emphasize the point, later the same 

day General Martin was relieved of command of the covering force and 

assigned command of Eastern Sector. Major General Gill assumed command 

of Persecution Covering Force.47 Gill’s Field Order Number One, Persecution 

Covering Force, directed a counterattack on 13 July to restore the Driniumor 

line. For operational purposes, two clusters of units, designated North Force 

and South Force, would attack east to the west bank of the Driniumor, 

where they would turn south and north respectively in order to join forces, 

thereby sealing the Japanese penetration (see map 20).48 

At 18th Army, General Adachi believed that the battle was developing 

favorably. According to the preliminary reports he had received on 12 and 

13 July, the 20th Division was southwest of Afua, and the Americans were 

in full retreat. Regimental staff officers reported that the Americans had 

suffered “many casualties,” but darkness prevented a detailed account of 
86 

Map 20. Sealing the gap, 13-14 duly 1944 
87 

enemy dead or captured equipment, Japanese losses were given as twentyfive dead and fifty-nine wounded. 4g Adachi concluded that his initial attack 

had succeeded and that his next attack towards the airfields at Aitape could 

continue according to plan. 

On 12 July the 112th Cavalry was sorting itself out in anticipation of 

imminent fighting. Patrols had no success in locating the Japanese, but 

everyone dug in, expecting yet another Japanese attack that night. About 

twenty men laid out an escape trail, and others reestablished communications 

between the 112th and the 3d Battalion, 127th Infantry, also regrouping 

after being scattered during its retreat. Then at 1750, in accordance with 

6th Army’s orders, General Martin ordered the 112th Cavalry to reoccupy 

its former positions on the Driniumor the following morning. Commanders’ 

meetings and coordination conferences with the 3d Battalion, which would 

advance on the 112th’s Iefi flank, occupied the early daylight hours. During 

this time, General Cunningham also coordinated air and artillery support 

for the 112th Cavalry, should it encounter Japanese resistance. Similar 

preparations were repeated to the north, where the 1st Battalion, 128th 

Infantry, would simultaneously attack towards the Driniumor.50 Rested and 

refitted, the 112th was ready to be committed to battle again. At 0800 an 

advance guard platoon moved from River X eastward to the Driniumor. 

In three hours during intermittent showers the advance guard platoon 

from Troop B had covered about 2,000 meters, making very good time over 

the jungle trails. Then the point men bumped into perhaps seventy-five 

Japanese soldiers from the 20th Division near a stream crossing. As one 

American veteran recalled, “We just waIked up on what looks like about 

fifteen Japs out in the river. They were great big Japs, looked like he was 

six feet tall and with one of our ponchos on his back.““1 Both sides recovered 

from their initial shock and surprise and sprinted for cover. A sharp fire 

fight flared, punctuated by bursts of light machine gun fire, thunks of 

Japanese grenade dischargers, and rifle shots. The Americans wisely waited 

for the main body of the 112th Cavalry and its additional fire support. For 

the next three hours, 1st Squadron cautiously deployed forward, with Troop 

B in the center, A on the right, and C on the left, until all had reached 

the creek. Most of their firing was unaimed, because the thick vegetation 

precluded seeing much farther than a few meters, and men were reluctant 

to expose themselves for aimed fire. Another pause occurred as requests 

were made for artillery fire against the Japanese. Finally at 1400, after 

artillery fire had fallen on the suspected Japanese positions, the entire 1st 

Squadron made a rush across the stream. Their spectacular charge went 

for naught, however, because the Japanese had realized early in the engagement that they were outnumbered and outgunned and had fled deeper into 

the jungle. So the 112th Cavalry crossed the nameless stream, and by 1530 

lead elements had reached Afua without opposition. The 112th was back 

on the Driniumor. 

Squadron defensive deployments were textbook: two up, one back. The 

1st Squadron deployed Troop B on the river’s west bank as the squadron’s 
8% 

south flank with Troop C to its north and Troop A in reserve. The 2d 

Squadron moved downriver from Afua and took up positions north of 1st 

Squadron with Troop F’s lines tied to C, Troop G holding the north flank, 

and E in reserve. The impression that the defenses were laid out in neat 

and orderly “lines” was misleading. Afua had already been hit with an air 

strike, and the American soldiers had to dig in amidst the rubble. It was 

too late in the afternoon to prepare elaborate entrenchments, so they used 

bomb craters and artillery shellholes that pitted the area as foxholes or 

outposts for minimal protection against potential enemy fire and the elements. 

The heretofore constantly booming artillery fire slackened by early evening 

after General Hall had warned artillery officers to conserve ammunition or 

risk exhausting their stocks. For the next ten days, harassing fire was limited 

to not more than ten rounds per gun per night.52 

Troop G’s sector was the most active that night. Throughout the night, 

sentries heard and occasionally, when the clouds parted, caught fleeting 

glimpses in the moonlight of Japanese soldiers crossing the Driniumor and 

moving southeast, away from the American lines. These Japanese probably 

were scouts or guides sent to find the exact whereabouts of the 2Qth Division, 

at present somewhere southeast of the river and Afua, but two of whose 

regiments were now northwest of Afua. 

Pvt. William Garbo had arrived at Troop G that day as a replacement 

and promptly became an ammunition bearer* After dark be found himself 

in a machine gun pit, about the size of a dining room table, covered with 

ponchos and logs. Although he had listened to everything the veterans had 

said, nothing had prepared him for a night in a pit so black that he could 

not see his hand in front of his face. It was so still that he could hear the 

Driniumor flowing past, but more menacing sounds of five Japanese infiltrators soon followed. A Japanese soldier climbed onto the logs covering 

Garbo’s dugout and hurled a bundle of dynamite onto the startled machine 

gun crew. Only the detonator caps exploded, deafening the Americans and 

covering them with sulphur powder. Grenades, followed by American small 

arms fire, killed two of the infiltrators, and the surviving Japanese escaped 

into the jungle darkness. While the rest of the night passed quietly in the 

112th’~ area, once again came the sounds of small arms and heavy artillery 

fire to the north. Although the men of the 112th could not know it, what 

they heard was fighting among the American 1st and 3d battalions, 124th 

Infantry, and the Japanese 1st and 2d battalions, 237th Infantry. They 

had the vaguest idea that someone besides themselves had the misfortune 

to find Japanese troops. It was probably fortunate that the 112th troopers 

did not know that the 78th and 80th Infantry regiments at that moment 

were about 2,500 meters northwest of Afua, in the rear of the 112th’~ defenses, 

and preparing to attack. All the cavalrymen knew for certain was that in 

the morning it would be their turn to attack. 

On a situation map everything was clear. The Japanese had broken 

through the center of the American lines. The U.S. forces even now had 

launched a counterattack to seal off the gap. On 14 July South Force (the 
89 

112th Cavalry and the 3d Battalion, 127th Infantry) would attack north as 

the 124th Infantry Regiment, minus one battalion, would attack south. The 

axes of attack were parallel and west of the Driniumor. The objective was 

for the Americans to join forces, thereby destroying the Japanese units 

operating west of the Driniumor. The more one was removed from the actual 

fighting and terrain, the clearer the situation seemed. No one at any echelon 

realized that two Japanese regiments were readying an attack from northwest 

of Afua. 

In the 112th Cavalry, everyone was tense and nervous, checking their 

weapons before their attack on the morning af 14 July. No one knew exactly 

where the Japanese were silently waiting for the American approach, but 

everyone knew that Japanese ambushes from the thick, lush, green vegetation 

could erupt at any moment and spray them with deadly small arms fire. 

Leading the advance patrols was as nerve racking and potentially lethal. 

But without patrols, the squadrons were blind, 

Shortly before 0800, a squad-size patrol from Troop F crassed to the 

Driniumor’s east bank in front of its troop sector. Almost immediately, 

Japanese machine gun fire struck the patrol, wounding one man. The squad 

was temporarily pinned down, but covering fire from Troop F’s machine 

guns and mortars kept the Japanese gunners’ heads down and gave the 

patrol time to escape back across the river. Then tragedy struck. As the 

artillery liaison officer tried to adjust the 120th Field Artillery Battalion’s 

105mm fire on the Japanese ambush site, four shells landed short, exploding 

just in front of the south flank in Troop F’s sector. Friendly fire killed one 

American and wounded three others. It was a portent for the 212th Cavalry 

that day, 

The 1st Squadron pushed north, parallel to the Driniumor’s west bank, 

preceded by squad-size patrols. Screening patrols, one squad from each troop 

sector, took up positions about 600 meters east of the river and remained 

there during the day to protect 1st Squadron’s flank. The mission of 1st 

Squadron was to link up with the 124th Infantry, operating somewhere-no 

one seemed to know where-to the north. Cavalry patrols, however, advanced 

1,500 meters downriver without finding any trace of either American or 

Japanese units. Moreover, the commander of the 124th Infantry, who was 

supposed to be clearing Japanese troops along the Driniumor by a southern 

advance, reported that his troops had reached the Anamo-Afua trail junction 

The 2d Squadron, however, was occupying these positions at present, which 

meant that the 124th Infantry was lost. * As if to exacerbate the already 

muddled situation, Australian fighter aircraft mistakenly strafed the 2d 

Squadron’s sector, wounding one cavalryman. Close air support was a 

continual problem, because the Americans and Australians operated on 

different radio frequencies, which meant that the ground troops could not 

*Gray, ““Aitape,” maintains that there were two Afuas-an old Afua and a new, the latter 

1,500 meters upstream-se both commanders were correct. The terrain map of &tape issued to 

the troops shows only the one village. 
90 

contact the pilots and identify themselves. In addition, in the midst of 

preplanned American artillery concentrations, Japanese artillerymen would 

sometimes also fire a round or two near the area. This led to confusion 

among the Americans over whether or not friendly artillery was falling on 

their heads. Also that afternoon, Companies G and H, 128th Battalion, after 

wandering and fighting for two days in the jungle, arrived at the 112th’s 

rear echelon at River X, where they helped to man the perimeter that night 

on Persecution Task Force’s orders. 

The picture for 14 July, then, was one of American regiments and 

battalions segregated by the jungle terrain into squad- and platoon-size 

formations which, relying on inaccurate maps, were milling around thick 

jungle on either side of a spur of the Torricelli chain, which stretched 

irregularly about 3,606 meters north of Afua between the Driniumor and 

Koronal Creek. The Japanese, simultaneously, had two understrength infantry 

regiments consolidating positions on that very spur near Kwamagnirk Village. 

Conceivably, squads of Americans and Japanese passed within a few meters 

of each other, but enclosed and muffled by the great trees and expansive 

vegetation, they passed unaware of the presence of the other. Had they 

even glimpsed another patrol several meters away, the jungle had reduced 

all their uniforms and national identities to a sameness. 

The Japanese infantrymen had picked up numerous pieces of American 

clothing and equipment, probably after overrunning Company E and forcing 

G to withdraw. A 2d Squadron security patrol, for instance, saw four 

Japanese near River X wearing American packs and clothing. As early as 

29 June the Persecution Task Force S-2 warned all units that the Japanese 

were wearing US. uniforms and equipment and to be careful “not to identify 

the enemy by clothing alone.“s9 Members of the 112th were reduced to the 

fatigues they wore on their backs. Clothes and boots rotted away, because 

in the harsh priorities of combat, they were less essential to survival than 

ammunition and food. The 112th would spend the next three weeks fighting 

along the Driniumor. The only relief was for the seriously ill or the wounded. 

The living and the dead stayed on the line. 

That night, General Hall declared a full alert because a Japanese prisoner 

had claimed that a major attack was imminent. The 112th had special cause 

for caneern because a few hours earlier Persecution Task Force Headquarters 

had informed them by message that approximately two Japanese regiments 

were about 3,600 meters northwest of the 112th’~ right rear.54 The anticipated 

attack never materialized, and only light small arms fire was audible to 

the north. 

Another reason that American patrols encountered so few Japanese on 

14 July was that the Japanese were still regrouping. The 78th and 80th 

Infantry regiments, which had suffered such terrible casualties on the night 

of lo-11 July, amalgamated themselves under the command of Maj. Gen. 

Miyake Sadahiko and henceforth were kno& as Miyake Force. Also on 14 
91 

July, 18th Army Headquarters apparently realized the serious losses incurred 

to date. General Adachi then recognized that the Americans had reoccupied 

the original Japanese crossing point on the Driniumor, that strong enemy 

units were advancing along the coast against his 237th Infantry, and that 

for the first time to his knowledge, Americans were appearing in strength 

on the Afua front. He responded to the new situation by ordering the 41st 

Division to destroy the Americans near the Driniumor crossing and along 

the coast. Meanwhile, he directed the 20th Division to annihilate the enemy 

near Afua.55 

The 112th Cavalry was in the midst of its counterattack but the men 

could account for little but frustration, confusion, and needless death from 

“friendly fire.‘” Persecution Task Force was dissatisfied with the 112th 

Cavalry’s seemingly slow and overly cautious advance. General Hall wanted 

the gap in the U.S. lines closed. At 2300 on 14 July, he ordered General 

Cunningham to move Troop E north to fill the opening, although he did 

agree to a request that the move be delayed until first Eight. At dawn on 

15 July, the men of Troop E started north to find the 124th Infantry. About 

one hour later they passed Company L, 127th Infantry’s left (north) Rank, 

which rested on the exposed gap (see map 21). Afterwards, they used the 

Anamo Trail and had proceeded north perhaps 2,700 meters when the lead 

scout, Pfc. Carlos A. Provencio, heard a Japanese dragging a weapon along 

the trail. Prove&o waited for the man to appear on the trail and, when 

he did, shot at him. The startled Japanese turned and fled. The point man 

moved after him, and as he turned another twist on the jungle path, he 

almost ran into another Japanese soldier, whom he promptly shot and killed. 

The troop reacted quickly, moved forward firing in support, and killed six 

Japanese soIdiers. 56 Private First Class Provencio then caught sight of a 

Japanese machine gun emplacement, so instead of going straight along the 

trail towards the gun, he led the troop on a detour around its right flank. 

The Americans then resumed their march and reached the 124th Infantry’s 

command post by noon. Shortly thereafter, Troop E sent a message to General 

Cunningham reporting this linkup, but it never arrived, leaving the general 

to wonder what had happened to his men. The cavalrymen spent the rest 

of the afternoon exchanging stories and food with 3d Battalion, 124th 

Infantry. At 1700, that battalion received orders to attack south to close 

the gap, but with darkness fast approaching, a request to postpone the 

attack until morning was granted. 

While Troop E made its way north, patrols from the 112th Cavalry 

reported numerous sightings of small parties of Japanese south and west 

of the regiment’s positions near Afua. General Cunningham, in some 

distemper, readjusted his lines northward to cover the void created by Troop 

E’s departure. s7 Other cavalrymen improved defenses around Afua, sweating 

under the tropical sun. Three C-478 flew over and dropped rations and 

ammunition, for Japanese ambushes had made ration trains too dangerous 

or too prohibitive in terms of the men needed to guard the trains, which of 
92 

E TROOP ROLiTE 

NORTW F 

Map 21. Sealing the gap, E-16 July 1944 
93 

necessity moved slowly along the easily ambushed jungle trails. Usually 

the airmen dropped ten-in-one rations, but for one three-day period, the 

cavalrymen on the ground had to subsist on K rations alone.“* 

Members of the 112th”s Service Company like T-5 Albert Earl Gossett 

volunteered to ride in the C-47 ration planes and to kick supplies out the 

doorless side of the aircraft. It was the kind of effort that could easily be 

overlooked, but without resupply the combat troops would be unable to 

function. An idea of the magnitude of the airdrop may be gained from thestatistics that 5.1 tons of supplies were air-dropped on 22 July to the 112th 

at Afua, and just two days later, another 3.1 tons were parachuted to them.59 

Kicking out supply pallets was dangerous work, because in the excitement 

of the few seconds one had to kick the supplies out, it was deceptively 

simple to get tangled in the parachute static lines and pulled from the 

aircraft. On the ground, after eating, 112th personnel settled in for the night. 

It passed quietly with only desultory firing heard to the north. But there 

was always potential danger. A friendly artillery battery firing a routine 

night interdiction mission had one stray shell explode in the riverbed about 

fifty meters in front of Troop G”s sector, killing a trooper who had decided 

to sleep above ground that night. 

Gn 15 July the Japanese 20th Division reported that in its sector “almost 

all” the enemy had retreated and that its troops were “pursuing and mopping 

up” the Americans. Evidently, the 78th and 80th Infantry regiments of the 

20th Division had as little notion of the whereabouts of the 112th Cavalry, 

127th Infantry, and 124th Infantry as the Americans had of Japanese 

locations. That day, General Adachi decided to send the previously uncommitted 66th Infantry, 51st Division, to expand the 20th Division’s gains. 

Concurrently, he ordered the 41st Division’s 239th and 237th Infantry 

regiments to attack west and east, respectively, in order to hold the original 

Japanese breakthrough corridor on the Driniumor.60 While Troop E and the 

124th Infantry would be attacking south and the 112th Cavalry and 127th 

Infantry pushing north, the convergence of Americans and Japanese units 

from all points of the compass would create a unique tactical situation and 

make a collision unavoidable. It happened the morning of 16 July. 

Troop E spent the night of 15 July with Company I, 124th Imfantry. 

Supply Sgt. Frank Salas recalled that the 124th’s men were “very happy”’ 

to see fellow Americans. The 124th Infantry had had no combat experience, 

and the sight of the 112th Cavalry men, veterans of New Britain, calmed 

the understandably nervous green troops. The Company I commander 

distributed E troopers throughout his unit, which occupied the right (south), 

or exposed, flank of the battalion. He acknowledged the “steadying influence” 

of the cavalrymen the next morning, when he told Lieutenant Campbell, 

then commanding Troop E, that it was the first time Company 1”s soldiers 

had not opened fire at shadows and noises during the night. 

\ 
94 

In the still cool morning, some of the cavalrymen and infantrymen were 

sitting around cleaning their weapons for the upcoming attack. An advaneed 

detachment from Troop E began moving across a clearing. In the jungle 

vegetation on the south side of the clearing, about fifty Japanese troops 

from Major Harada’s 1st Battalion, 239th Infantry, lay in ambush. As the 

Americans approached, a nervous Japanese machine gunner tripped the 

ambush too soon. Machine gun fire raked a knoll just below the feet of the 

surprised E troopers. No Japanese could be seen, but puffs of smoke and 

rifles were visible in the jungle foliage. The new men stood frozen in 

amazement that live Japanese could be only twenty meters away, but the 

112th veterans ran back into the perimeter and opened fire. 

Manning weapons belonging to the 124th Infantry, Cpl. T. D. Clark 

and Pvt. Jasper Fortney fired into the thicket. Clark used a machine gun, 

and Fortney fired a 60-mm mortar without a site. About ten meters closer 

to the Japanese, another E trooper adjusted the mortar fire because he could 

see movement in the trees. The mortar shells seemed to go straight up to 

apogee and then plunge back to earth. The firing continued for about thirty 

minutes, and then the surviving Japanese rushed the Americans, who 

promptly shot them down.61 

Troop E searched the bushes for any Japanese survivors. Discovering 

none, they spearheaded the 3d Battalion’s push south. Meantime, the Japanese 

3d Battalion, 237th Infantry, attacked the rear of the 3d Battalion, 124th 

Infantry, temporarily separating it from Troop E. Nevertheless, the eavalrymen pushed slowly south against only occasional sniper fire and contacted 

Company K, 127th Infantry, at 1245 and then proceeded on to the troop 

bivouac near Headquarters, 2d Squadron. During their battle, forty-five 

Japanese infantrymen were killed, including Major Harada. The 112th Cavalry 

miraculously suffered no casualties. This action of 16 July forced General 

Adachi to reconsider the forces arrayed against him. 
American resistance and Japanese supply difficulties made Ada&i forsake 

his original plan to destroy the U.S. covering force and then to regroup for 

a main attack against the Allied defenses near Aitape. He now threw his 

reserves and available support troops into the battle raging along the 

Driniumor. Ordering a “temporary suspension” of preparations for an attack 

against the main American positions, Adachi directed “all available” force 

be used to strengthen the frontline units engaged with the Americans. 

Bolstered by these reinforcements, the 41st and 20th divisions would continue 

their attacks against the estimated five U.S. battalions on or near the 

Driniumor. The 79th Infantry Regiment would advance simultaneously against 

Afua from the southeast. A fragmented version of this signal was later 

available to SWPA via Ultra.62 

Not privy to the gleanings from Ultra until several days afterward, 

General Hall at Persecution Task Force Headquarters still did not comprehend 

that the entire 20th Division was moving on Afua. Hall was, however, 

thoroughly dissatisfied with General Gill’s seeming lack of progress, and 

he made his feeling explicit in the following message to Gill.63 

16 July 44 0005 

TO: GILL, CG, PCF 

FOR EYES OF GENERAL GILL 

CAREFUL ANALYSIS OF YOUR SITUATION DISCLOSES AT YOUR 

DISPOSAL 127, IZS(-), 124(-), 112th, SOME TD’S AND ENGINEERS. CONFRONTING YOU WEST OF DRINIUMOR IS AN UNDETERMINED NUMBER 

OF JAPS RUT CERTAINLY NOT YOUR EQUAL IN EITHER NUMBER OR 

FIRE POWER. IT APPEARS TO ME THAT WITH THE FORCES AT YOUR 

DISPOSAL IF THE PROPER OFFENSIVE ACTION IS INSTITUTED AT ONCE 

YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO CLEAR THE AREA WEST OF THE DRINIUMOR 

WITHIN 48 HOURS. TROOP MOVEMENTS HAVE BEEN DELAYED AND I 

CANNOT PROMISE YOU ANY REINFORCEMENT. I DO NOT ATTEMPT TO 

TELL YOU WHAT MEASURES TO T%KE TO COUNTER AN OFFENSIVE FROM 

THE EAST AND AT THE SAME TIME CLEAN UP THE SITUATION WEST 

OF THE DRINIUMOR. IT CANNOT BE DONE BY DEFENSIVE ACTION. I 

EXPECT YOU TO TAKE ALL OFFENSIVE MEASURES NOT ONLY TO CLARIFY 

THE SITUATION BUT TO ERADICATE THE ENEMY WEST OF THE 

95 
96 

DRINIUMOR. YOU MUST DO IT WITH YOUR OWN FORCES WHICH ARE 

CONSIDERED ADEQUATE FOR THE PURPOSE. WE CANNOT WASTE TIME 

BY DILATORY TACTICS. WHILE ITEM APPRECIATE THAT SOME OF YOUR 

TROOPS ARE TIRED I KNOW OF NO BATTLE WHICH WAS ENTERED LNTO 

WITH FRESH TROOPS. PLEASE GIVE THIS YOUR PERSONAL ATTENTION 

AND PUSH IT TO A CONCLUSION IN ORDER THAT INCOMING TROOPS 

MAY BE USED TO FINISH UP THIS SITUATION OUTSIDE OF YOUR AREA. 

HALL 

Hall’s directive must be understood in a strategic rather than a tactical 

context. In late spring 1944, Washington planners reconsidered the idea of 

bypassing the Philippines in favor of an attack against Formosa. The 

Combined Chiefs conference in London in early June endorsed the Formosa 

plan, and a JCS notification to MacArthur an 12 June stated that in order 

to expedite the Pacific Campaign, “‘presently selected objectives”’ (read 

Philippines} would be bypassed in favor of an invasion of Formosa. MacArthur 

attempted to rebut the JCS note in an 18 June message, but by this time 

General George C. Marshall also was leaning toward the Formosa plan. 

Nevertheless, MacArthur had his plan to retake the Philippines ready by 

10 July, and this was the strategy he tried “to sell” to President Franklin 

D. Roosevelt when they met in Hawaii from 26 to 29 July. In this light, it 

seems logical that MacArthur was pressuring his subordinates to conclude 

the Aitape campaign rapidly in order to demonstrate the efficacy of his 

strategic concepts and thereby win presidential endorsement for his Philippine 

plan. Strategic decision making directly influenced the tactical conduct of 

the Aitape fighting and, in large measure, accounts for the enormous pressure 

from above that General Gill described. Tactics, however, did not exert a 

reciprocal influence an strategy, because Gill could not finish the campaign 

in forty-eight hours. Nor did the Hawaii meeting clarify U.S. Pacific strategy 

to the degree MacArthur desired.G4 

The immediate impact an the 112th was that Gill rejected General 

Cunningham”s plea for an additional rifle battalion. Higher headquarters’ 

apparently cavalier disapproval infuriated Cunningham, who compensated 

by shortening his line, bending his south flank back from the Driniumor 

along the Afua-Palauru trail, and stationing Troop A on the high ground 

guarding the western extremity of his new position.65 

He was convinced that a numerically superior enemy force was outflanking 

the regiment from the south. He also had unsettling reports of Japanese 

troops to his west and northwest, where a Japanese roadblock prevented 

overland resupply at River X, and was uncertain about his routes of withdrawal, should the necessity arise. Far all Cunningham knew, the 112th 

Cavalry might already be surrounded. The men could only dig deeper, improve 

their defensive positions, and distribute ammunition dropped by plane. Their 

fate had become intertwined with that of the Japanese soldiers in Miyake 

Force, who spent 17 July slowly maneuvering into their assembly areas 

north and northwest of Afua for the attack on the 112th Cavalry. 
Area of the 112th Cavalry command post, showing rugged conditions at Aitape. 

Miyake’s screening patrols were in position by daybreak on 18 July. 

Shortly afterward, one of these patrols, operating about one mile west of 

Afua, ambushed a squad-size 112th Cavalry patrol that was reconnoitering 

the trail to River X. A point-blank burst of machine gun fire killed one 

cavalryman and scattered the Americans, who ran for cover in the jungle. 

Two or three Japanese light machine guns peppered the cavalrymen, but 

their officer had made radio contact with Troop A, which sent reinforcements. 

The Americans pinpointed the Japanese ambush positions and called for 

artillery and mortar fire. After the high explosives saturated the Japaneseheld jungle, wrecking trees and cratering the area, Troop A assaulted the 

Japanese positions and killed six of the enemy. The remaining Japanese 

had already escaped east and north into the jungle. At the other end of 

the trail near River X, a detachment of cavalrymen proceeded only 400 

meters before stumbling into a Japanese screen. This time it was the 

cavalrymen who gave up the fight first and made their way back to River 

X and safety. These patrol clashes pointed to the possibility of a Japanese 

attack. Indeed the Americans were jittery, and there was a report (later 

proven false) that General Cunningham’s command post was under attack. 

In spite of the indicators, the direction of the main Japanese attack caught 

the 112th Cavalry by complete surprise. 
98 

/ \c Itw 

. 

Map 22. Japanese attack against Afua, 18 July 1944 
99 

Cpl. Charles C. Brabham was settling into his nighttime defensive 

position, under a log on the Driniumor bank facing south. It was just before 

dusk, and having secured the perimeter and strung tin cans on the barbed 

wire for a crude early warning system, several men were bathing in the 

river. Suddenly a machine gun roared, and Japanese soldiers in skirmish 

line formation emerged from the jungle, walking and firing into Troop A’s 

perimeter from the south and west (see map 22). The 112th Cavalry was 

being attacked from the rear in strength. Pfc. Walter Stocks, a rifleman, 

was sheltered in a bomb crater that served as an outpost. He recalled, “One 

shot was fired and everything broke loose. Japanese fighting patrols, ten 

here, ten there, spreading out to flank. I called for artillery.” His machine 

gunner dropped down into the crater, stunned by a Japanese bullet that 

creased his skull. The few other Americans in the crater fought back, and 

Stocks himself ducked into the crater with the wounded gunner, but still 

traversed the machine gun back and forth with one hand, spraying bullets 

at the menacing Japanese foot soldiers. A bullet hit Stocks in the hand. 

When a white phosphorus grenade exploded, the men in the outpost used 

the diversion to clear out with their wounded back to the main force.66 

All the men in 1st Squadron knew was that machine guns and mortars 

were blasting away behind them. Troop A took the brunt of the assault 

conducted by the Japanese 3d Battalion, 78th Infantry, and 2d Battalion, 

80th Infantry. Despite heavy losses attacking across the Driniumor on loll July and despite being out of supply and usually out of communication 

with other Japanese formations for the next week, the Japanese fought 

fanatically, The infantrymen were undernourished and exposed to torrential 

rain, mosquitoes, and insects. These particular troops had not eaten since 

the previous day and had been reduced to living on grass or tree bark.67 

They were weary, and their uniforms were becoming ragged. They had seen 

and felt the death or mutilation of hundreds of their comrades. But when 

ordered to attack, they advanced. It seemed the sheer desperation of their 

condition served to drive their attacks forward. 

For two hours the struggle raged. A few men here and there appeared 

briefly out of the jungle or over the lip of bomb craters to fire several 

hurried shots at real or imaginary enemies, Intermittent showers and darkness 

compounded the confusion, but the Japanese capitalized on their initial 

surprise and forced the shaken troopers back about 300 meters to the north. 

Troop A used communications wire to guide its retreat. Like the ball of 

yarn that enabled Theseus to escape the Labyrinth, the communications 

wire became a lifeline that guided the cavalrymen and their sixteen wounded 

comrades to safety in the featureless black maze. Two cavalrymen had been 

killed. 

With Troop A driven back, Troop B called in its upriver outpost, pulled 

its southernmost platoon from the Driniumor, and moved it southwest to 

protect Troop B’s south and rear. Meantime, the Japanese moved northeast 

to their reassembly areas in order to reorganize after the attack. With the 
100 

cavalrymen retreating northwest and the Japanese regrouping northeast, 

contact between the combatants was severed. Nonetheless, the 112th Cavalry 

spent an edgy night, as illustrated by the fate of a courier who was making 

his way to Troop B around midnight. The officer stumbled into a 112th 

Cavalry foxhole. Presuming he was Japanese, its occupants instinctively 

attacked and seriously wounded the lieutenant. In the middle of this confusion, 

General Cunningham had to sort out Troop A, reinforce it, and plan a 

dawn counterattack to retake the lost ground. 

He used a platoon from Troop E, an antitank platoon of Headquarters 

Troop, and one rifle platoon from the 3d Battalion, 127th Infantry, to 

counterattack at 0700 on 19 July and retake Troop A’s former sector. The 

attackers encountered almost no Japanese resistance and regained their 

previous day’s positions. Patrols reported, however, that numerous s’mall 

parties of Japanese troops were moving nearby in the jungle thicket. General 

Miyake had again rallied his decimated troops for a daylight attack against 

the Americans. The opposing forces blundered into each other on the west 

side of Troop A’s positions. The men of the 3d Battalion, 78th Infantry, 

had set up heavy machine guns in thick vegetation across a creek to the 

west and provided themselves enfilading fire with machine guns firing from 

a swampy area to the south. The cavalrymen unwittingly walked into this 

ambush, suffered losses, and pulled back to await artillery support. The 

Japanese did not take advantage of the delay to redispo,sition themselves 

or to move against the Americans, perhaps because they thought help was 

on the way from the northwest. Indeed, Japanese small arms fire was coming 

from that direction, but the elements were, at most, squad size. During the 

“considerable time” lost in coordinating American artillery fire, a platoon 

leader in Troop E, 2d Lt. Dale E. Christensen, ordered his men to stay 

under cover while he crawled forward through the jungle undergrowth to 

pinpoint the Japanese automatic weapons and to find a possible avenue of 

attack. Although Japanese small arms fire hit his rifle and knocked it from 

his hands, Christensen crept on until he found the machine guns. He used 

hand grenades to destroy one Japanese machine gun and kill its crew, after 

which he returned to his men. Finally, American artillery began exploding 

among the Japanese positions, although the long-delayed barrage prevented 

the Americans from attacking until 1400. At that time, Christensen took 

his men to the point he had previously reconnoitered for the attack and led 

their charge against the dazed surviving Japanese.* Those Japanese who 

still could, fled into the jungle. The cavalrymen killed any Japanese wounded. 

This was the worst day of fighting so far for the 112th Cavalry. They had 

lost six men killed and twenty-nine wounded, mostly to Japanese small 

arms fire. Colonel Miller’s personal count of Japanese corpses totaled 139. 

It had been a grim struggle, because the firm wills of their respective 

commanders had determined that both sides were to stand and fight, a 

rare occurrence in the tropical rain forest. 

*For these and earlier actions, Christensen would be awarded the Medal of Honor. 
101 

By late afternoon, Troop A had reestablished its original positions. There 

was no time to pause for congratulations. Tired and frightened men had to 

perform the most menial of tasks, such as burning the excrement in Japanese 

field latrines, which they rightly regarded as a source of possible disease. 

Litter teams carried out the wounded and the dead. Aside from the enormous 

physical energy required to carry a litter in the tropical heat and high 

humidity, the unarmed parties worked in constant peril of imminent deadly 

attack. The morning of 19 July, for example, four litter bearers of the 167th 

Collecting Company were combing the bush just north and behind Troop 

G’s lines for American casualties, Suddenly, crashing through the bush, 

came a sword-waving Japanese officer or senior NC0 who fatally slashed 

one litter bearer. Death or maiming from accidents also increased as the 

cumulative fatigue dulled the men’s senses. Infantrymen were killed in 

accidents, like the one crushed to death when a C-47 dropped free-fall rations 

and overshot the drop zone. In the middle of intentional mayhem, such 

absurd accidents were especially cruel blows. 

Combat on 18 and 19 July had almost destroyed the already decimated 

Miyake Force. Small groups of Japanese troops cut off in the daylight fighting 

tried to use the cover of darkness and heavy rains to recross the Driniumor 

to the east. One group of fifteen Japanese stragglers used its last mortar 

rounds, grenades, and light machine gun ammunition in a surprise attack 

to break through the north flank of the 3d Battalion, 127th Infantry, from 

the rear. One Japanese was shot to death in the attempt. The others made 

it through and left in their wake two dead and five wounded Americans. 

In the jungle the opponents were so intermingled within each other’s 

formations that mortal enemies could be almost within arm’s length of each 

other, yet remain unaware of the proximity. The conditions were at that 

moment worsening. 

The Americans and Japanese near Afua doggedly regrouped on 20 July. 

Miyake Force’s battered regiments, now reduced to company strength, finally 

received reinforcements when the 79th Regiment, 700 strong, along with a 

sixty-man mountain artillery company possessing a single gun, joined forces 

with General Miyake south of Afua. Additional men and supplies were also 

on their way. On 19 July, General Adachi, at 18th Army Headquarters, 

originally had ordered the 66th Infantry to attack near Kawanakajima in 

order to cover the north flank of the 20th Division. When he learned the 

actual extent of the 20th Division’s losses, he canceled the attack order for 

the 66th Regiment and instead employed those troops as bearers to haul 

supplies to General Miyake’s desperate troops.68 Miyake meantime coordinated 

his attack plans with Lieutenant General Nakai, who had moved 20th 

Division headquarters forward together with the 79th Infantry. At the same 

time, General Cunningham and the 112th Cavalry prepared their defenses 

to stop another Japanese thrust. He switched the battered Troop A from its 

ostensibly “reserve” position and substituted Troop C on the drawn-up right 

flank. Troop C occupied a place the Japanese called Tsuru. The entire 79th 

Infantry would attack Tsuru at 1600 that day. 
102 

Forty-five minutes after the scheduled H-Hour, the 79th Infantry’s lone 

mountain gun barked as the first of the eight rounds it would fire smashed 

into Troop C’s perimeter (see map 23). The Japanese had manhandled the 

gun in pieces through the foliage to within 300 meters of the American 

defenses. One 112th Cavalry veteran remembered his fear as he listened to 

the Japanese out in the jungle setting up the gun and hammering aiming 

stakes into the ground. The Japanese fired at point-blank range, aiming at 

the distinctive headquarters tent. One shell explosion wiped out all tactical 

command by wounding the commanding officer, 1st Squadron, the commander, 

Troop C, and an artillery liaison officer. Even before their mountain gun 

stopped firing, Japanese infantrymen were closing on Troop C. 

Any firefight is initially a confused melee, but this one was especially 

so. Just before the Japanese attack,’ an American observation plane circling 

overhead dropped a message to Troop C that U.S. troops were in front of 

C”s lines. That mistake permitted the Japanese infantrymen to walk into 

Troop C’s perimeter. The cavalrymen were reluctant to fire, not wanting to 

kill fellow Americans. The pilot’s error was excusable, because to compound 

the chaos, many Japanese soldiers wore American ponchos draped over their 

shoulders as well as other items of American equipment. The Americans 

themselves were dirty and grimy after more than three weeks on the line, 

making it impossible to distinguish friend from foe more than a few yards 

away. It was literally face-to-face combat. One Troop C NC0 said, ‘Unless 

you looked them in the face you did& know whether they were enemy or 

not.” A Japanese infantryman walked right up to this same American 

sergeant, who shot at him and missed. The Japanese soldier then dived 

into the high, above-ground roots of a mangrove tree, and an American 

machine gunner loosed a short burst of fire that killed him.69 

The 79th Infantry apparently assumed that Afua had already been 

secured, for the Japanese just walked right into Troop C’s defenses without 

firing. Neither group did anything to alarm the other. Both sides had the 

impression that they were meeting friends. Once heavy firing broke that 

spell, the Japanese spread out, fanlike, and encircled Troop C. The Japanese 

attack struck from the south to force its way between Troops C and B. 

They had initial success, driving back Troop C, mainly because of American 

communication difficulties that had caused a forty-fiveminute delay in delivery 

of preregistered artillery fire, Once the artillery began to explode and the 

cavalrymen recovered from their surprise, the men of the 79th Infantry, 

who had wedged themselves into the U.S. defenses, found themselves, in 

turn, surrounded by the Americans. Shortly afterward, the remnants of General 

Miyake’s forces attacked Troop C from the west and again isolated the 

Americans from their regiment. 

Maj. Takada Sajuro, a 20th Division staff officer, was just then trying 

to contact Miyake’s forces, whose headquarters were in deep jungle. Even 

there, enemy shells were screaming overhead or exploding randomly. Everything was in disarray. Takada searched for the 78th Infantry commander, 
103 

MIYAKE 

FORCE 

&-----‘---- 

TO “x” RWER 

21 JULY 

Map 23. Encirclement of Troop C, 21 July 1944 
104 

whom he found wounded and sitting cross-legged under a tree, clutching 

the regimental colors, Takada could hear gunfire reports all around, but 

because of the jungle veil could not tell its precise direction His overriding 

feeling was that everything was messed up. He thought in sorrow of the 

troops who had to watch helplessly while the enemy flew in transport aircraft 

to airdrop supplies, while Japanese had only rainwater to drink. His reverie 

was broken when several wounded Japanese infantrymen stumbled or were 

carried past him into the regimental headquarters. Takada felt the agony 

the frontline commanders were going through because they had been ordered 

to accomplish a mission that was beyond their means.70 Whatever those 

officers privately thought, they led their troops with fanatical courage. The 

American artillery bombardment finally broke up the Japanese attackers, 

who took refuge in small groups scattered along the fringes of the jungle. 

The Japanese attack to roll up the 112th’s south flank had failed, but it 

had managed to surround Troop 6. 

Troop C suffered fifteen casualties, including at least two dead. Early 

in the fighting, a few of the wounded from the Troop C sector managed to 

make their way back to the squadron headquarters, where they reported 

that two platoons of Company I, 127th Infantry, also had been pushed into 

Troop C’s perimeter by Japanese troops attacking from the north. The 

wounded men also stated that they believed enemy casualties were very 

high, mainly because of the effectiveness of friendly artillery fire. That 

observed fire, though, lasted only until about 1900, when Japanese soldiers 

cut the Ilath’s communications lines, after which the artillerymen had to 

resort to blind interdictory fire throughout the night. The Japanese used 

the cover of darkness to probe Troop C’s defenses, mainly by fire with 

small arms and automatic weapons fire, and an occasional mortar round. 

Both sides had probably spent themselves, but neither would acknowledge 

it. The fighting continued spasmodically throughout the night as Japanese 

infantrymen sneaking close to the cavalrymen’s perimeter would shoot at 

anyone careless enough to show himself in the moonlight. 

The troopers of C and infantrymen of Company I resorted to a circle 

perimeter about 150 meters wide, where about one hundred Americans faced 

perhaps four or five times that number of Japanese. About 275 meters 

separated them from their 1st Squadron, but in the isolation of the jungle 

thicket, it could well have been 275 kilometers. Troop C was cut off and 

alone. Their Japanese tormentors, however, were also disorganized during 

their attack and subsequent night fighting. They, too, had to reassemble in 

intermittent rainshowers and deadly American artillery. So the Japanese 

laid ambushes on the trails leading to Afua and sent squad-size units crawling 

forward to test the American defenders’ resolve. 

At the 112th Cavalry command post, preparations to break the Japanese 

siege and to rescue Troop C were already underway, Troop B had started 

to move from Afua the previous night, but the combination of darkness 

and Japanese infantrymen from the 79th Infantry along the trail barred 
105 

the Americans’ way. Early on the morning of 22 July several American 

patrols from the 112th and 127th Infantry tried to reestablish contact with 

Troop 6. Each in turn hit a Japanese ambush and fell back, unable to 

locate precisely Troop C. Gunfire reports to the south added to the uncertainty, 

for no one knew if it came from Troop C, from American patrols trying to 

reach C, or from a 112th patrol operating in the area. A spotter aircraft 

pilot reported only Japanese soldiers at the suspected location, because when 

the plane flew over, the men on the ground all ran for cover. To attack 

unprepared was better than to wait for all possible information, which might 

arrive too late to prevent the destruction of Troop C. So around 1300, Troop 

E began its attack with about sixty men (see map 24). 

Troop E passed through Troop B’s sector and then moved southwest 

into the jungle. Suddenly prolonged bursts of small arms fire hit Troop E 

from the front and flanks. Without warning, a booby-trapped American bomb 

exploded in Troop E’s midst as the men scurried for safety. When the dust 

settled after the explosion, one cavalryman was dead, the three others maimed. 

Still under enemy fire and suffering losses, the troop commander received 

permission from headquarters to withdraw. The men were badly shaken, 

and General Cunningham sent them to the vicinity of the dropping ground, 

a relatively quiet sector just then, to regroup. 

Elsewhere a similar story trickled back to headquarters. A wire party 

of twelve men managed to reach to within 300 meters of suspected Troop C 

positions, where a Japanese trail block prevented any further advance. Two 

Americans fell wounded, and both sides escalated the fight. First, about 

twenty men of Company I went to reinforce the ambushed communications 

party in hopes of pushing through to Troop C. They deployed a firing line, 

attacked the Japanese, pushed them back perhaps one hundred meters, but 

then encountered Japanese reinforcements. Thinking an imminent breakthrough to Troop C was possible if just a bit more pressure were applied, 

General Cunningham sent a captain and three enlisted troops from Headquarters Troop and a lieutenant with twenty men from the mortar platoon 

to lend support These cavalrymen, however, stumbled into a Japanese ambush before reaching the advance party. Japanese automatic weapons 

operators and riflemen shot down both American officers in the first seconds 

of the fight. That was enough for the rest of the patrol, which returned to 

headquarters carrying their wounded officers with them. They claimed to 

have killed four Japanese in the short, bitter firefight. Lacking reinforcements, 

fighting against determined Japanese resistance, and with night approaching, 

the advance wire party and Company I men also pulled back to protect the 

rear of General Cunningham’s command post for the night. It had been a 

frustrating day for the Americans. 

It was even more so within the small Troop C perimeter, because the 

cavalrymen could do little to help themselves. Japanese snipers had climbed 

nearby trees and fired down at anything that moved. Anyone standing up 

was a potential target, and the tension was enormous. Any movement was 
. ..A-- 

Map 24. Attempted relief of Troop C, 23 July 1944 
107 

dangerous because Japanese infantrymen less than fifty meters away could 

fire into the tightly packed perimeter. Furthermore, a slough filled with old 

logs and other debris from previous flash floods ran into the perimeter. 

This slough provided the Japanese excellent cover to crawl closer and closer 

to Troop C’s lines. All the cavalrymen could do was fight back, tend their 

wounded, and, under cover of darkness, bury their five dead. According to 

veterans of that fight, they really did not expect any relief. They understood 

that the regiment might be simultaneously fighting for its life and that 

their situation, though desperate, was not unique. Beyond that, they could 

depend on one another. “You knew the guy that had been back there. You 

trusted him. You knew if you needed him he was there.” That confidence, 

buoyed by the fight for self-preservation, and an infantryman’s fatalism, 

expressed as “You lived from day to day and accepted it as a way of life,‘” 

gave them the will to resist and endure. Similar emotions probably provided 

the same impetus to Japanese soldiers. So Troop C fought on alone against 

the Japanese, completely out of contact with other American units, yet only 

a few hundred meters away.71 

Following the failure of the first day’s efforts to rescue Troop C, the 

eommanding officer of the 127th Infantry and assistant operations officer 

(G-3), 32d Division, arrived at the 112th’s command post at 1800 for a council 

of war with General Cunningham. Their original ‘plan called for the 127th 

Infantry to rescue Troop C and to relieve the 112th Cavalry. The 112th 

would then establish positions along the Afua-Palauru track, halfway between 

the Driniumor and River X, to cover the area south to the Torricelli Range 

and to act as a general reserve for the covering force. These orders were 

never executed, for between the time the orders were written and the time 

they were passed, the battlefield situation had changed. It seemed clear 

that the major Japanese attack was directed against the heart of the 112th’s 

defense around Afua. The 112th could not be relieved unless General Hall 

chose to abandon his entire south flank. 

Since there had been no contact with Troop C for the past two days, 

no one was certain that it still existed. Even if the men were alive, no one 

knew exactly where they were. On the morning of 23 July, a pilot erroneously 

reported “a large group of Americans” 700 meters southwest of Afua. All 

that the combat patrols found was a Japanese machine gun nest, which 

they destroyed. Shortly after noon, the same pilot made amends by discovering 

Troop C’s location. He was sure this time because some of the men were 

without shirts and he could easily recognize their white skin in the clearing. 

The Americans also detonated a white phosphorus grenade and waved a 

white flag to signal the airmen that they were still alive, Now that they 

had been located, they had to be rescued. 

The rescue attack started at 1600. The two-pronged American attack 

had Troops A and B, with a platoon of Troop E in support, attacking to 

the east, while the 2d Battalion, 12)7th Infantry, attacked from the west 
(see map 25). About one hour later the cavalrymen had reached about 185 

meters from Troop C, but were meeting increasing Japanese resistance. 

Map 25. Relief of ‘1Yoop c;, H--20 JULY 1~44 
109 

The two advance American platoons deployed and built a firing line. 

Orders were for Lieutenant Boyce and his platoon to attack the Japanese 

left flank. They attacked, but could gain only a few meters before heavy 

Japanese small arms and mortar fire forced the men to crawl to cover. 

Boyce saw a slough that seemed to offer an avenue of approach against 

the enemy position He led his squad into it in column formation. Japanese 

soldiers defending the shallow depression heaved several hand grenades from 

above onto the advancing Americans. One grenade landed between the 

lieutenant and his men. Boyce threw himself on the grenade and smothered 

the blast with his own body. * That heroic action ended the 112th’s attack 

for the day. A corporal threw a smoke grenade to mark the area for 60-mm 

mortar fire to cover their withdrawal. They had lost, besides Boyce, one 

NC0 killed and six wounded. The 2d Battalion’s attack also had pushed 

westward, and they were fighting for control of a ridge just west of and 

overlooking Troop C’s positions. As both American units were advancing 

toward each other, the 112th troops were ordered to withdraw to Afua to 

preclude the distinct possibility of mistakenly firing on each other. The day’s 

fighting had partially lifted the siege by rooting out Japanese of the 79th 

Infantry from their roadblocks, thus allowing 2d Battalion to reach Troop 

C”s perimeter just before darkness. 

Although the Japanese trail blocks had been broken, small bands of 

Japanese soldiers continued to fight near Troop C’s positions. Even with 

the added strength of the 2d Battalion, the Japanese refused to release their 

grip on Troop C. That afternoon, for instance, Troop C tried to break out, 

carrying its litter cases, but Japanese small arms fire drove the men back, 

Nevertheless, the cumulative effects of a prolonged battle of attrition were 

grinding down the Japanese defenders, and Troop C would be able to reach 

the 112th Headquarters command post by 1000 on 25 July. Instead of the 

expected mopping up exercise, bitter fighting characterized the day. Cavalrymen fought brief skirmishes with Japanese patrols, probably the screens 

for 20th Division Headquarters, then moving south of Afua. The day’s 

fighting left commanders on both sides dissatisfied. 

Major General Gill, Persecution Covering Force commander, expressed 

to General Cunningham his “inability to understand slowness in the clearing 

situation.“72 Gill believed that the 112th was fighting only the Japanese 

78th Infantry, but General Cunningham insisted that at least two Japanese 

regiments, the 78th and 8Oth, were pressing his troops. Both men were wrong, 

but they could not know it. The entire 20th Division had arrayed itself 

against Afua, and according to Japanese sources, by midnight of 25 July 

at least 2,000 Japanese were to the right (south) and rear (west) of South 

Force.73 

General Ada&i at Headquarters, 41st Division, learned that the Americans 

were continuing to strengthen their Driniumor defenses, that the 20th 

Division”s attack against Afua apparently had not gone well, and that the 

*E&3 actions earned Lieutenant Boyce a posthumausly awarded Medal of Honar. 
110 

41st Division was preparing its assault near Kawanakajima for 27 July.74 

Morale, he found, was excellent in the 41st Division-junior officers were 

encouraging each other as they were briefed on the plan of attack. Then 

the division commander, Lt. Gen. Mano Gore, summoned the small unit 

leaders to assemble before him. He abruptly announced to his collected officers 

that the 27 July attack had been canceled and that the division instead 

would move immediately to Afua. Nothing more was said as the general 

walked out. After ten days of planning for the 27 July operation, the 

subalterna wondered aloud why the attack suddenly had been canceled. A 

persistent speculation was that the 20th Division had lost the “guts” to 

cross the Driniumor and that the 41st Division was being sent to Afua to 

do its dirty work. 75 The officers of the 41st Division dismissed the enemy 

at Afua as decidedly inferior to the Americans they had been fighting near 

Kawanakajima and so convinced themselves that a frontal attack, brutally 

delivered, would smash the U.S. units near Afua once and for all. Such 

contempt for, and underestimation of, their enemies at Afua ultimately would 

destroy the 4lst Division. 

Despite the emotional outbursts by 41st Division officers, General Adachi 

had ordered General Mano to cancel the attack for several reasons. First, 

the 20th Division was nearly worn out from continual jungle combat, and 

Adachi realized the Japanese could not turn the Americans’ flank without 

reinforcements. Second, even the strongest Japanese unit, the 237th Infantry, 

4Pst Division, was unable to crack the strong American defenses near 

Kawanakajima. The solution was to combine the 41st and 20th divisions 

for a concerted attack on Afua. This concentration of Japanese forces would 

thereby improve chances of defeating the Americans in detail. Once again 

Japanese troops swung south towards Afua, though this time they approached 

on the Driniumor’s east bank. 

For the cavalrymen around Afua, 25 July just brought more heavy 

showers. The rain had begun about dusk the previous evening and had 

poured uninterrupted throughout the night. Soaked and shivering, the men 

huddled in their holes until the first gray light. They ate in the pouring 

rain. Patrols departed, but soon reported back that high water in previously 

near-dry streams made crossing impossible. About mid-morning the storm 

passed, and the sun appeared as if to greet the men of Troop 6, who were 

just then making their way into the regimental command post area. There 

was little time for congratulations, because the fighting in the steamy jungle 

mist near Afua continued on and off throughout the day. 

General Cunningham ordered his troopers to push south and west to 

dislodge Japanese infantrymen who he assumed were holding the high ground 

southwest of Afua. General Ada&i ordered his infantrymen to attack north 

and west to wrest Afua from the Americans and to seize Hill 56. Thus the 

112th Cavalry and the 79th Infantry both believed that they were attacking 

the other% defensive positions. In fact, they were attacking the same ridgeline. 

The close vegetation, deep jungle, and broken terrain limited visibility, so 
111 

neither side knew the other’s precise location until someone blundered into 

an opposing unit. A typical example of a firefight characteristic of the next 

three days might be as follows: 

A Japanese aduance patrol, usually four or five riflemen and a light machine 

gun team, picked its way single file through the undergrowth. When they 

encountered an American patrol, gunfire might be exchanged, but more likely 

both patrols would scatter into the thick, tangled vegetation and redeploy 

in its cover. The Japanese riflemen would disperse to cover the flanks of 

their machine gunner. The Americans would bring forward automatic 

.weapons to build up their firing line as they called for artillery or tried to 

outflank the Japanese. If the American artillery fire and movement were 

successful, the Japanese would flee, and the cavalrymen would move cautiously 

to finish off wounded Japanese. If the Japanese infantry proved too strong 

to expel, the Americans would withdraw, carrying their wounded and dragging 

their dead. As often as not, on first sight of each other, both sides would 

flee into the safety of the jungle. 

Occasionally a single determined soldier could holed up ten or even one 

hundred men, as was the case during the Ilath’s 25 July drive against a 

nameless ridge. There a lone Japanese machine gunner blocked the advance 

of the center of the 112th’s line. The cavalrymen had to deploy and work 

around the solitary gunner, thus precluding the use of friendly artillery to 

blast the hi11.76 It was hard, slow, nerve-wracking combat, not at all 

glamorous, but exceedingly deadly, as fire was often exchanged at ranges 

of five meters or less. Robert Ross Smith described the nature of the fighting: 

Each side complained that the other held isolated strong pointa, none of which 

appeared to be key positions. Both sides employed inaccurate maps, and both had 

a great deal of difficulty obtaining effective reconnaissance. In the jungled, broken 

terrain near Afua, operations frequently took a vague form, a sort of shadow boxing 

in which physical contact of the opposing sides was oft times accidental.77 

If such horrible circumstances may be described as “routine,” then 25 

July was routine for the cavalrymen until 1800, when two American 155- 

mm rounds exploded in Troops A and B’s command post area. Excited, 

hurried calls from the forward observer stopped the artillery shooting, but 

five more Americans lay wounded, victims of an accident. Likewise, a few 

hours earlier another unlucky cavalryman thrashing around in the bush 

was mistakenly shot by his own men. As an aid man tended to his gunshot 

wounds, a Japanese soldier appeared from the bush to hurl a hand grenade 

at the medic The grenade did not detonate, and the enraged aid man turned 

on the Japanese and killed him. Both American and Japanese soldiers were, 

in a sense, the victims of bad luck. 

On 26 July a light rain and overcast sky added to the problem of 

identifying fleeting shadows in the jungle. The Japanese took advantage of 

the morning mist and fog to mask the location of a battalion artillery piece, 

which fired several rounds that exploded near General Cunningham’s 
112 

command post. The fragmented small unit fighting flickered on and off in 

the rain near Afua. Most af the 112th”s day was spent adjusting its defensive 

perimeter. The 1st Battalion, 127th Infantry, took positions west of the supply 

drop zone to cover the rear of the PlZth’s defenses. The battalion’s left 

flank connected with the cavalrymen’s mortar platoon, which, in turn, tied 

into Troop F on the Driniumor. The 2d Battalion, 127th Infantry, established 

a line on high ground, tying into Troop E on the left, but exposed on the 

right. The perimeter resembled a large semicircle facing south and west. 

Meanwhile, small units maneuvered and countermaneuvered in search 

of each other. On 27 July, for example, Troop A and the 2d Battalion, 

127th Infantry, attacked a suspected Japanese command post. American 

artillery cratered the area, so marching through the rain-filled pockmarks 

left everyone mud-soaked. The men met only scattered sniper fire, They 

reached the alleged location of the command post, found nothing, and 

continued to push another several hundred meters southwest, again discovering 

no enemy soldiers. No one knew whether their ‘“attack” had succeeded or 

not. All the Americans could do was return to their original positions, thankful 

no determined Japanese had Iurked in the jungle along their route. Farther 

north, however, there was renewed Japanese activity. 

That morning U.S. patrols observed an estimated two companies of 

Japanese digging in astride the trail from the drop zone to Afua, in effect 

cutting the resupply link to the cavalrymen near Afua. A hastily organized 

attack by a pIatoon of Troop E and a platoon from Company A, 127th 

Infantry, supported by the cavalrymen’s mortar platoon, drove off the 

Japanese. The mortar crews fired heavy concentrations in support of the 

foot soldiers. Most of the thirty-five Japanese killed that day fell to mortar 

fire. Five Americans were killed and six were wounded in the afternoonlong engagement. 

The Japanese retreated about 135 meters, which sufficed to keep the 

vital drop zone-Afua artery open. Cavalrymen searched through the pockets 

and cIothing of the abandoned Japanese corpses and discovered documents 

and personal identification associating the dead with the 66th Infantry, the 

first appearance at Afua to date of that unit.* 

The fighting then slackened off in the 112th Cavalryas sector. Allied 

intelligence interpreted the scattered contacts as evidence that 18th Army’s 

excessive casualties and lack of resupply spelled the end of its offensive. 

Consequently, U.S. analysts reasoned that the Japanese probably had begun 

to withdraw from the Afua area. 78 Generals Ada&i and Hall, however, were 

*The presence of 66th Regiment elements in this area was probably due to the necessity 

of using combat tramps ta serve as bearers to manhandle supplies ta Miyake Force. The manewer 

elements of the 66th Regiment were opera&g southwest of this location. According to a Japanese 

IPOW captured on 28 July, about fifty infantrymen from the 66th Regiment had been converted 

to ration bearers. 
113 

simultaneously preparing operational plans for what they believed would 

be the decisive battle of the campaign. Neither general’s scheme would come 

to fruition. 

General Hall at XI Corps Headquarters on 29 July decided to counterattack 

18th Army. Two days later, three U.S. infantry battalions would attack on 

line from the coast to about 2,300 meters inland. At Niumen Creek, about 

2,700 meters to the east, the battalions would turn south to envelop the 

Japanese still’ fighting around Afua. 79 Hall’s preoccupation with his major 

counterattack probably resulted in less pressure on General Gill, Persecution 

Covering Force commander, to “mop up” Japanese resistance south of Afua. 

Gill, in turn, reluctantly agreed to General Cunningham’s requests to reduce 

offensive operations in order to shorten his line to the north. 

Cunningham spent 28 through 31 July redeploying his forces, strengthening 

his new defensive perimeter, and sending out reconnaissance patrols to provide 

information on the suddenly elusive Japanese, The gradual, if unavoidable, 

erosion of the combat units’ fighting strength from battle casualties, accidents, 

and disease necessitated the redeployment. From 13 to 31 July, the 112th 

Cavalry had suffered 260 battle casualties, 17 percent of its understrength 

total. All told, South Force (2d and 3d battalions, 127th Infantry Regiment, 

and the 112th Cavalry Regiment) had lost 106 killed, 386 wounded, 18 missing, 

and 426 evacuated because of disease or illness.80 The Americans estimated 

that they had killed approximately 700 Japanese during the same period. 

In other words, in spite of the Americans’ overwhelming materiel and firepower superiority, battlefield casualties were not that dissimilar. The nature 

of the terrain precluded the Americans from bringing their massive firepower 

to bear effectively. Instead, small numbers of infantrymen on both sides 

engaged each other in close combat of attrition, which inevitably resulted 

in high losses among the infantry. 

The men redeployed in a light rain on 29 July, and some, like Troop C, 

moved just after dark. Redeployment was hard work for men whose physical 

strength had been worn down by three weeks of continual combat, and 

they staggered under the weight of their packs and sloshed through the 

mud to their new positions. Once there, they had to erect shelters, dig latrines, 

and clear fields of fire-in short, they had to replicate the defensive hamlet 

they had built just a few days before. The dispositions on 31 July resembled 

those shown on map 26. General Cunningham had stayed on the defensive 

and used the respite granted him by higher headquarters and the Japanese 

to strengthen the 112th’s position along the river. His men reorganized and 

resupplied, Cunningham was now ready to attack the Japanese. His counteroffensive would open 1 August. 

Despite no prospect of resupply for 18th Army, its officers and men 

were confident about their upcoming attack on the American perimeter at 

Afua. If American reinforcements isolated the Japanese attackers, there would 

be no alternative for 16th Army but to expend all its force in repeated 
tta 

Y-W MAP SCALE 1:10,0001( 

l so” 

% DROPPING AREA 

. 

8% ---cl TRAIL 

! 

\ I ./ 

Map 26. Situation, 112th Cavalry and 127th Infantry, 31 July 1944 
115 

attacks to relieve them. According to the chief of staff, Lieutenant General 

Yoshihara, the forthcoming operation would be “literally a fight to the 

death.“81 Japanese battle casualties and the chaotic Japanese logistical- network 

made more than one major attack impossible. The terrain and insufficient 

communications made the likelihood of a coordinated, concentrated assault 

remote. Japanese operational plans called for the offensive to commence at 

dusk on 30 July. They envisioned the 20th Division overrunning American 

positions at Afua and Hill 80, with the 41st Division seizing positions on 

the Driniumor north of Afua. The 112th’s withdrawal from its southernmost 

position, the so-called Tsuru, caused Adachi to alter his plan, essentially 

moving the objectives of the two divisions farther north, directly into the 

teeth of the 112th’s newly established defensive positions. Ada&i’s 29 July 

order clearly revealed his belief that this was 18th Army’s final opportunity 

to snatch victory from the Americans, For the first time in the New Guinea 

campaigns, 18th Army instructed artillerymen “not to be frugal with 

ammunition.” Everything would be wagered on this battle.a* 

Adaehi detailed’ a rear guard between Kawanakajima and Yakamul to 

prevent any American attacks through that area. This rearguard defense 

consisted of men from the 41st Division and “borrowed” combat service 

support troops from t’he 4th Field Transport Headquarters, plus one mountain 

gun and one 70-mm gun to aid in antitank defense. This rear guard also 

constituted the force that would warn 18th Army of any major American 

counteroffensive or amphibious landing behind Japanese lines. The remainder 

of the 41st Division deployed south. By 27 July the troops were still several 

kilometers from their .attack position, so 18th Army had to postpone the 

date of its projected attack until 1 August. Moreover, the whereabouts of 

the 239th Infantry were unknown, Japanese scouts being unable to find it. 

The 238th Infantry finally arrived in its assembly areas the morning of 30 

July; the 41st Artillery Regiment and 8th Independent Engineer Regiment, 

that afternoon; and the 1st Battalion, 238th Infantry, linked up with the 

79th Infantry that evening. The next morning the 41st Division Headquarters 

joined the 239th Infantry. The Japanese artillery deployed on a ridgeline 

overlooking the Driniumor’s east bank about halfway between Afua and 

Hill 80 in order to support the attacks on those American positions (see 

map 27).83 

In contrast to the 112th’~ relatively smooth redisposition, the 41st Division 

had to conduct its redeployment under constant Allied bombardment and 

while dealing with jungle obstacles. Australian and American warplanes 

dropped tons of bombs along suspected Japanese trails, and Allied warships 

shelled suspected “Japanese troop concentrations.” Japanese supply troops 

in transportation units labored under the same danger, but over much longer 

distances. Rain made the trails over which the. supply troops carried their 

heavy burdens slick and muddy. A path that one day provided easy access 

to frontline units could turn overnight into a quagmire or even disappear 

into the morass of mud, jungle, and bomb craters. Illness increased dramatically as the Japanese struggled to bring vital provisions forward. The 
116 

Map 27. Japanese deplayment and proposed plan of attack 
117 

tribulations of the rear service mattered little to the frontline Japanese 

fighters, who bitterly complained, “Our supply services kill more of us than 

enemy bullets.“84 In the face of such hardships, the Japanese had managed 

to concentrate the remnants of two infantry divisions and an understrength 

infantry regiment (perhaps 4,000 combat troops total) east, south, and 

southwest of Afua. 

The 112th Cavalry and 127th Infantry focused their attention on the 

southern flank, where they expected any Japanese attack to originate. Patrols 

searched west, south, and southwest for signs of Japanese activity. They 

found stragglers, whom they killed, and well-armed, fully uniformed Japanese 

infantry, whom they avoided. Small groups of three or four Japanese 

stragglers appeared west of the cavalrymen’s defenses, either scavenging in 

American garbage for food or discarded clothing or wandering almost in a 

daze through the jungle. Such preoccupied men were easier and safer to 

kill than to attempt to capture as prisoners. A patrol working in the rear 

of 1st Squadron had indeed tried to take a Japanese prisoner, but the wouldbe POW instead activated a hand grenade, pressed it to his chest, and 

killed himself. Stories of such fanaticism made the rounds of the 112th 

quickly and confirmed stereotypes of Japanese and the risks involved in 

taking prisoners. 

Patrols to the south did not run into ragged stragglers. They caught 

glimpses of well-equipped Japanese combat troops. A heavy rain on 29 July 

restricted visibility, but in their potentially lethal game of hide-and-seek, 

patrols continued to report enemy sightings. The next day, American patrols 

operating near Afua, vacated the previous day by 112th, reported Japanese 

soldiers already occupying foxholes in the shell-marked village. Other patrols 

found the partially decomposed remains of Japanese corpses or the mutilated 

victims of artillery fire, occasionally as many as ten dead at one location. 

It was grisly, ghoulish work to pry weapons or personal items from these 

stinking corpses that fell apart when touched. It had to be done, however, 

because higher headquarters demanded information that might identify the 

Japanese units arrayed against South Force. 

An order for such information resulted in a Troop A combat patrol 

being sent east across the Driniumor to search for Japanese. Their faces 

chapped and weathered by the sun, their uniforms ragged and caked with 

dirt, sweat, and grease, the men were absorbed by the lush jungle growth. 

They proceeded in column formation at dispersed interval, so each man 

could just see the back of the man in front of him. As the Americans 

tramped southeast on a native trail, two Japanese soldiers fell into the 

rear of the column and apparently marched along with the patrol for some 

time, both sides unaware of the presence of their enemies. Perhaps it was 

indicative of the effect of the tropical rain forest on the opponents. Boots 

falling apart from continual immersings in water and pounding on the rugged 

terrain, uniforms tattered and stained black with sweat, exposed skin burned, 

darkened, and soiled, all combined to make Japanese and American combat 
118 

troops indistinguishable in outward appearance. This strange procession 

abruptly ended when a cavalryman finally noticed the Japanese behind 

him. He shouted a warning and in response one Japanese threw a grenade 

at the Americans, and both then escaped unharmed into the jungle. The 

cavalrymen, also unharmed, continued their long patrol. 

Amidst this extensive patrolling, a major action occurred on 29 July, 

when the 2d Battalion, 127th Infantry, deployed to reoccupy its former 

positions southwest of Afua. It ran directly into the 66th Infantry, which 

was in the process of attacking northeast against the Americans. Once again 

the meeting engagement broke down into a series of small, isolated combats, 

with both sides under the impression that they were attacking the defensive 

positions of the other. The Americans, as had now become a standard tactic, 

ealled for all available artillery support, but as the shells crashed into the 

area, the Iight rain and mist made accurate spotting nearly impossible. After 

shelling a point for several minutes, the artillery would lift, and the infantry 

point would cautiously move forward. If any Japanese fired on them, the 

Americans would quickly pull back and restart the artillery bombardment. 

The Japanese seemed to the Americans to be withdrawing, but the 66th 

Infantry was maneuvering away from the lethal artillery fire and around 

the right (west} flank of the 2d Battalion (see map 28). 

Maj. Okamoto Takahisa, commander of the 3d Battalion, had the mission 

to envelop the American positions threatening the 20th Division’s flank near 

Afua from the east and then to attack south. In theory, the attack would 

carry to the American position known to the Japanese as Sagi, an eightyfoot elevation about 900 meters northwest. As the 3d Battalion advanced, it 

bumped into the U.S. 2d Battalion, 127th Infantry, which immediately called 

in massive artillery fire. With artillery exploding all around them, the 

Japanese suffered several casualties. In the din and smoke, confusion reigned, 

and Okamoto had to run around urging or kicking his troops to get them 

to move forward. Okamoto’s 3d Battalion was on the extreme right (west) 

Japanese flank, and he was the only officer who had a map of the area. 

His company commanders used compasses to guide their path through the 

foliage. All contact among Japanese units disappeared into the green wall 

of vegetation they were struggling through. The jungle terrain had fragmented Okamoto’s forces, leaving him with no idea how the neighboring 

company was faring. Instead, small parties of Japanese collided with small 

numbers of Americans, deployed, and attacked their enemies.85 Okamoto’s 

men wedged themselves between Companies E and G, isolating these 

Americans from their battalion, just a few hundred meters away, as the 

jungle again swallowed entire formations into itself. When General Cuntkingham, as South Force’ commander, ordered the 2d Battalion to withdraw at 

1800, Company G instead remained on its high ground because of Japanese 

infantrymen lurking in the vegetation to its rear. Company E also preferred 

to remain in place because of “‘the uncertain situation and the danger of 

being fired on by our awn troops.“86 Company E had lost thirty-nine men 

kiIled or wounded during the day, including several when a friendly mortar 
119 

Map 28. 2d Battalian, 127th Infantry, situation, 29 July 1944 
round dropped short The rest of the battalion withdrew north, but was 

ambushed and attacked by Japanese from the 66th Infantry, who were still 

advancing east to west. The Americans predictably called on all available 

artillery support to place a curtain of fire between themselves and the 

Japanese. The 2d Battalion reported that twenty-six Japanese had been killed 

by artillery fire. 87 SWPA G-2 assessed the action as characteristic of Japanese 

inflexibility regardless of losses suffered and indicative of “an apparent lack 

of control being exercised over enemy operations in the Driniumor sector.“88 

Unbeknownst to the fighting men, the respective commanders had already 

set in motion another train of events that would climax the Driniumor battles. 

General Hall’s enveloping maneuver, the so-calIed Ted Force Action, commenced on 31 July, as four American infantry battalions crossed the 

Driniumor and advanced east. At 1400 the same day, General Cunningham 

is,sued a warning order to Troop G and Company K, 127th Infantry, for an 

attack south and southwest against the Japanese to commence at 0800 the 

next day. General Adachi, meanwhile, revised his attack plans to conform 

to the confused, but apparently fluid, battlefield situation. On 29 July the 

20th Division reported that it had driven the Americans from Tsuru (Afua) 

and that they were mopping up that position Indeed, Cunningham had 

ordered the withdrawal from Afua that day, The 66th Infant&s fight of 29 

July near Afua also influenced Adachi’s attack order issued the afternoon 

of 31 July. According to intelligence, the order began, there was some doubt 

that the enemy had begun its retreat. Eighteenth Army would continue attacks 

to annihilate the enemy by advancing northwest to a line from Sagi to 

north of Elevation 50. In the second phase, the 41st Division would roll up 

the northern American flank on the Driniumor.” 

At Sagi, Lt. Cal. Clyde S. Grant, the new commander of 1st Squadron, 

112th Cavalry, organized his perimeter in a lazy-S configuration, with Troops 

B, A, and C deployed north to south and facing west. He also had a machine 

gun platoon and reinforcements from Troop E. The battIe position was just 

east and around a low hill (Elevation 80) that had many fallen trees scattered 

around from the continual artillery pounding. The heavy tree trunks and 

thick vegetation bordering the perimeter made it impossible to clear fire 

lanes in the area. The men resorted to hammering aiming stakes into the 

ground ta enable them to fire at a particular spot during a defense.89 

Just before dawn on I August, Maj. Imamura Hideo and the 1st Battalion, 

238th Infantry, approached Grant’s defenses from the southwest after crossing 

the Driniumor near Afua (see map 29). The battalion was to join forces 

with the 3d Battalion, 78th Infantry, on its left (west} and seize Sagi. Point 

men cautiously moved forward, while infantrymen trailed about thirty-five 

meters behind, with the regimental commander, who led their advance, 

carrying the regimental colors. Americans in outposts heard the Japanese 

*The 41st Diuision staff officers unanimously disagreed with 18th Army’s attack plans 

but were curtly told, ‘<Even though there are differences of opinion, make the attack.” 
121 

, 

/ 

. 

Map 29. Japanese attack, 1 August 1944 
122 

approaching from the jungle and withdrew. This movement created the 

impression among the Japanese point men that all the Americans were 

withdrawing, and a garbled report to regiment added to the perception that 

Sagi had already fallen. Regimental headquarters personnel quickly moved 

forward to capitalize on the American “withdrawal.“’ A few minutes later, 

an earsplitting roar of gunfire and explosions burst from the direction of 

the Japanese advance. American artillery shells began exploding all around 

the Japanese still in the jungle. 

Capt. Karai Keiji, commander of 4th Company, 1st Battalion, 238th 

Infantry, led the attack against Trcbop C. Karai and his men had been 

Eiving on parched rice for the past two days, and their greatest ambition 

was to break into the American positions to steal food and rations. They 

had been on the move since 0200. Karai urged his weary men forward until 

they arrived at the fringe of the jungle, about 100 meters outside Troop C’s 

lag-strewn perimeter. 

All coordination among the Japanese units had dissolved during their 

night approach march. Consequently, it was left to each company commander 

to decide individually when to attack the Americans. Once firing began, 

the Japanese, packed together on a seventy-meter front, rushed like a wave 

from the jungle. Even in the frenzied attack, few Japanese lived to cover 

those last 100 meters to Troop C”s lines. The infantrymen from 4th Company 

were hit with a hail of small arms and automatic weapons fire in volleys 

from well-prepared defenses. Even unaimed American fire into the overcast 

predawn darkness and rising jungle mists could hardly miss the swarms of 

two or three hundred Japanese screaming and running at them. Next, artillery 

and deadly 81-mm mortar fire expioded immediately in front of Troop C’s 

sector, shredding the Japanese ranks. The 1st Battalion commander died 

as a shell exploded almost on top of him. The bewildered Japanese survivors 

fled into the jungle, where First Lieutenant Ishiwara, commander of the 

Machine Gun Company, tried to rally the men, make them dig in, and 

launch another attack that evening. But there was no adequate cover from 

artillery, and small arms fire had stripped off much of the vegetation. The 

Americans poured fire at anything that moved, making it dangerous even 

to burrow into the dirt, After about an hour of the one-sided fight, concentrated American mortar fire began to saturate Captain Karai”s forlorn position. 

By then about half his men were dead, killed in the artillery maelstrom 

that had swept over 4th Company. Other Japanese attackers had suffered 

proportionately, and men were still being killed and wounded. The Japanese 

had lost perhaps 150 men, while Troop C suffered five killed and six wounded. 

There was nothing for Captain Karai to do but to escape. In groups of two 

or three, the beaten Japanese infantrymen melted back into the safety of 

the deep jungle. That night Lieutenant Ishiwara killed himself to atone for 

the debacle. Next morning Major Imamura scouted near the alleged Japanese 

front line, but was unable to locate a single living Japanese soldier. A few 

stragglers drifted by throughout the day, more often than not with tales of 
123 

officers and wounded men committing suicide. Only a handful of Japanese 

soldiers had ever reached Troop C’s lines, and they were killed in hand-tohand comb’at.90 

The cavalrymen in Troop C looked out on piles of Japanese corpses 

and, while still shaken from the violence of combat and the loss of comrades, 

realized that they had smashed the attackers. Medics and litter bearers moved 

to Troop C”s area to assist with the removal of the wounded and dead. The 

Japanese attack had made General Cunningham’s planned offensive unnecessary. Instead, he ordered Troop G to attack southwest through Troop C’s 

positions. The attackers advanced at 0830 and moved 600 meters against 

only scattered sniper fire. The Americans killed twenty-seven more Japanese, 

most of them dazed and confused stragglers trying to flee the carnage. There 

were no U.S. casualties. Troop A, just north of Troop C, had the distinction 

of capturing the first Japanese prisoner ever taken by the 112th Cavalry. 

The prisoner related the destruction of his battalion from the 238th Infantry 

and revealed that shortly another Japanese battalion would arrive near Afua. 

If fortune had smiled on most of the 112th early that day, by afternoon 

and evening it had deserted them. A Japanese mortar crew firing from the 

vicinity of the 41st Artillery Regiment dropped about fifteen rounds near 

the 112th”s command post, wounding three men in Troop F. Friendly fire 

called on to suppress the Japanese gun fell short into Troop E’s left flank 

and wounded three more Americans. Self-inflicted suffering continued that 

night. About 0300 a small Japanese patrol blundered into Troop G’s rear 

sector on the southwest edge of the dropping zone. In the ensuing melee, 

Japanese bullets wounded two cavalrymen. Then both sides drew back, 

regrouped, and the fight erupted again as the Japanese continued their probes. 

The cavalrymen called for mortar support, but one round of a 60-mm concentration either clipped a tree branch or had a faulty fuse and fell short, 

killing the 2d Squadron surgeon and two cavalrymen, as well as wounding 

two more. 

But that long night witnessed even more “friendly fire” casualties. Troop 

F riflemen mistakenly shot five members of their artillery liaison party. 

The artillerymen had left their foxholes during the fighting to set up a 

radio, their phone communications having been severed. Their failure to 

answer the troopers’ challenges resulted in two more Americans dead and 

three wounded by their own comrades. At first light, the Americans discovered 

one dead Japanese, two abandoned light machine guns, several rifles and 

helmets, and numerous trails of blood. 

About mid-morning on 2 August, a 112th patrol moving towards the 

Driniumor walked into a Japanese bivouac and had to shoot its way out. 

Five more men were slightly wounded. In addition to battle casualties, General 

Cunningham also had to worry about disease, as medical evacuations for 

illness were doubling every ten days. It appears that the men of the 112th 

Cavalry had reached the limit of their endurance. But as long as the battle 
1.24 

Taged, there could be no relief for the fighting men. E’ostwar reports recognized 

that men might fake illness or try to reach safer rear areas. Others became 

fatalistic, failed to take ordinary precautions, and were convinced that they 

were the only persons the war required to “take it” day and night until 

they “got theirs.‘“91 Justified as such thoughts might have been in their 

role, dwelling exclusively on them led to nervous breakdown. The cumulative 

fatigue of battle also dulled some of the men’s reflexes, deadened their senses, 

and made what a few days before were normally simple, routine jobs almost 

unbearably complicated, Mistakes in a hne combat outfit invariably swelled 

the friendly casualty list. Ironically, the men who had been most exposed 

to death and danger and had lived through it were now regarded as the 

experienced fighters and thus irreplaceab1e on the firing line. For them there 

was no way out. 

On the afternoon of 2 August, 18th Army issued orders to continue the 

attack against South Force. The 20th Division, now reduced to about fifty 

men in the 80th Infantry and perhaps sixty or so in the 78th Infantry, 

would combine their forces into a single command and together with the 

41st Division strike the rear (west) of the American positions near Hato, 

then defended by the 1st Battalion, 127th Infantry, and 1st Squadron, 112th 

Cavalry (see map 30). The Japanese struck initially against the 1st Battalion. 

Major Kawahigashi again led his battalion into the attack. His troops. 

were low on ammunition and knew that they could not neutrabze the overwhelming American firepower. They devised a plan to avoid it. Masked by 

dusk, they would simultaneously fire all their grenade dischargers, mortars, 

and one battalion gun. The surprise and subsequent shock action of a massed 

infantry assault on a narrow front, the Japanese believed, would temporarily 

unnerve the American defenders. This paralysis would give the Japanese 

the time that they needed to cross the killing zone in front of the U.S. 

lines and to break into the American defenses, where the U.S. artillery could 

not be used against them. 

Men of the 78th Infantry had dragged a TO-mm howitzer through the 

jungle to within twenty meters of the 1st Battalion’s lines. The gun fired 

point-blank into the American lines to signal the attack, but on the first 

round, the gun flipped upside down. Japanese attackers, packed together, 

came running from the jungle screaming. American small arms fire and 

artillery explosions riddled the dense mob. Despite Japanese jamming of 

the American artillery communication channels and the absence of any 

artillery observers, the 120th and 129th Field Artillery battalions pounded 

the area outside the 112th”s perimeter. Cavalrymen called artillery fire to 

within fifty meters of their lines. Other Japanese troops tried to crawl along 

the ground toward the American lines to escape the withering fire. 

Kawahigashi saw that the Americans fired at anything that moved. In the 

rapidly fading light, Japanese camouflaged with tree limbs and leaves 

collapsed after several bullets struck them, Darkness settled as flares lit up 

the sky, revealing the carnage. The attack failed, though not for lack of 
2 AUG 44 

1900 III 

Map 30. Japanese attacks, 2 August 1944 
126 

fanatical courage, as all the 78th Infantry”s remaining company-grade officers 

died leading their men in this assault. g2 Wounded Japanese soldiers began 

to commit suicide with hand grenades, adding to the slaughterhouse in front 

of the 1st Battalion’s positions, where the defenders counted fifty-eight 

Japanese corpses. 

About forty-five minutes after that assault had begun, survivors of the 

4lst Division hurled themselves at the adjoining 1st Squadron, 112th Cavalry. 

For the first time in the campaign, the cavalrymen occupied a well-organized 

defensive perimeter. The Americans could fire their 60-mm mortars effectively 

and had automatic weapons sited every twenty-five meters or closer. It was 

a formidable defensive position. The Japanese attackers from the 41st Division 

had underestimated it. 

The 41st Division, it will be recalled, had meticulously planned an attack 

against American defenses to the north, near Kawanakajima. At the last 

moment, General Adachi had diverted the division from its scheduled attack 

in order to reinforce the 2&h Division and press home its assaults against 

Afua. This decision had two important repercussions. First, the 41st Division 

staff officers had no time to devise an appropriate plan of attack against 

the American defenses. All their time was consumed moving their men 

through the jungle to their new assembly areas. Nevertheless, the Japanese 

dismissed the Americans defending Afua as inferior to those near 

Kawanakajima, where the 41st Division had been in combat. Against these 

“inferior troops,” a frontal attack conducted on a narrow frontage with forces 

echeloned in depth appeared to offer the Japanese the best possibility of 

achieving the breakthrough General Adachi had ordered. 

The second problem also originated in the cancellation of the 41st 

Division’s originally scheduled attack. Officers in the 41st Division opposed 

the decision and complained openly that the 26th Division’s lack of courage 

had caused the Afua stalemate. Word of their dissatisfaction reached General 

Adachi, who reprimanded the division commander, Lieutenant General Mano. 

This rebuke infuriated the regimental and battalion commanders, who decided 

among themselves to regain their commander’s honor by overwhelming the 

American defenses regardless of losses.93 

The 2d Battalion, 239th Infantry, crossed the Driniumor on 2 August 

and proceeded along the bank adjacent to the 238th Infantry. Shortly after 

dark, both units charged out of the jungle against the 1st Squadron’s positions. The 41st Artillery Regiment and mortar fire supported the Japanese 

thrust, but the bunched-up infantrymen simply dissolved under the impact 

of the concentrated U.S. firepower. Japanese officers regrouped their men 

under fire and charged forward, determined to prove that the slight against 

their division had been unjustified. They died in bunches, as heaps of bodies 

fell in front of the cavalrymen’s perimeter. Only darkness saved the Japanese 

from complete extermination. The 1st Squadron suffered only four men slightly 

wounded. Nearly 100 Japanese were killed. All night, screams and moans 
127 

resounded outside the cavalrymen’s perimeter. In the early light of 3 August 

the Americans could see stacks of Japanese corpses marking the axis of 

attaelc. 

Although the 112th Cavalry enjoyed overwhelming materiel and firepower 

superiority, the protracted warfare of attrition had ground down the troops, 

who were now in poor physical shape. Sickness skyrocketed. The Americans 

detected that they were winning the struggle, but they had no idea how 

many more of their friends would be killed or wounded in the savage fighting. 

They were worn out, tired, sick, and understr.ength. Rut they could still 

improve their defensive positions. Registration of mortar and artihery eoncentrations boomed during the day as the 112th Cavalry surrounded their 

perimeter with a band of fire, ready on call. Amidst these major preparations, 

there was no respite from small-scale patrolling, with its usual deadly results. 

A Troop G patrol operating east of the Driniumor walked into a Japanese 

ambush, and its sergeant was killed by machine gun fire, The other Americans 

quickly ran from the site and then called in mortar fire. Another patrol, 

later in the day, could find no evidence that the skirmish had ever taken 

place. A six-man patrol vanished a little more than a football field’s length 

from the IlZth’s perimeter. The men were an a three-day reconnaissance 

patio1 when they stumbled into a Japanese ambush, probably set by stragglers 

of Miyake Force still trapped behind the U.S. lines. A patrol from Troop G 

sent to their rescue was, in turn, apparently ambushed and lost two men 

killed and six wounded.* Another chilling possibility is that the G troopers 

reached the ambushed American patrol only to be shot by their comrades. 

A trooper recalled that he heard someone yell ‘“Watch out!‘” just before 

Thompson submachine gun fire raked the men. 

On the afternoon of 1 August, the first inkling of the Ted Force envelop 

ment reached General Adachi, when he received reports of enemy landings 

near Pakamul. That same afternoon, the 237th Infantry arrived in the Afua 

area. In conjunction with survivors of the 238th and the 239th Infantry, 

the 237th set out to attack across the Driniumor at 0200 on 3 August. Poor 

coordination and late arrival of troops caused a postponement. Also on 3 

August, General Adaehi ordered the Aitape offensive to end at noon 4 August. 

Attacks then in progress would continue in order to cover the Japanese 

withdrawal. Shortly thereafter, Adachi heard that about 400 Americansprobably the 3d Battalion, 127th Infantry-had crossed the Driniumor in 

the vicinity of Kawanakajima and were rapidly advancing east (see map 

31). Adaehi ordered elements of the 237th Infantry to check this American 

advance. 

*As for the last patrol, a waunded member was found by the 127th Infantry, and another 

made his way 00 the 112th command pmt. Subseqae,nt patrols found a third wounded cavalryman 

who had been in the Gush three days. We believed his lieutenant and one ather enlisted man 

had been killed. Those bodies were never found. 
128 

1CYOQ 0 1050 YDS 

RNCIPRRI 1005 YDS EQUALS 915 METERS 

SCALE 

& STRONG JAPANESE RESWANCE 

NOTE: FIGURE NEAR AA 

ARROWHERD IA'DICATES THL 

DATE ON WHECH TN!: 

Source: Smith, Appromh, p. 193 

Map 31. Ted Force operations, 31 July-10 August 1944 
129 

Elsewhere elements of the 41st Division prepared for what would be 

their final attack against the 112th Cavalry.94 Morale was low among the 

Japanese troops, who had only one day’s rations left and were short of 

medical supplies. Their condition had deteriorated to such an extent that 

the physically fit soldiers took the clothes and rations from the weaker 

meng” The Japanese had crossed the Driniumor upstream and then swung 

north to strike the American positions from the jungle and along the west 

bank of the dry riverbed. Their attack began at 0615 on 4 August.* 

Platoon Sgt. Claude Rigsby of Troop B was on the firing line that 

morning. His troop, part of Lieutenant Colonel Grant’s lazy-S line, formed 

a pocket facing towards the jungle. Rigsby could see very few Japanese 

because of the thick jungle, and the fleeting figures he could see attacked 

in open formations. They advanced into the pocket, where U.S. automatic 

weapons and 6@mm mortars tore them to pieces. Artillery blasted the Japanese 

remaining in the jungle. The fighting raged as the Japanese tried deaperately 

to break the American lines. A few Japanese actually reached the American 

outpost line and drove the defenders back. But after two hours, more than 

185 Japanese were dead or dying. The squadron commander watched 

impassively as sixteen wounded Japanese committed suicide in front of his 

defenses.96 

As soon as the Japanese attack had begun, General Cunningham alerted 

Troop E for a counterattack, and at 0900, Troop E deployed to mop up any 

remaining Japanese and reestablish the cavalrymen’s outpost line (see map 

32). As they passed through Troop C’s lines and walked crouched forward 

toward the jungle, three Japanese riflemen hiding under the roots of a tree 

on which an American officer was standing shot and killed Lieutenant 

Christensen. Enraged cavalrymen killed the Japanese with hand grenades. 

Six other Japanese died during this sweep, as did another 112th Cavahy 

lieutenant. 

The human carnage along and in the Driniumor was appalling. A member 

of the 112th’s Supply Company arrived at the river around this time and 

at first glance thought that it was full of logs. Another look registered that 

Japanese corpses choked the river. 97 If ever during a battle morale soared 

and exhilaration appeared, it was then, for the cavalrymen seemed to have 

sensed that the Japanese were finished. So badly were the Japanese beaten 

that nine surrendered. These prisoners were put to work burying the Japanese 

dead scattered around the perimeter. While the worst of the 112th’s ordeal 

had passed, the danger permeating the lives of frontline troops had remained. 

Prom 5 through 9 August, 112th Cavalry patrols plunged into the jungles, 

searching for the Japanese and hoping to cut off the disorganized enemy’s 

retreat. The Japanese, however, withdrew southeasterly, not in the easterly 

direction General Hall had anticipated. Thus Ted Force, moving south, 

*A% Japanese record of this attack exists. 
130 

Map 32. Japanese attack and Troop E counterattack, 4 August 1944 
131 

encountered some resistance from the 237th Infantry, but most of the Japanese 

they killed were service support personnel, not infantrymen. Indicative of 

the caliber of opposition, Ted Force managed to suffer more casualties from 

friendly artillery fire than from enemy action. 

Even the hunt for Japanese stragglers was not always one-sided. Enemy 

snipers shot and wounded the point man of a patrol on 8 August. He had 

the unfortunate distinction to be the last 112th Cavalry battle casualty as 

the campaign was visibly winding down and had degenerated into a chase, 

albeit a dangerous one, after Japanese stragglers. Cavalrymen shot several 

stragglers daily and occasionally discovered mass Japanese graves or piles 

of rotting corpses. On 10 August the 112th received orders to return to Aitape, 

and the next day they marched north to the mouth of the Driniumor. 

U.S. Army Signal corps 

Regimental HQ and squadron commanders, 112th Cavalry, Aitape, 11 August 1944. 

Before the cavalrymen reached the beach, where they would board trucks 

to ride to Aitape, Lieutenant Colonel Grant ordered his 1st Squadron to 

stop at a stream in order to wash and shave. Then they continued towards 

the beach. As they emerged from the jungle, the 112th Band began to play 

and the men fell into march order. After forty-five days on the line, many 

troopers had jungle ulcers on their hands and feet. Some had blood oozing 

from their boots. But they marched to their waiting trucks. They had come 
: 

to the Driniumor in truciks, and they left in trucks. In between, they suffered 

317 battle casualties or 21 percent of their authorized strength, probably 26 

or 27 percent of their actual pre-Driniumor strength. They claimed to have 

killed more than 1,600 Japanese, the majority of these during the bloody 

Japanese attacks of early August and the subsequent straggler hunt. Overall 

American losses were 440 killed, 2,550 wounded, and 10 missing.98 

General Adachi’s survivors meanwhile made their painful way back 

towards Wewak. His 20th and 41st divisions had lost more than 8,000 men, 

’ including almost all the battalion commanders and company-grade officers. 

The 41st Division lost 2,519 killed, 237 missing, and 1,740 dead from illness 

or untreated wounds. The 26th Division’s losses are shown below: 

Regiment Pre-Battle Post-Battle Losses Pre-BattEe 

Strength Strerzgth Percentage 

LOSit 

- 78th Infantry 1,300 350 950 73 

79th .Infantry 700 350 350 50 

I 80th Infantry 1,010 320 690 69 

26th Field Artillery 990 450 540 56 

Other 2,612 1,570 ‘1,.642, 40 

Total 6,612 3,040 3,572 55 

The Japanese lost close to 10,000 men overall. They claimed to have 

inflicted an estimated 2,000 American casualties, but nearly 3,000 Americans 

had been killed, wounded, or reported missing. Nor did that end 18th Army’s 

grim saga. Even though General Krueger for “historical purposes” had declared 

the campaign finished on 25 August 1944, 18th Army fought on against 

Australian forces until V-J Day in September 1945. During those thirteen 

months, the Japanese lost another 7,200 killed and 270 prisoners. Australian 

losses were 451 killed and more than 1,160 wounded. General Adachi formally 

surrendered 18th Army on 13 September 1945 and shortly afterwards 

committed suicide at Rabaul, where the Australians had taken him to stand 

trial for war crimes. 

The men of the 112th Cavalry joined the 1st Cavalry Division in the 

Leyte campaign in November 1944 and later landed at Lingayen Gulf in 

January 1945. On V-J Day the regiment sailed into Tokyo Bay and the 

next day began its occupation duty in Japan. 

The GHQ, SWA Daily Summary no. 871, dated 9-10 August, summarized 

the Aitape campaign as an exemplary use of counterenvelopment and 

exploitation of the Driniumor line to annihilate the 18th Army. It characterized 

the operation as “possibly unparalleled in the history of mihtary maneuver 

over this type of terrain.” The summary continued that this feat had been 

accomplished with “negligible loss to our units”1 Viewed from the theater 

or army commander’s perspective, the statement probably was accurate, but 

overstated. Maneuver warfare, seen from the headquarters of these higher 

echelons, did produce a relatively bloodless victory. 

MacArthur”s bold, multiple invasions at Hollandia and Aitape were classic 

examples of a maneuver that forced his opponents to fight at places and 

times not of their choosing. At the so-called “sharp end” the pri@e was 

paid in lives. Victory communiques aside, the men of the 112th Cavalry 

knew that they had won their part of the battle along the Driniumor, and 

they also understood in vivid personal terms that they paid a heavy price 

for victory. This dichotomous appreciation of the nature of the fighting may 

originate in the different perceptions of that operation at varying levelsstrategic, operational, and tactical-of the Aitape campaign. An analysis of 

the components that characterized these respective levels may clarify areas 

of overlap and identify points of divergence in the strategic and tactical 

conduct of the Aitape operations. 

Pn the strategic and operational contexts, Ultra-derived information about 

the state of the Japanese 18th Army influenced MacArthur’s decision to 

leap to Hollandia and Aitape. MacArthur’s staff also probably used the 

Ultra picture of weak Japanese defenses to convince the Joint Chiefs of 

Staff that the element of risk, while always present in a combat operation, 

had been minimized by the detailed Allied knowledge of the exact Japanese 

dispositions along the northern New Guinea coastline. In short, Ultra helped 

to persuade the Joint Chiefs of Staff to approve MacArthur’s plan. Ultra 

also confirmed the success of the Allied deception plan and was instrumental 

in the destruction of 4th Air Army. These events insured that no substantial 

Japanese forces would turn the invasion beaches into bloady deathtraps for 

the Americans. 

135 
136 

Despite these successes, SWPA’s analysis and interpretation of Ultra, 

in conjunction with other sources of intelligence (POWs, captured documents, 

patrol reports) was ultimately flawed. SWPA’s preconception of potential 

Japanese courses of action, its projection of American rationales and intentions on the enemy, and its interpretation that the Japanese intended to 

attack both the center and flank of the Driniumor covering force affected 

operational deployments. These dispositions, in turn, facilitated 18th Army’s 

breakthrough on 10-11 July and drastically altered the tactical shape of 

the Driniumor battle. It is important to distinguish Ultra’s operational role 

from the tactical dimension of battle. At the small unit level (generally 

division and below}, Ultra never was expected to contribute signifieantly to 

the actual fighting, because it was usually not timely enough to influence 

a tactical engagement, and the perishable nature of the lower level unit 

communications normally rendered them irrelevant within a few hours of 

transmissian. Furthermore, in most cases, protection of the source of Ultra 

took precedence over temporary tactical advantages. Except in the broadest 

terms as a yardstick for operational deployments, Ultra was irrelevant to 

the tactical dispositions. It was, simply put, primarily a strategic and 

occasionally an operational weapon. During that phase of the Aitape 

campaign, Ultra was invaluable in guiding General Krueger to set his 

defenses, to reinforce his troops, and to build a base from which to destroy 

18th Army. Ultra was a two-edged sword, and in several instances, Krueger’s 

actions appear driven by Ultra to the exclusion of other relevant tactical, 

geographical, and sometimes even operational considerations. 

The decision to relieve the 163d regimental commander comes to mind 

as does Krueger’s replacement of General Martin following the Japanese 

breakthrough of N-11 July. Krueger was impatient with the 163d commander’s progress, because he knew that no strong Japanese opposition 

lurked in the jungles, but this was a luxury the regimental commander 

was not privileged to enjoy. Martin’s relief may have been hastened by 

Krueger’s misunderstanding of the battle based on an intelligence appreciation, 

not a tactical one. In one sense, Martin became the scapegoat for failing to 

prevent the Japanese breakthrough. Yet! Generals Krueger and Hall had 

insisted, contrary to Martin’s advice, that Martin release his reserves to 

provide troops for the reconnaissance in; force. The decision to develop the 

battle early backfired. One may surely aek whether, if Krueger had known 

less about his opponent’s circumstances, he would have acted so aggressively, 

especially when the original mission of Persecution Task Force was to 

protect-defend-the Aitape perimeter. The accolades Ultra received must 

be accepted then with significant reservations. 

The 25 June intercept provides a case in point. This message, which 

provided specific tactical-level details of a Japanese attack, was the result 

of a complex process of decryption, translation, analysis, and dissemination, 

involving hundreds of people. Without the time-consuming process to place 

the intercept in context, Ultra was meaningless. It was the recognition of 

this accomplishment that led Central Bureau to proclaim, “never has a 
137 

commander gone into battle knowing as much about the enemy as the Allied 

commander at Aitape on lo-11 July 1944.“2 The assertion conveniently 

ignores the fact that Central Bureau never intercepted the actual Japanese 

attack order. Moreover, if the Allied commander knew so much about his 

enemy, why did he remove his reserves the evening of the Japanese attack? 

Why did General Willoughby, the very day of 18th Army’s offensive, report 

that the attack probably had been postponed? These questions await definitive 

answers. 

So a brilliant example of maneuver warfare at the operatio_m:l level 

degenerated at the tactical level into an unimaginative application of orthodox 

doctrine-attempted envelopments, large-scale ff anking maneuvers, reconnaissance in force-in murderous terrain. The Japanese operations were at least 

equally conventional, probably more so. 

The jungle terrain favored small unit tactics. Both army commanders, 

however, resorted to conventional doctrine as if it were possible to maneuver 

large formations intact through the bush. The tactics of the campaign may 

be seen more as an ad hoc response to particular circumstances than as a 

logical development of doctrinal thought. A glance at the U.S. Army’s Jungle 

Warfare manuals for 1941 and 1944 reinforces that melancholy observation3 

Conventional armies applied orthodox, staff school tactics regardIess of the 

terrain. Neither army had a sophisticated doctrine for jungle warfare, so 

the fighters-that is, the combat soldiers-had to create a doctrine that evolved 

in the course of the fighting. Within the general principles of offense, defense, 

reconnaissance, and so forth, the 112th Cavalry did improvise procedures, 

tactics, and standard operating procedures. The Army Ground Forces Observer 

Reports were also helpful because they stimulated thought within the regiment 

about the conclusions cavalrymen had reached from their firsthand experience. 

Because of its success in the Pacific, the U.S. Army perhaps thought that 

it had an effective jungle warfare doctrine, but it failed to recognize the 

smallest cog in that doctrine-the infantryman and his vital role-and instead 

concentrated on firepower, especially artillery, to engage the enemy.* Instead 

of adapting American tactics to the environment to achieve victory, American 

commanders won by adapting the environment to their tactics. 

The jungle was not just wooded terrain writ large. It was a totally 

different physical environment that required almost all a man’s energy and 

determination just to survive its rigors. That these men would turn from 

existing to fighting is probably more attributable to a primordial urge for 

survival than sound doctrine and leadership. 

*That sweeping generalization requires more detailed analysis of the U.S. Army’s tactics 

in its Pacific campaigns, How did combat training change after Buna? After Driniumor? After 

Biak? After Luzort? After Okinawa? How were those experiences incorporated into the institutional 

and doctrinal memory of the Army? Those significant questions merit additional study. 
138 

From the perspective of the combat soldier, it is easy to criticize the 

staffs at division and corps levels for insensitivity, lack of realism, and 

outright stupidity. The simple truth is that without the centralized direction 

the staff provided (as divorced from reality as it unfortunately sometimes 

became in the confusion of battle), platoons and companies would just mill 

around purposelessly in the jungle thicket. Without the coercive power of 

staff orders, it is doubtful that the understandably reluctant combat troops 

would move forward of their own volition against a dangerous, armed foe. 

And, at least at Aitape, to a surprising extent, the personalities of the higher 

commanders who issued the orders impressed themselves on the conduct of 

the battle. 

Both opposing commanders ignored advice from line units-Krueger by 

his reconnaissance in force and Adachi by his shift of the 41st Division to 

attack Afua. The mission of Persecution Task Force was to defend Aitape; 

that of 18th Army, to attack A&ape. General Krueger with his Ultra knowledge 

changed defense to preemptive attack, apparently, because he perceived Aitape 

as a sideshow to, be concluded as expeditiously as possible in order that he 

might move on to a more important theater of operations, namely the 

Philippines. Krueger reacted to changing strategic considerations-particularly 

the strategic debate between MacArthur and Nimitz concerning future 

operations against either Formosa or the Philippines-and pressured his 

subordinate commanders to conclude the campaign promptly. Although his 

methods may seem overbearing to some, tactics is the handmaiden of strategy. 

Without a coherent strategy, the best tactics cannot produce overall victory. 

Yet a sound strategy can capitalize on conventional tactics. MacArthur’s 

imaginative strategy exploited 6th Army’s orthodox tactics to the greatest 

extent possible. 

Krueger’s reconnaissance in force, conducted to “develop the battle,” is 

entirely out of keeping with his otherwise methodical and plodding generalship, 

which almost cost him his career in the Philippines.4 General Cunningham 

preferred to stand on the defensive and await Japanese onslaughts, always 

fearful that his vulnerable position was about to be outflanked. General 

Hall apparently believed tactics could be universally applied, as his textbook 

envelopment, totally misplaced in the jungles, revealed. Their common 

opponent, General Adachi, put his faith in the intangibles of battle, and 

his operational orders and tactical assault formations were uninspired and, 

as the battle continued, inflexible. To achieve victory, Adachi’s tactics had 

to be exceptional to compensate for 18th Army’s shortcomings. His operational 

plans suggest that his North China perspective did not accommodate itself 

to the drastically a1tered conditions of jungIe combat. Adachi, like his 

American counterparts, had been trained to fight one type of war, but told 

to fight an entirely different one. 

These judgments must be understood in the human dimension of leadership. The general officers applied their accumulated military wisdom in 

accordance with doctrine and experience. They were conventional, not 
139 

exceptional, battlefield leaders. Officers like Krueger, Hall, Gill, Martin, and 

Cunningham did nothing spectacular, but they won battles, campaigns, and 

ultimately the Pacific War with their methodical, almost abstract, style of 

leadership.5 They were soldiers who understood the basic principles of warfare 

and applied them in battle. 

At the loweat stratum was the combat soldier, and the tactics that both 

sides used were more conventional than innovative. It is true that there 

were successful ambushes, but the usual firefight-if there is such a thingwitnessed American infantrymen puhing back and calling for artillery fire 

to saturate the suspected Japanese positions. After the bombardment, the 

Americans cautiously advanced to count the dead.6 It was methodical and 

calculated small unit tactics. One must also recognize the important psychological benefits on the morale of combat troops from just hearing the sound 

of friendly artillery. Perhaps these tactics were appropriate to the nature of 

the original defensive mission, because everyone vaguely realized that 18th 

Army had to attack or wither away. 

The de facto change of mission and pressure from above to wrap up 

the campaign demonstrated the limitations of such orthodox tactical concepts. 

It should be remembered that the presence of many brave men and a few 

heroic ones who were willing to lead in such conditions made stereotyped 

tactics work. That the Japanese accommodated the Americans by charging 

in dense ranks straight into American guns speaks poorly of Japanese tactical 

innovation. The original Japanese attack on a narrow front did consider 

the jungle terrain. Adachi’s subsequent enveloping maneuver treated the 

jungle as if it did not exist. 

The only time that the Japanese seemed unconventional was after dark, 

and that was in part because the Americans simply ceased military operations 

after nightfall, thus surrendering the night to the enemy. Conversely, Japanese 

infantry doctrine stressed night training and operations. By daylight reconnaissance and trail marking, they marked passages for nighttime movement, 

The Japanese had been trained to operate at night, and they did. But despite 

all their emphasis on night training, the Japanese found night fighting 

extremely diffieuh to coordinate. 

Nonetheless, the Americans never seemed to adapt and take advantage 

of Japanese errors. The 112th Cavalry’s one night march of the campaign, 

the retreat from the Driniumor, nearly resulted in mob chaos. But was this 

a deficiency of the infantrymen and cavalrymen along the Driniumor or a 

basic failure of the U.S. Army to emphasize practical night combat training? 

After the Papua campaign, the 32d Infantry Division refitted and retrained 

in Australia. According to their training table, the division stressed night 

operations. But these lessons were not applied extensively along the Driniumor. 

It does appear that the 32d Division and the 112th Cavalry closed down at 

night. 
140 

In the jungle combat, the troop and squadron commanders of the 112th 

Cavalry placed great reliance on the qualities and initiative of junior officers 

to lead patrols, to lead attacks, to supervise their men, and to scout-all 

desirable achievements. Yet they recognized that they overburdened these 

young officers with too many tasks in the oppressive climate.7 A glance at 

the casualty figures demonstrates clearly enough that the junior officers of 

the 112th shared the dangers of combat with their men. In most cases, 

they led, but the cumulative burden of responsibility, fatigue, and combat 

used them up at a fast rate. 

The casualty returns of the 112th’s Driniumor battle provide much area 

for speculation. Overall, approximately 320 cavalrymen were killed, wounded, 

or missing,8 and the Americans claimed to have killed 1,604 Japanese, an 

exchange ratio of roughly 1:5 in terms of gross casualties. Until I August, 

however, the exchange ratio was about 1:1.5 or 1:2 in the cavalrymen’s 

favor, after which it skyrocketed to 1:8, coincidentally with the Japanese 

massed frontal attacks against the 112th in early August. Yet, it is difficult 

to determine with any exactitude a turning point on the Driniumar. Rather, 

it was a grinding battle of attrition, the ironic ending to a classic example 

of maneuver warfare. In any case, it was certainly easier to kill men whose 

formations were disorganized and whose army was breaking apart than to 

kill them when their organization was intact and functional, despite one 

side’s overpowering materiel superiority. This, of course, harks back to the 

theories of the nineteenth century Prench military theorist Ardant DuPicq. 

The matter of casualties from friendly fire is unsettling. At least 27, 

and possibly 35, of the 112th’s approximately 320 casualties were victims 

of friendly fire, or 9 to 10.5 percent. The discouraging feature of these statistics 

is that they may actually be lower than a commander should expect in 

jungle combat. A detailed study of U.S. Army casualties on BougainvilleNew Georgia and Burma showed that in the first instance, 66 of 393 total 

casualties “were due to the fire of their own troops. In the former 15.7 

percent of the dead and in Burma 16 percent were due to our own fire.“9 

This report also stated that carelessness, poor discipline, lack of leadership 

and judgment, and poor dissemination of information all contributed to the 

problem. Yet, this same report recognized from empirical data that veteran 

troops did perform better in combat because they could recognize and react 

to the stimuli of battle. Perhaps the cumulative effects of a protracted combat 

situation-not only the actual fighting but also all the other functions required 

to make combat possible (marching, preparing defenses, organizing attacks, 

resupplying, eating, personal hygiene, even resting)-drained the body and 

spirit. The results of such aggregate weariness possibly were the lethal 

mistakes of friendly fire.10 

The final casualty account should be understood in the context of the 

overall campaign. There were slightly more than 55,000 Allied troops, mostly 

Americans, at Aitape. Among these troops perhaps twelve infantry battalion 
141 

equivalent size units bore the brunt of the fighting.* Incomplete statistics 

are naturally suspect, so the following calculations must be regarded as 

only very rough approximations. By 1943 a US. infantry battalion had an 

authorized strength of 871 officers and men. Ordinarily, the companies in a 

rifle battalion were under authorized strength, while the headquarters, service, 

and supporting units were generally overstrength.ll The 112th Cavalry went 

to Aitape understrength, with about 85 percent of its complement. The 128th 

Infantry Regiment had only 77 percent of its assigned officers and 85 percent 

of its men. The 127th Infantry had 77 percent of its assigned officers, but 

92 percent of its men. If these figures can be extrapolated to give a 90 

percent authorized strength, a conservatively high figure, a rifle battalion 

could muster 784 men. Assuming an above authorized strength in headquarters 

units, one might expect about 175 men in a rifle company (525 per battalion) 

and another 145 men in a weapons company, or 670 total.** These were 

the few who actually fought against the Japanese, meaning that perhaps 

8,000 of the 55,000 present were engaged in combat, although normally not 

simultaneously. Again assuming that most casualties occurred in the fighters’ 

ranks (3,810 total battlefield casualties), the result is about a 37 percent 

casualty rate or above the rule of thumb of 33 percent, which in theory 

renders a unit unfit for further combat. The figure may seem high, but on 

the average in fifty-seven U.S. infantry divisions, infantrymen suffered 94.7 

percent of division casualties, while they had only 68.5 percent of the 

authorized strength. Put differently, representing only 14 percent of the U.S. 

Army overseas, the infantry received 70 percent of the cumulative battle 

casualties.12 These figures reinforce the bleak conclusion already enunciated 

by John Ellis: most fighting in World War II was done by a remarkably 

small proportion of troops, whose casualties were very high. Nowhere was 

this more evident than in the six line troops, whose total strength was 665 

on 9 August compared with 913 officers and men present on 1 July. On 9 

August, Troop A counted only 78 men and 6 officers present for duty; Troop 

C, 98 and 8, respectively. Not all the absentees were battlefield casualties, 

because many troops were ill with malaria or related tropical diseases. 

Altogether the line troops were at 66 percent TO&E strength, whereas on 1 

July they had nearly 90 percent of their assigned complement.13 If this 

pattern is indeed a trend, planners of future battles must concern themselves 

with the enormous implications for medical services, replacements, and the 

ability to fight a sustained land battle in a much more intensive and deadly 

modern battlefield.ld 

*The units were the 128th Infantry, 127th Infantry, 124th Infuntry, and 112th Cavalry. 

The 163d Regimental Combat Team departed early, the 169th Infantry arriwed late. 

**Con. 27 June 1944 of the authorized strength af 35 officers and 836 men, 28 officers and 

678 men of the 2d Battalion, 128th Infantry, were present for duty. For the same period, 

Company E had 6 officers and 156 men of the authorized 6 officers and 187 men. On 10 July, 

however, Company E reported 6 officers and 183 men present for duty. The following week 

the figure was 5 officers and 165 men. 
142 

This study began with a discussion of the strategic-operational and tactical ‘- 

dichotomy. To return to that originally posed concept, while the levels of 

warfare are de facto interrelated, the relationship is exceedingly complex. 

The symbols for corps and divisions moved forward or backward across a 

map with amazing ease and clarity. Yet, in-depth study of battle reveals 

that the individuals who form those masses rarely achieve any goal without 

enormous effort and sacrifice. Small unit combat operations, like the covering 

force action along the Driniumor, provide the factual details that aid in the 

identification of the complicated and ofttimes fragile bonds between and 

among various echelons of combat organizations. 
Notes 

+LP 

Brief History 

““Daily Intelligence 

Summary” 

“Historical Report” 

JM 39 

Japanese Night 

Combat 

“MSJAS” 

MTRS 

PTF, “G-3 Journal” 

Abbreviations Used in Notes 

- US. Army, Far East Command, General Staff, 

Military Intelligence Section, A Brief History of the 

G-2 Section, GHQ SWPA and Affiliated Units (Tokyo, 

1948). 

- U.S. Army, Southwest Pacific Area, General Staff, 

Military InteIligence Section, “Daily Intelligence 

Summary and G-2 Estimate of the Enemy Situation.” 

- U.S. Army, 112th Cavalry Regiment, “Historical 

Report, Aitape, New Guinea, 112th Cavalry Regiment, 

21 June 1944 to 25 August 1944.‘” 

- U.S. Army Forces Far East, Military History Section, 

Japanese Monograph no. 39: Southwest Area OperaCions Record, 18th Army Operations (March 1944 

through August 1944). 

- U.S. Army Forces Far East, Military History Section, 

Japanese Night Combat, pt. 3, Supplement: Night 

Combat Examples. 

- U.S. War Department, Office of the Assistant Chief 

of Staff, G-2 Special Branch, Military Intelligence 

Division, “Magic Summary Japanese Army Supple 

merit.” 

- Boeicho Boei kenshujo senshishitsu [Japan Self 

Defense Forces, National Defense College, Military 

History Department], ed. Minami Taiheiyo Rikugun 

sakusen 5 Aitape-Puriaka-Rabauru [Imperial Army 

operations in the South Pacific, vol. 5, Aitape 

Empress Augusta Bay-Rabaul] (Tokyo: Asagumo 

shinbunsha, 1975). 

- U.S. Army, 32d Infantry Division, Persecution Task 

Force, “G-3 Reports, G-3 Journal and File, 32d 

Infantry Division, Aitape Campaign.” 

143 
144 

The following SRH series documents used in this paper are in “Index 

of NSAKXS Cryptologic Documents offered to and accepted by The National 

Archives of the United States,” Record Group 457, National Archives, 

Washington, DC: 

SRH-044 - “War Department Regulations Governing the Dissemination and Security Communications Intelligence,” 1943-45. 

SRH-c)59 - “Selected Examples of Commendations and Related 

Correspondence Highlighting the Achievements of 

US. Signal Intelligence during World War II,” 10 

January 1946. 

SRH-107 - “Froblems of the SSO System World War II,” August 

1952. 

SRH-127 

SRH-140 

- “Use and Dissemination of Ultra in the Southwest 

Pacific Area,” 1943-45. 

- “History of the ‘Language Liaison Group,’ Military 

Intelligence Service, War Department,” 22 September 

1945. 

SRH-169 - “‘Centralized Control of U.S. Army Signal Intelligence 

Activities.” 

Preface 

1. James Jones, WW I1 (New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1975), 97. 

2. The exact ratio of support troops to combat hoops in SWPA remains unclear. According 

to John Ellis, The Sharp Em& The Fighting Man in World War II (New York: Charles Scribner’s 

Sons, lQS@, 157, eighteen men were needed in the supply service for each rifleman. Robert W. 

Coakley and Richard M. Leighton place the ratio of combat to service troops at one to aix in 

Global Logistics and Strategy, 1945-1945, U.S. Army in World War II (Washington, DC: Ofsce 

of the Chief of Military History, U.S. Army, 1968). 496-98. 

Part I 

1. Louis Morton, Strategy and Command: The First Two Years, U.S. Army in World War II 

(Washington, DC: Office of the Chief of Military History, Department of the Army, 1962), 

596-97. 

2. This information is derived from Robert Ross Smith, The Approach to the Philippines, 

U.S. Army in World War II (Washington, DC: Office of the Chief of Military History, Department 

of the Army, 1953), 22; Allied Geographical Section, Southwest Pacific Area, Terrain Handbook 

21: New Guinee-A&ape-Wunimo, 21 March 1944; U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Public 

Affairs, Background Notes: Papua New Guinea, January 1980. 

3. An excellent summation of the Quadrant Conference and its effect on MacArthur’s planning 

may be found in D. Clayton James, The Years of MacArthur, vol. 2, 1941-1945 (Boston: 

Houghton Mif%in Co., 19751, 331-35. 

4. Ibid., 335. 
145 

5. Brief History, 66-69. Two excellent examples of a critical examination of Ultra in SWPA 

are Desmond J. Ball, “Allied Intelligence Cooperation Involving Australia During World War 

II,” Australian Or&ok: Journal of the Aus&aZian Institute of International Affairs 32 (December 

1978):299-309, and D.M. Horner, ‘Special Intelligence in the South-West Pacific Area in World 

War II,” ibid., 310-27. A negative assessment of Central Bureau may be found in a 10 July 

1945 memorandum, ultimately intended for General George C. Marshall, from Maj. Gen. Clayton 

A. Bisseli, Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2. Bissell wrote: “Akin has built a signal intelligence 

empire in Central Bureau which in my opinion, judged by results in other areas and by other 

agencies, is not very efficient.” SRH-169, 76. 

6. See, for example, the laments of MIS Special Security Officers in SWPA in SRH-127, 23, 

29-34, 181. 

7. Officially defined, “Traffic Analysis Intelligence” is the term for information obtained by 

or inferences drawn from a study of the volume, direction, patterns, and characteristics of the 

enemy’s signal communication system and traffic but without reading the texts of such traffic. 

See SRH-044, 6. 

8. SRH-140, 5. According to Clay Blair, Silent Victory: The U.S. Submarine War Against 

Japan (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1975), 606, U.S. Army troops after a landing on the 

northeastern New Guinea coast in January 1944 discovered a “trunkful of Japanese army 

codebooks, buried in the sand along the beach.” Presumably this discovery occurred during 

the Saidor operation conducted by the 128th Regimental Combat Team (E26th Infantry and 

12tst Artillery Battalion). 

9. Brief History, 18. 

10. Smith, Approach, 6-9. In late February 1944 Allied airmen reported no enemy reaction 

to their presence over the Admiralties. MacArthur then ordered a reconnaissance in force of 

the islands. The 2d Squadron, 5th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, with attached 

units, about 1,000 men, made the initial landing on only four days’ notice. The cavalrymen 

surprised the more than 4,000 Japanese defenders and in turn were surprised by the large 

number of enemy troops. Far from abandoning the islands, the Japanese soldiers had been 

ordered not to fire at Allied aircraft for fear of revealing Japanese defensive positions. U.S. 

reinforcements landed shortly after the initial invasion and were able to secure the islands. 

See Walter Krueger, From Down Under to Nippon: The Story of Sixth Army in World War II 

(Washington, DC: Combat Forces Press, 1953), 45-52. 

II. Smith Approach, 9. 

12. Brief &?taory, plate no. 9 and accompanying text. 

13. Smith, Approach, 12. 

14. See Brief History, 23, for an excerpt of the Japanese appreciation The compIete text of 

the Japanese message appears in MTRS, 29. 

15. See David Kahn, The Codebreakers: The Story of Secret Writing (New York: Macmillian, 

1968), 578-79. Wesley Frank Craven and James Lea Cate described Allied aerial operations 

against the Hollandia airfields in The Army Air Forces in World War II, vol. 4, The Pacific: 

Euadalcanal to Saipan, August 1942 to July 1944 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1950), 

583-99. Of the estimated 351 Japanese aircraft at Hollandia, Allied pilots claimed more than 

260 destroyed. Ultra sources mention 410 Japanese aircraft, but only 169 in serviceable condition. 

In any case, 5th Air Force’s new tactics, its redeployment and concentration of heavy bombers, 

and its ability to extend the range of P-38 escorts via wing tanks, resulted in the annihilation 

of Japanese air power near Hollandia. In addition, based on information gleaned from Ultra, 

5th Air Force and U.S. Navy aircraft attacked and sank several Japanese resupply ships 

trying to reach the beleaguered Japanese forces at Wewak. 

16. Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, The Reports of General MacArthur: Japanese 

@era&m in the Southwest Pacific Area, vol. 2, pt. 1 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government 

Printing Office, 1966), 263. 

17. MTRS, 458. 
146 

18. It is interesting to speculate on the role of Ultra in MacArthur’s decision to leap to 

Hollandia. His Reno III Plan called for an invasion near Hansa Bay, exactly the area the 

Japanese expected a landing. Perhaps the increased Ultra revelations of early 1944 convinced 

MacArthur to take the risks involved in the Hollandia operation because he knew the area 

would be only lightly defended. 

19. Kengoro Tanaka, Operations of the Imperial Jupenese Armed Forces in the Papua New 

Guinea Theater During World War II (Tokyo: Japan-Papua New Guinea Goodwill Society, 1$80), 

83-84. Tanaka was a staff officer assigned to 18th Army. 

26. James, Years, 447; Krueger, Doron Under, 62-63. 

21. Reports of &faeArthur, 266. 

22. Karl C. Dod, The Corps of Engineers: The War Against Japan, U.S. Army in World War 

II (Washington, DC: Office of the Chief of Military History, U.S. Army, 19661, 532-33. 

23. U.S. Army, 6th Army, Assistant Chief of Staff, G-3, “Comments on the Aitape Landing,” 

in 6th Army’s Combat Notes, no. 3, 15 September 1944, 8 (hereafter cited aa “Comments Aitape 

Landing”). 

24. The 49th Ordnance Medium Maintenance Company, an eleven-man detachment of the 

629th Ordnance Ammunition Company, a four-man antiaircraft repair team from the 253d 

Company, and about one-third of the 41st Infantry Division’s Light Maintenance Company 

provided ordnance support. See Lida Mayo, The Ordnance Department: On Beachhead and 

Battlefront, U.S. Army in World War II (Washington, DC: Office of the Chief of Military 

History, US. Army, 1$68), 375-76. 

25. “Comments Aitape Landing,” 10. 

26. US. Army, 6th Army, “Training Memorandum Number 6, Headquarters 6th Army,” 6 

September 1943, and U.S. Army, 6th Army, “‘Training Memorandum Number 7, Training 

Program-Rehabilitation of Units,” 7 September 1943. I am indebted to Professor Jay Luvaas 

for pointing out these changes in training schedules for SWPA units. 

27. For details see Smith, Approach, 1164%. 

28. MTRS, 105. 

29. The Ist Battalion, 126th Infantry Regiment, lost 18 killed, 75 wounded, and 8 missing in 

action. Japanese losses in the Ist Battalion, 78th Infantry Regiment, and two companies of 

the 86th Infantry Regiment were about 100 killed or wounded. Smith, Approach, 123; MTRS, 

7%. 

30. U.S. War Department, FM 100-5, Field Service Regulations, 15 June 1944, para. 597. 

31. A cursory review of the two pertinent U.S. Army Jungle Warfare manuals, U.S. War 

Department, FM 31-20, Basic Field Manual: Jungle Warfare, 9 December 1941, and U.S. War 

Department, FM 72-20, Jungle Warfare, 27 October 1944, reveals the 1944 version superior in 

its section on march and bivouac and more elaborate in its discussion of attack and defense 

in jungle terrain. The 1$41 version spent as many pages on personal hygiene, disease, and 

jungle living (15) as it did on tactics. The later edition did devote more space to tactics (37 

pages) but still spent fifteen pages on hygiene, disease, and living conditions. Of special 

significance for the covering force on the Driniumor is the fact that the 1944 edition’s chapters 

on Retrograde Movement and Delaying Action (96-98) are verbatim from the earlier manual 

(45-46). Similarly, the section on night attack in the 1944 version (83-84) is verbatim from 

pages 47-48 of the 1941 manual. 

32. US. War Department, FM 7-20, Rifle BaECaEon, 1942, paras. 192, 216, 219. 

33. Smith, Approach, 126. 

34. U.S. Army, Southwest Pacific Area, “Monthly Summary of Operations,” May 1944, 10. 

35. MTRS, 52. 

36. Ibid., 76-80. 
37. Ibid., 83. The 32d Division lost one regiment to U.S. submarines northwest of Luzon on 

26 April during its move from Shanghai to Manila. 

38. The offices flew in a heavy bomber which had dropped off supplies at Wewak and returned 

to Davao with the officer and eight stranded Japanese pilots, 

39. Cited in iWT&S, 97, IGHQ Grder No. 1030, I7 June 1944. 

40. Yoshihara Kane, “A&ape no shite” [The death struggle at A&ape], Bessatsu Chisei, July 

1956, 286. Also see JM 39. 

41. MT-R& 120. 

42. Ibid., 139. 

43. JM 39, 101. 

44. Yoshihara, “Aitape,” 286. 

46. MTRS, 103-4 and app. 5, “A go sakusen kogeki” @&ructions for “A” Operation Offensive], 

Headquarters, 18th Army, 5 May 1944, 468-74. 

46. Krueger, Down Under, 71. 

47. “Daily Intelligence Summary,” nos. 763, 776, 773, 778, 786, 795. Krueger’s concern about 

PTF being bypassed appears in Lt. Col. Millard 6. Gray, “The Aitape Operation,” &Witary 

Reuieur 31 (July 1951):51. Gray was the G-3 for Persecution Task Force. I am indebted to Lt. 

Col. (Ret.) Theodore C. Florey for bringing this article to my attention. 

48. A copy of this message may be found in SRH-059, 53. That single message, however, can 

be misleading. A glance at the various interpretations and translations of a duplicate message 

gives the layman an inkling of how complex and difficult decryption and translation into 

English actually were. 

49. “MSJAS.” 

50. “Daily Intelligence Summary,‘” no. 863, 2-3 June 1944. 

51. See “‘MSJAS,” no. 80, 7 June 1944; &ief Hi&my, 23. 

52. Krueger, Down. under, 71. Statistical information to support the veteran versus green 

unit performance in battle may be found in U.S. Army Ground Forces, Plans Section, “Study 

of AGF Battle Casualties,“’ 25 September 1946, 8 (hereafter cited as %udy of AGF Battle 

Casualties’“). 

53. Smith, Approach, 132-33. Krueger’s preference for the 112th Cavalry RCT also stemmed 

from his hope to keep the 31st Division intact for future operations. 

54. Ibid., 133. General Gill’s remark may be found in William II. Gill, Papers, US. Army 

Military History Institute, Carlisle Barracks, PA. 

55. U.S. Army, 32d Infantry Division, Persecution Task Force, “Report After Action 28 June 

to 25 August 1944, Aitape, New Guinea,” 1 (hereafter cited as “Report After Action’“). 

56. Smith, Approach, 128. 

57. Ibid., 130. 

58. The 121at Field Artillery Battalion, the organic 155-mm howitzer support of the 32d Division 

and Persecution Task Force, had already been sent to the Biak operation. 

59. Mayo, Qr&ance ITepartmerct, 377. 

60. U.S. Army, 3‘2d Infantry Division Artillery, ‘Summary of Lessons Learned (Defense 

Perimeter, Aitape Area) 3 May 1944 to 27 June 1944,” extract from “Wistorical Report, 32d 

Division Artillery, 30 April-27 June 1944.” 

61. Krueger, Down under, 71. 

62. SRH-059, 26. There remains an element of confusion about the provenance of this message. 

It is cited in SRH-059, but an investigation of the original or ‘“raw” intercepts shows this 

signal was translated on 18 July 1944 or one week after the Japanese breakthrough. The 
148 

“MSJAS” for 27 June 1944, however, refers to this identical message aa well as SWA C&-Z’s 

analysis and comments. ApparentIy the copy sent to MIS in Washington was a duplicate or 

retransmission and thus was decrypted and translated at a later date. 

63. SRH-059, 26, 51-52; “‘Daily Intelligence Summary,” no. 821, 21 June 1944; “MSJAS~’ no. 

76, 2 June 1944, no. 99, 27 June 1944; MARS, 104, has the original; 5 May 1944 attack directive. 

64. Tanaka, Operations New Guinea, 203. 

65. The scheme of maneuver appeared in the “‘MSJAS,‘” no. 99, 28 June 1944. What is more 

remarkable is the fact that after the battle SWPA continued to maintain that a two-pronged 

attack did occur. See “Daily Intelligence Summary,‘” no. 843, 12-13 July 1944; Brief Histmy~ 

22-25; SRH-659, 26; and “Repart After Action,“’ 1-3. Also see Gray, “Aitape.” 

66. Krueger, Down Under, 71. Hall actually took command at 2400, 27 June. 

67. Ibid., 71-72; Gill, Papers. 

68. PTF, TX3 Journal,” radio from Krueger to G-2, XI Corps, sent 27 June 14117K and received 

at 1127K the same day. 

6% Ibid. 

70. ““MSJAS,” nos. 99 and 166, 27 and 28 June 1944, respectively; PTF, G-3 Jaurnah “Daily 

Intelligence Summary,” no. 289, 28-28 June 1944. 

71. MTRS, 144-4s. 

72. Smith, Approach, 144. 

73. “Report After Action,“’ 3. 

74. Ibid., 2. The wording of Krueger”8 order provides further evidence of his determination to 

conchde the Aitape campaign in rapid fashion. According to the order, the mission of the 

reqonnaissance in force was ‘(to locate and develop enemy concentrations and farce discIosure 

of hia dispositions and intentions . . , .” Cited in “Report of After Action, Eastern Defense 

Command,“” 3, appearing in ‘Report After Action.‘” According to Gray, “Aitape,” 52, experienced 

jungle soldiers in the division did not agree with the concept of a recennaissance in fame. 

75. General Gill beheved that Krueger did not think a Japanese attack was imminent, so he 

refused to reinforce the 32d Division and instead ordered the reconnaissance in force. See Gil, 

Fapers. 

76. U.S. Army, 6th Army, Assistant Chief of Staff, G-3, “Action of an Infantry Battalion at 

Aitape,” in 6th Army’s Corn&at Notes, no. 3, 15 September 1944, 38, 40 (hereafter cited as 

“Infantry Battalion Aitape”“). 

77. Gill, Papers; interview with Wendell H. Brewbaker, Milwaukee, WI, September 1982. 

78. Smith, Approach, 143-45. 

7% “MSJAS,“’ no. 113, 11 July 1944. 

1, Interview with Cal. Alexander M. Miller III, Dallas, TX, August 1981.. 

2. U.S. War Department, War Department Replacement Board, the Pentagon, Washington, 

B.C., tab 41, ‘“112th Cavalry Regiment,” 12 Juue 1947, 7 (hereafter cited as Repkzcement Board). 

The information about the 112th’s unit cohesion is derived from interviews with 112th veterans 

and correspondence with Col. (Ret.} Philip Hooper, 8 November 1982. 

3. ‘Study AGE Battle Casualties,“’ 3. 

4. Ibid. 

5. “Hiatormal Report,” I am indebted to Claude Rigsby for providing me a copy of this report. 

Hereafter unless specially identified otherwise, the detailed information on the 112th’~ operation 

comes from this ““Historical Report.” 

6. Ellis, The Sharp End, 281. 

- -- 
149 

7. Based on Samuel Stouffer, et al., The American Soldier: Combat and Its Aftermath 

(hrinceton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 29491, 2:TO. The remaining third either could: get 

no foad or did not feel like eating. 

8. “‘Historical Report,” 16. 

9. MTRS, 134. 

10. ““Historical Report,” 2. 

11. Replacement Board, 3. 

12. “Historical Report,” 2. 

13. Replacement Board, 7. Also see Smith, Approach, 135. 

14. U.S. Army Ground Forces, Dissemination Division, G-2 Section, “Report on Equipment 

for Jungle Combat Troops,” 8 August 1944, 1. 

15. Interview with Ray A. Titus, Dallas, TX, August 1981. 

16. Italics in original, -PTF, ‘“G-3 Journal.” Next to the comment another person had written 

‘*Yes.” The racial overtone may account for the willingness of combat troops to kill Japanese 

but not Germans as evidenced in Stouffer, American Soldier, 34, where roughly six times as 

many Americans said that they would “really like to kill” a Japanese soldier as gave a similar 

response in the case of a German soldier. 

17. MT&S, 127; Tanaka, Operations New Guinea, 209. 

18. MTRS, 129-30. 

19. JM 39, 89-94; Yoshihara, “Aitape,” 287. 

20. Yoshihara, “Aitape,” 287. 

21. Ibid., 288. 

22. Japanese Night Combat, 605-6. 

23. MTRS, 141. 

24. Ibid., 142. 

25. Japanese Night Combat, 605. 

26. Gill, Papers, 9-10. General Gill also stated that be felt neither Krueger nor Hall believed 

a Japanese attack was imminent. Based on the intelligence reports they received, specifically 

General Willoughby’s 10 July estimate, Gill has a point. 

27. Interview with D. M. McMains, Dallas, TX, August 1981. 

28. The 3d Battalion’s expectation as cited in Smith, Approach, 145; the ll2th”s as noted in 

U.S. Army, 112th Cavalry Regimental Combat Team, “Headquarters, 112th Cavalry RCT S-2-3 

Journal, 26 June 1944 to 11 August 1944,” entry for 07/1631 (hereafter cited as “112th Cavalry 

S-2-3 Journal”); the 2d Battalion’s from “‘Infantry Battalion Aitape,” 38. 

29. “‘infantry Battalion Aitape,” 40. 

30. MTRS, 150. 

31. Japanese Night Combat, 613. 

32. Smith, Approach, 144; “Daily Intelligence Summary,” no. 841, IO-11 July 1944. 

33. Japanese Night Combat, 606. 

34. MTRS, 154. 

35. Ibid., 155, based on Kawahigashi’s recollections. My account of the Driniumor battle is 

based on IEETRS, 153-60; Smith, Approach, 152-58; “Infantry Battalion Aitape,” 38-42; and 

interviews with Thomas E. Bell, Theodore 6. Florey, and Karl K. Wilke, Milwaukee, WI, 

September 1982. 

36, At 0120 General Martin sent a terse signal: ‘C[ommandjl?[ost]CG[mpany]E captured. CO 

E all out of ammunition and cut off.” 
150 

37. In fact Company E’s center platoon remained in position until about 0400 on 11 July, 

when the men realized that they were surrounded and fought their way out. 

38. Company G’s account of the battle and its withdrawal appears in “Infantry Battalion 

Aitape,” 41-47. The Company H men had been manning supporting positions in Company 

E”s sector. Martin’s message sent at 0525K, appears in PTF, “G-3 Journal.‘” 

39. Interview with Serph Smigiel, Fort Leavenworth KS, June 1981. On 10 July 1944 Smigiel 

was head of a platoon of Company B, 198th Signal Battalion, assigned directly to XI Corps. 

See also General Gill’s comments on Hall’s appreciation of the battle. Gill, Papers. 

40. Ibid. 

41. “112th Cavalry S-Z-3 Journal.” 

42. See ““Daily Intelligence Summary,” no. 842, 11-12 July 1944, and ““MSJAS,” no. 114, 12 

JuIy 1944. 

43. See “‘Historical Report,” 30. Boyce and his men most likely ambushed members of a fortyman, all-volunteer, Japanese long-range patrol led by a Captain Saito. This patrol crossed the 

Driniumor in the Torricelli foothills around 10 July. Its mission was to infiltrate U.S. lines 

and reconnoiter American defenses and airfields near Aitape. Despite the ambush, survivors 

accomplished that mission and returned to control of the 20th Division on 23 July with the 

results of their two-week patrol. 

44. Smith, Approach, 156-57, has a detailed account of the LlZth’e withdrawal. Martin”s 

comment is from “112th Cavalry S-2-3 Journal,” entry for 11 July, k1OQK. 

45. Smith, Approach, 155-56. Krueger’s optimistic assessment probably stemmed from his 

Ultra-derived awareness of the pitiful condition of Japanese logistics. Martin was not privy to 

aueh information, 

46. MTRS, 163. 

47. As cited in Smith, kpprouch, 159. Also see ibid., note 10, 159. General Gill recalled, “Anybody 

that knows anything much about this kind of fighting is that you don’t have very long to 

determine whether this was an overpowering force or whether you were just too weak to resist. 

You had to get out of there and get back an a stronger position” (Gill, Papers). As expressed 

in a 19 July 1545 message from Hall to Krueger, Hall’s intention was to relieve Gill only of 

tactical control of Eastern Sector and assign him command of the covering force. According 

to General Gill, General Martin was ‘*just about played out” after ‘(three or four nights of 

fighting.” General Hall asked Gill who would take over the covering force if he, Hall, braught 

Martin in for “a chance to mat” Gill vohmteered, and the change of command was accomplished 

(Gill, Papers). General Martin remained as Commander, Eastern Sector, and Assistant Division 

Commander, 32d Division. According to Professor Jay Luvaas, General MacArthur became 

mo,re and more loath to approve the relief of senior officera in SWPA because he believed that 

it reflected poorly on his ability to select qualified subordinates. 

48. ‘%eport After Action,” 5. 

49. As cited in MARS, 163. 

50. Details on ““No&b Force” operations may be found in Smith Approach, 161-64. A Japanese 

account of operations against “North Force” appears in MARS, 162-68. 

51, Interview with J. B. Corbitt, Dallas, TX, August 1981, 

52. PTF, ““G-3 Journal,” 11-15 July 1944. The total 105mm artillery units of fire on band 

dropped to 1.6 by 21 July. A supply ship arrived that day with 48,000 rounds of 105-mm 

ammunition, which built the units of fire to 2.3 by 30 July. Another supply vessel arrived 30 

July and braught an additional 43,000 rounds allowing for 2.9 units of fire even with the 

cantinued high expenditure. A l&5-mm unit of fire was 200 rounds per gun per day. See US. 

Army, 32d Infantry Division, Persecution Task Force, “Report After Action, PTF, 28 June to 

25 August 1944, Aitape, New Guinea,” annex no. 8, “Ordnance Report,” 2 (hereafter cited as 

PTF, ‘“Report After Action”); and U.S. Army Forces in the Far East (USAFFE), “Report No. 

132 USAFFE Board, SWPA Ordnance Questionnaire Inclosure No. 1,” 11 August 1!%4. 
151 

53. 

54. 

55. 

56. 

57‘ 

58. 

PTF, “G-3 Journal,” 29105UK entry. 

“Historical Report,” 4T; “112th Cavalry S-2-3 Journal.” 

MTRS, 168-69. 

Interview with Carlos A. Provencio, Dallas, TX, August 1982. 

Smith, kpproach, 165-66, explains Cunningham’s anger. 

According to one postwar U.S. Army study, troops were thoroughly disgusted with K rations 

and dehydrated foods. Hunger had to be acute for troopa to eat them in proper quantities, 

Refer to “Report on Equipment for Jungle Combat Troops,” 2. See also, ““Historical Report,“’ 

16: ‘However, for a period, ‘K’ ration was issued and it is unsatisfactory over a period of 

more than three daya.” 

59. PTF, “Report After Action,” annex 7, “Quartermaster Operation5 Persecution Task Force, 

27 June to 25 August 1944”; interview with Albert Earl. Goss&t, Dallas, TX, August 1981. 

60. NTRS, 176-71. 

61. “Historical Report,” supplemented by interviews with Jasper For&my, Frank Salas, and 

0. B, Kent, Dallas, TX, 1981 and 1982. 

62. MTRS, 171-72. The decrypt& parte of the message appeared in the 24 July 1944 “MSJAS.” 

The 79th Infantry had been 18th Army reserve. 

63. PTF, “G-3 Journal,” 15-19 July 1944. 

64. James, Years, 521-42, provides an excellent discussion of the intricate decision-making 

process that in September finally resulted in approval for MacArthur’s Philippine invasion. 

65. Smith, Approach, 170. 

66. Interviews with Charles 6. Brabham and WaRer Stocks, Dallas, TX, 1981. 

67. MTRS, 179. 

68. Ibid., 186. 

69. Interviews with Joe H. Stinson, Travis McDermott, and Robert E. Baskett, DaIIas, TX, 

August 1981. t 

70. MTRS, 182-83. 

71. St&son and McDermott interviews. I 

72. “‘112th S-2-3 Journal,” entry for 24 July 1666. 

73. MTRS, 199. 

74. Tanaka, Operations Neu* Guinea, 222. 

75. MTRS, l&2---85. 

76. PTF, “G-3 Journal,‘* Cunningham to Gill, Situation Report 2516QQK. 

77. Smith, Approach, f&2. 

78. See, for example, “Daily Intelligence Summary,“’ no. 859, 28-29 July 1944; no. 866, 29- 

30 July 1944; no. 861, 36-31 July 1944. 

79. Details may be found in Smith, Approach, 188-200. 

80. Ibid., 184. 

81. Yoshihara, “kitape,” 299. 

82. MTRS, 184. 

83. Ibid., 194-95. 

84. Ibid., 189. 

85. Ibid., 194-95. 
86. “Report After Action,‘” 11. General Hauls daily situation report to General Krueger mentioned 

this action and noted that two Japanese companies had forced back a battalian, leaving 

Company G isolated. Several hours later Krueger signaled Hall that “if confirmed,” the incident 

%ppears to warrant an investigation.‘” See PTF, ‘“G-3 Journal,” entries for 36 JuIy 1944 1lOQK 

and 2137K, respectively. 

$7. “Report After Action,” 11. 

&8. “‘Daily Intelligence Summary,” no. 861, 30-31 July 1944, 4. 

$9. Interviews with Clyde E. Grant, Dallas, TX, August 1981 and 1982. 

90. MTRS, 203-5. 

91. “Study AGF Battle Casualties,‘” 4. 

92. MTRS, 205-6. 

93. Ibid., 185, 208. 

94. Participants in this find attack included members of the 238th and 239th Infantry regiments, 

41st Divisian, 41st Independent Engineer Battalion, and 66th Infantry Regiment, Slat Division. 

95. “Interrogation Report, 2d Lieutenant Nakamura Tomosaburo, 2d Battalion, 239th Infantry,” 

4 August 1944, in “Mistorical Report,” annex, “Operations and Intelligence Journal and Diary,” 

July 1444. 

96. Interview with Claude Rigsby, Dallas, TX, August 1982, and Grant interview. 

97. Gossett interview. 

98. Krueger, Down under, app. 4, 381, gives total U.S. casualties for the Aitape campaign as 

441 killed, 2,551 wounded, and 16 missing. 

Conelusions 

1. “Daily Intelligence Summary,” no. 871, 9-10 August 1944, 3. 

2. Cited in SRH-659, 25. The popular historian Ronald Lewin uses the same source for his 

interpretation of the Aitape battles in his The American Magic: Codes, Ciphers and the Defeat 

of Japan (New Yark: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1982}, 253. 

3. See FMs 31-20 and 72-20, Hooper correspondence. 

4. References to MacArthur’s displeasure with Krueger may be found in Robert L. Eichelberger, 

Dear Miss Em: General Er%elGerger’s War in the Pacific, f942--1945, ed. Jay Luvaas (Westport, 

CT: Greenwood Press, 19721, 176-77, 179, 203, 214, 237. 

5. Perhaps the consistency of these officers was their strength. Could any army function 

smoothly with a dozen George S. Pattons or Douglas MacArthurs, or would their personalities 

and genius make them unable to work efficiently with the other commanders in their units? 

6. While it may be fashionable to dismiss such tactics lightly, they did conserve American 

Iives and make use af the United States’ greatest advantage, its undamaged industrial capacity. 

As Maurice Matloff has lucidly noted, “the Allies had from the beginning accepted the 

proposition that the single greatest tangible asset the United States brought to the coalition 

in World War II was the productive capacity of its industry. From the very beginning, American 

manpower caIcuIations were. closely correlated with the needs of war industry.” Maurice Matloff, 

-“The 9Q-Division Gamble,” in Command Decisions, ed. Kent Roberts Greenfield (Washington, 

DC: Office of the Chief of Military History, U.S. Army, 1960), 367. It is possible then to 

argue that American etrategy dictated tactics that relied OR materiel superiority to crush its 

enemies. 

7. “Historical Report.” 

8. This figure is based on the 260 casualty figure cited in Smith, Approach, 184, which 

covers the period to 31 July 1944. I have extracted the additional 60 casualties from the 112th’~ 

“Historical Report,” for the period l-10 August 1944. 
153 

9. ‘Study of AGF Battle Casualties,” 12. 

10. Several 112th Cavalry veterans do nat recall or believe that they became progressively 

wearier or their sense and reflexes duller as the campaign ground along. They may have been 

the strongest and most adaptable and thus did not experience the physical and mental 

exhaustion that others said they suffered. 

11. “Study of AGF Battle Casualties,” 6. 

12. Ibid., 11. 

13. These strength figures are based on U.S. Army, 112th Cavalry Regiment, “Morning Reports”’ 

for July and August 1944. Simply subtracting the August figure from that of 1 July is 

misleading because the 112th received reinforcements, replacements, and casuals during the 

fighting. What the figures do show is the dramatic erosion of manpower in line combat units. 

14. Ellis, The Sharp End, 162. Incomplete statistics by branch of service for U.S. Army soldiers 

killed in action in Vietnam also bear out the, grim fact that the infantry suffers most. 

Approximately 69 percent of all enlisted men killed in Vietnam were infantry, and infantry 

officers accounted for 44 percent of all officers killed. The difference in percentage killed between 

infantry officers and men is explained, in part because 25.2 percent of total officers killed 

were Aviation Branch, which reduces the relative percentage of infantry officer casualties. In 

absolute terms, however, infantry officers and men suffered equally. Figures based on U.S. 

Army, The Adjutant General Center, “Casualty Extract: Active Army Killed During Vietnam 

War,” 27 July 1992. The AG Center compiled this special casualty study for the author. 
Appendix I 

Ultra Documents 

Rel&ed to Driniumor 

155 
156 

SiFlED par E.O. 1206’5 SRF. NQ 26887 

by Director, NSA/Chi.f, .CSS 

1 December 1478 
157 

SSiFlED per E.O. 72065 SRF. NO 26885 

by Director, NS.k/Ch?ef, CSS 

1 December 1478 
-60 de 6660 22. aln 44 ?2a7 .30 

SRF. NO 26886 
by Dim&w,. W/Chief, CSS 

1 I3ecember 1978 
160 

ants _ __ ___. _. iz-L!!~,g 

t ..-- ---_ ._- .____ ____ __ .i 

Tocal page"s-4 

OKke OF A&tare 

ChieF of StaK, G-P 

Special Bra&, M. 1. 0. 

“MAGIC” SUMMARY -.---..-- __-__ 

JAPAN&f A&Y StiPPLEMENT 

_-____._______._ ^.-Y- ---_--.- ---.--- -... --. --1 _ .I.. 

i 

i 

_ . _ _ _ . . _. -._- - .- _-__ -.- -_--- -- 
%uk kma ..^_. p., -. ._., 

Jr ! 

ts be attached to the 42st Xv: tke 66th Inr Xe$ or 

the JlsC Xr, 3.b mortar oozrpsny, 221 s prov4slon~l Amy 
162 

o* The 20th DIv 18 believed to be located 

at Altape). The 4lat Q&v and the sttaohed twopa 

scheduled tQ be ooncontr%ted in the Ysk%m&-.UXau 

%bout ‘5 $1.1. ‘@ea plan oaIlr for the 20th Dlv to 

ettack V acrass the Drknfumor R. whlla m 4lot Div 

moves around to the 9 and ntteoice N an& Nu ^uoacrrd km 

A&Eager and ‘F%dfi &iritelds. 

a* 3ith the. concentration of these unite 

for the attack a&r&t hitage, the defenoe ol the 

seplk R--But are% is to be left to ll.COO men fram 

tb .Jlet Dfu end, 2Wh Sp@alal Bsee Farca (Ravy) l G-2 

SiPA comments tha2’ the m&er of troops seem6 high, 

e%pecl~Qr 5n vi8W of the detaching ot the 66th Itif 

l 

Rts& train the %fst Dlv for the hit&w attack, hat 

su@@ets that Sam peraonneI I% paesrbly Included. 

si ‘l&a Eightzenth hrixq haa made a mmber 

of agent mquoste for eiibnw!.ne ahlpment of mtwl@s 

(yrtnclpalfy wire cuttera alid algn%I, equLpaent) neoer 

eary far the hltaps oporatlone (JXS 2 Jun G). &I 

fndloatiart that it has been having serfous local supply 

hifrmat~f9a ee ~11 appear6 %n a 21 Jun zsessage Ln sdm3h 
163 

the frmm$ rogarted that it had. only 60 usable trucks. 

On 20 and 23 dun mesaages addresoed to thv 

C of 9 and the CC, reapeoti?vly, of BaF;e Force 28 [tlav]l, 

which has been on B5&, Svre routed to XanoIsm&x%. rnfa 

us the firet 5kmx3t3.m that on vwwatian 0r Eaavy troops 

irOn Blak nruy bo uhder W&Y. 

3, &&led S-ubq~&@g &kht@ggr 

.A 10 Ar;lr mama@ from Taicyo to naJor Amy 

and sk5pping W,e otitelde the Itmptre, eurmar5eing Aklled 

aubnarEn8 aativltg dming Evrch, report&d x39 ~dbm8rins 

slghtinge during thv nontli and crbeemvd %hatr 

(23 +Thvre ap~vara 20 bv a cmsldvrablX8 

number or oukzarEnt?s conoentratvd in ths vvae Z 

of E5n&mio and a-ound S&pan and Zalau.” 

(2) aft suema that they are sta’tioting a 

&%md ~alesnn$ mm'osr 02 shhlpa in the S+7 rr-3a0, 

eepscirtlly In the ~686 9 of l:kndat;rro and 5n thehs 

(2;) cThvre ere a (pat aany instances of 

hnomy et.&mrPnea TaltLng In areas ct the sea 5n 

uhich wf\ aeropXlasuea are thinly dlatrfbutvd.” 
L17 

e27 

matI 

27/28 Jun WC I 

Coh'NTS Xl SIGNIFICXT IlT?S: 

Par. 1 Aitaps &ee: Flan for attack of 20th !livS.sion. 9 

Fir. 2 Pa&au: Eknreuwtt of special type tanks caticaUbd, l 

Par. 3 Clltf.-.tte of the Situation by 2nd Area .m as of 

17 June. + 

Par. G Air Traffic malysed. 

Par, 5 GLlml: Air reinforcements fra Yap. 

Par. 6 Philippine Area: 

Par. 7 Varfanas: 

Husbanding of Air Strength. 9 

Air reinforcements probably arriving 

through the Bonlna. 

Par. 8 Naval A* Croup 604 believed rsx& to join Carrier 

Division 4. 9 

Far. 9 Bwak: Air transport of sugplics disco2.tinued. 9 

Far.lOa 8alikpa;rur: 

Balikgapen. 

Ike feet tankers are t? pmaeed to 

Par. If% Singapore: W&s of Cruiser Xvision 16, formerly 

on tr.+nsport run to New Guinea, now at Singapore. * 

Par. ll Gus: Evacuation of air parsonncl by submarine. * 

Par. l2a Empire: Bauxite shortage indicated. 

Par. 3Zb “Jo”oleal: Torpedo adjustment station conpletad. 

Par. l2c Kanokqari: Comander, Base Fcrce 2e, miw at Eanokuari. 

N&a: Significant items are indicated by an asterisk (Q) 

a 14 &tape Area: .@I operational order of the 20th Division outllnsr 

the fdllowins: 

20th 3ivision - 

26 June: 

Operational Order 424 (21, June1 

20th W&ion !Ierdauarters sill conPence move forward. 

28 June: 20th Olvlaion Head&rters will arrive at point two !&loumtert south west of Hill 71 (urilocated). 

29 June: $1 Quring the night the 7gth Infantry aeginent will cross 

tha Hanto River (Criniunor ?) at a point approxfnately 3 Worntars 

up&rem. from the mouth. 

b) The Seth InfantT and the Yamashfta BattaUon will be concentrated 

at a point of crossfng. 

FUN: a) The 78th Infantry Regiment will attack Irm south of Frill 

~&mediately followihg the river crossing and gain the Pa&muffua tr%ok. 

b) The 80th Infantry Regiment, supported by the second battalion 

79th Infantry aegimsnt ni.U imediately follou the crossing by the 

78th Wat%rv and will attack toward Pam. 

Special catc must be taken to issure tha secrecy of this dccoment Information cozttied 

herein will be strictly limited to iecipients indicated in letter this Haadqwcis. Subkt%: im 

structions for Maintaining the Security of Spcial Intcklinerce in the Southwest F~dfrc Area, 

d;tcd 3% Jur.c 1444. When not actualEy in use. this documrrt is to be kept in a safe and is 

chzrptable to the res~nsible tflker. See AR 380-5. 15 SQ.rch 194-L md Wardiw Operatins 

rrcredure IrslNaions SO. 14. 14 &wit 1944. regarding xrz:.:~ &ss%Giliolir 
Special. Intelligence EuIlatFn “f&7 - Contld 

C) me Seoohd Battalion, 79th Ihfantm will then occupy the neighborhood of Faup. 

d) The main strength of the bivision in the Pauo area will asses&la 

in the rector west of IIf11 56 and r&l1 form a spe?.rhaad with a pert 

of the strsn& for a further push. (‘“35 58%) 

CWSZT: The above informatfen is a confimat&mVof previous ir&eJ.I.$,gehce 

and gives an accurate picture of the enesiy~s plm and axis of advmtcs for 

hks attack an AitopC. It now appears that this attack will camenoe with 

th4 crossing of tke CtrinAumor River On tke night of 29/35 June. nEis is 

prssumably p&se 1 of the apaatfon, ahd the previous indications of the 

attack cocmeming on I.0 July were probably meant for the main assault 

tphasa 2) on Aitap4. Ihs ana?r(pta proposed plan of attack is shomn on enc1osura 1. Thff supply situation in this area, particulmlY ragardinng esssntial ccmb.st aupplhs, is k&mm to be serious, and every effort is being m.de 

to &at these ttem in by submarine. Air transpcwt into 7ec”ak, prinoipal~ 

of at&rim ahd batteries probably ceased in !!ay cith a staff officer confirming such a stoppage on 12 June. (.See pm. 9). The enemy has expressed 

hks doubts oh his ?btlitp to accomplish this mission io tima, and eonsequemtly it 2s posaibie that as in the “TA” operations at Torakina, the actuJ, date of attack msy be slightly delayed. 

2. Palall: Aa of 25 June, transport of the rec&n$nng special ltpa Vno” 

Tank units, at Palou, was cancellad. f7F, 25 June) 

CC??=: ‘Iwo special transports nfth a destroyer escort ware scbedulad to 

transport tanks frun Palou to El& kta in June. (SIP 376) ‘Emsa tanks are 

believed to be the 30 mm amphibbbus armursd vehicles described in SIB 375. 

Apparently basic units ~4~s coo&posed of &, 6, or 10 vehicles, sach unit to 

be divided in sections of 2 each. It is believed th% these vehicles were 

to ba usad to attack newly formed Allied beachheads froathe rep. 

c 3. 2hd Area Arq WAriata: As of 17 Jum, the 2nd Area 4rqy believed 

that there were strong indications thst the next U.liti. 1ahdinSs would 

be at key points in the CeelvQik Say mea. It was also baliwed not 

%mprobablc that, in conjunction with the pariahs operations, allied 

landings’nigkt be inmineht in the P&au/Yap and Halmhsra/Sorong 

areas. MJ 582&E 

II AIR: 

I. Air Raffkc: A tninbaum of 72 AEVJP fl.i~ts *em observed, tha 

iiigjmst total dmlrzg the past twelve days. Philippine bases oontmlled over 504 of the observed .!uq fU&ts. Naval flights were 

of no tpsc5.el significsnce, the ra.lativc noruial level being maintrin6d. (CB) 

CO?~: Flaatplans end recomaissehoe activity &I tire Philippine araa 

continues on a high scale probably indicating heavy shippkng k Philip 

pine waters. 

5. Air strength at Guam was possibly reinforced by aircraft fraa Yap 

on 23 June. <CS) 

CmkmTt Wth the -probable amival,of the 705 Naval Air Croup Fn the 

PhllippSnas from %lspa and Sumatra, the ensq in the Pelau area rill possibly be partid.@ srlieved of support&g the Phtiippihrs, heRCt is enabled to rendar more substsntiel support to the Msrianas. 

6. Indications point towardd’%he cohtknued air roinfarcemart of the 

Philippkms, PcLau; and Celebes via Fomosa. (IUP) 

coI’&!B@: Ourinr the carreht~mnth. the enem bss been reihforcins his air 

strength thro&out the Ph~lippLhe’Isla?ds &d adJacsnt 
166 

PO. 99 

-. . ..-..-es_ . 

.- . .- -” .- _____ .“_. _ ._ . __ 

War Deparlment 

Office of As5i&3nt 

Chief of Stdf, G-P 

Speciaf Bra&h, M. 1. 0. 

“MAGIC” w-.-e. SUMMARY --.. -------- 

JAPANESE ARMY SUPPLEMENT ^__cl-.- -----. -. i-7 --_- .-_.- _-._ -_-__- . _--. .--, 

1 
167 

. 

: 

. .-. . ..L--A.-- . 

,’ 
168 

arty unit compooed of Army and h'avy -44 troops. 

P- The 20th Dlv 18 believed to be IoOated 

OR the ri@t bank of the Drlnlumor R (aboUt 20 m. E 

of Altape). The 4Ist Dkv and the attached troops are 

scheduled to be concentrated in the Yekamul-UTau area 

about'5 Jyl. !&e plan calls l'or thr 2Och Div to 

gttacls it amow the.Drhnlumor R, while the M.&t Dlv 

moves around to the S a;td attacira N and NV tomizd the 

hitape and TadJ'l alrflel&s. 

80 31th ths concentration o? these units 

for the attack a@nst hltape, the defense.ot the 

seplk R---But aPea is to be left to ll,CoO aon from 

‘$he 3let Div and 27th S~~soSal Ease Foroe (lisgyy). Q-2 

S3?A comments that the n:mber of t~oope seems high, 

especially In view of tha cletachir.g of the 66th Inf 

. 

Rsgt Prom the SIst Div far the Aitane attack, but 

sUg$StS that aase PersOfinel LS pO8sibly included. 

s:; The ELghtzenCh hmy has made a nmber 

of urgent roquosts for %iIb~naPtri~ ohipmant of 3Ztc3riaIls 

(yi-tncipally wire cutter s and sltgnal equipnent) neceasa~y for the Aitape operations (3.&S 2 Sun C;d). &I 

indication that Lt haa been having serlous‘local supply 

diifWultl.eo as well appears Ln a 21: Jun message in which 
. .._- - _- . _I 

Wat Dep~dment ’ I 

Office of Assistant 

’ Chief of Sfdff, 6-P. 

Speciaf.&anch, M. f. D. 

-.-~I---.----. J 

Tat&t pagc6-4 

“MAGIC” SUMMARY 

JAPANESE ARMY SUPPLEMENT 

.-_ -I--- --w-r. F -. . . .,_,.I ~... I... 2.- -. . 

‘i 

i I 
111 

R (about 20 a. E of Altaper and 0eaure $. ioothold 

on the- tral.Ir leading @ from the Rtver. The 

pr;tn&pal attaok 1s etihl apparently scbedu+ed 

Scrr 10 Jul. 
172 

15uo yards scutb west 

Cbzrav. 
A cm*ttion of entries uhfch hove eppecred Ill special Intelugence Bu&M.ns during the past six reeks is Fresenhbd. hem eatrier have 

been grouped tier twa main headLyts, Tactical md Supply. accordfng to 

tbair context.. For ease in prasa&lnp, the complete picture, the entries 

are arranged in chronoloqkcal order under the two mein headlags. A reference fr rppnded to each entry $n cam the reader de&es geetar detuil. 

G-2 ~SFORSfhTlOS BCLLETIX 

7 May - Orders uere issued to the XVIII &q thst while w%tbdrering ygrassive tactics uould be used aminst N&d parities. Reparations for the operations against A:tape urre.to be completed by the 

end of June. l’he XvfII Arq war also or#sred ta &.&a&!~ ftself fn 

Rem Guinea, check the Allies from the present lo.caticn ud delay 

our plans. but no r&vet were to be mde 05 a euicidak nature. 

(SIB 395, par. 1) 

10 Hay - Tokio st&ad thy hd not received the XVIII Amy plan and asked 

Second Area Amy to advise them concerning it. Thep abe asked far 

odvic6 comarnihg the XvZII Amp suppb situation. (SfB 391, prrr.2) 

Y* Ma$ - Gaptwed documents ccmform the bekief that an attack by the 20th 

and l&t Dfvitlons is to be made agatist.Aitope ad RoUandia while 

the 51st nivision 1s to @Ti!Mn% Feuek. (SP 39Q, par. 1) 

25 ttrsr - Resent operations of 

“L2 

e XOIII kmip UYZW constderect very sffect$~s 

as a dalap5.n.g action. SIB Ma, par. 21 

28 E&y - sOu#sm tea’kmy expressed regrat over the leek of aggresaivenesa 

on the part of the XvIfl Army and Doped the oLd spirit would rel ssurt itself kn the A&tape opfw&iona. (SIB 396, Far. 1) 

In senaral, the plan for the,sttsck w&s to attack the airfirkd and 

st the sarm tlm a guerrilla &rce VW to psnetmte; kt uould me- 

&to the opport~ity for a crushing counter-attack just before the 

second attack occurred,. as In the Torokino Op@F&tiOnS. fn case 

tie +&thdra+ak xaa tso difflcullt, the .4rq was to determine whether 

ft was possibls to live off the country in the region between 

Eawak , &tape and tha stpik Fuver, harassing Allied forces uith 

guerrillas. (SIB 38, pfr. 1) 

31 xv - ‘Ihe 20th Division left part of its forces at Yakaml ti ordsr TV 

racanmitii- our ~dispositlons. ?srt of the I&t Blvisian was to 

move to Yakmul. (SIB 1*0&. per. 21 

8 Jun - On apfmval 0P Set&d Area Arty, Orbrs 

on- Aitrpa and Pollandia. (SXB L07, p’ir 

U. Jun - The l2tkr F§.eLd tletebrQl0gkcal,iktlt at ’ 

,’ 
174 

1E: Jun - 

19 Jun - 

20 Jun - 

2L Jut? - 

rmdc? the 5lst, Div.vision and war instr~ucted to discontinue its 

nor.331 txiwion 2nd eqaqe ia defensivi duties. f3+4 LIO, pr. lb) 

T&se instructions ‘Ame la.2 T modified. directing that an elenant 

of the 12t.b Fiald Unit 178s to continue its duties because it had 

been decided to continue sanding neteorolo@.csl reports frmn VTewak. 

(SIB U3, par. S) 

?he X’JIII &my was removed frae the conmend of Second &ea .Lx 

and placed directly under the Southern .&es Ar.v effective on 20 

hme. (%i? &U.-par. 1) &&hough remvcd fra the command of 

::Ez zii~~: ‘“(SE+ 153. par. 2) 

+t *I;S to rwd.n uncftir thnt unit *'gin& the 

The boundary IF?c bet~ssn the XVXII .&mv tree md that, of the 

Second hrea hrrq is to be the UOth %%!ian. The XVIII Arnpr will 

control all. Second Area .Army units currently in its area on 20 

June. (SXE f&3, par. 3) 

The XVIII k.73~” s attack plan: Date of attack was believed to be 

about 10 July. This operation is scheduled in cooperation with 

coming operations of the Second 4rca Arsr*. The 20th Division is 

now Located on east bank of the Parapu (Driniumor?) River. jQ kilometers. oast of Aitapa. he f&t Divzkd.an is to launch an attack 

on the Itft bnk of the Rsrapu in the early part of the first ten 

days of July. The tlst Dtviatin, with the 66th Infantry Regfmant 

(51st Xvi&m), a provfsional army artillery unit (nith 3 maurttsin 

guns) attached, should be concentrated about 5 July in the TakamulVlau area. ‘The .kq crommond yst leaves on 23 June for an area 

south of Yakawl srrivinp on 30 June. The strength of the above 

mentioned forces appears to be about 20,030. ll.300 men of the 

51st Division and the 27th Special. Nave? Base Force are rcsponaible for the defense of Sepik River-But area. (SID Irllr. psr. 1) 

20th Division Operational Order: Division Headquarters was to 

start .moving 26th June end arrive south west of Hill 35 (unlocated) 

on the 2&k. ‘luring the night 27/33 Juno. the Rtth Infantry Regiment will cross the Font0 River (DrWumor?) 3 kilometers UpStm8fII 

fron the muth. The .%Xh Mar&y %&rrent .?nd the 2nd Pattauon, 

79th Infantry Regdment, will be concentrated at the point of cmsains* Rtc 7Stb v%fcntrp SegLent will attack toward Paup. The 2nd 

Eattalion, 79th Infantry will then occur the neighborhood of Paup. 

The main strength of the Division in the ?aup area wilk eaeemble 

in the rdctor nest of Rill 56 and xill form a spearhead with a 

part of the strength for a further push. (SIR o=i, par. I) 

7 ?;ay - The YVIU had only half the amnunition required for a major battle 

and only emu@ rations to provide the troops with half rations to 

@i&e. end of hugust. hftar 12 Yay supply dropping *as to take place 

at %wak east airfield from bombers from YIasile. em 395, par. 11 

8 !‘3y - Fourth Air Army considered the dropping of supplies at %wak by 

right practicable. (Sn 3S9, par. u*) 

9 Kay f Grders ware issued for trvo bomber? to transport su.@ies to bewak. 

A&F pcrsdnnel nova at “hwak were to proc!;ed to !hlmahara in the 

bombers on their return trip. (SIB 3E3. p.=r. F) 

Small or medium tvpe submcrinas were to maka trdnSportatiOn runs. 

to i”wak. (SIE 372, Navy pari 1) 

u !bp - Spd.al Ease For jlst 

Special care must be taken to issure the seer 
Appendix 2 

Evolution of Persecution Task Force Organizatim, 

22 April. 1944-11 August 1944 

THE APPROACH TO THE PHILIPPINES 

Brig. Gen. jenr A. Dae 

Cd. Merle l-l. Howe 

TRE PERSECUTION TASK FCBRCZE: 22 ~RIL-~ MAY 1944 
176 

THE PERSECUTION TASK FORCE : 4 MAY-28 JUNE 1944 

HEADCMARlERS PERSECUTION TASS FORCE 

(H,-adqwfen 3Rd 1nf.q Dwisis.1 

Mai. Gtn. Willan C&II 
a” x L 

177 
178 

THE PERSECUTPONTASX FORCE: 11 JULY-'ZIJULY 1944 
I I 

179 

L I 

I 1 
c 
181 

LEAVENWORTH PAPERS 

1. 

2. 

3. 

4. 

5. 

6. 

7. 

8. 

The Euohtion of US Army Tactical Doctrine, 1946-76, by MAJ Robert 

A. Doughty. 

Nmnonhan: Japanese-Souiet Tactical Combat, 1939, by Dr. Edward J. 

Ikea, 

“@Not War Bat Like War”: The American Intervention in Lebanon, by 

Dr. Roger J. Spiller. 

The Dynamic8 of Doctrine: Tke Changes in German TacticaE Doctrine 

During the First World War, by CPT Tkmthy T. Lupfer. 

Fighting the Russians in Winter: Three Case Studiee, by Dr, Allen F. 

Chew. 

Soviet Night Operations in World War 11, by MAJ Claude R. Sasso. 

August Stan: Tke Soviet 1945 Strategic Operation in Manchuria, by 

LTC David M. Glantz. 

August Storm: Soviet TacticaE and Opetatiortal Combat in. Manchuria, 

P945, by LTC David M. Glantz. 

STUDIES IN PROGRESS 

U.S. Chemical Warfare Experience in World War I 

e 

Special Units: Rangers in World War II 

e 

Counterattack OR the Naktong: Light Infantry Operations in Korea, 1950 

+ 

Anglo-French Military Cooperation, March 1$39-June 1940 

e 

Armored Combat in World War II: Arracourt 

0 

Combat Operations in the Deep Desert: The LRDG 

e 

Stand Fast: German Defensive Do&ins in World War II 

e 

Combined Arms Doctrine in the 20th Century 

e 

Rapid Deployment Logistics, Lebanon, 1958 

e 

Operations of Large Formations: The Corps 

.e 

Tactics and Doctrine in Imperial Russia 

e 

Postwar and Prewar Armies: How We Think About War 
182 

Director 

COL WiEliam A. St&t 

Curricufum Supervkcfr 

COL Louis D. F. Frasch6 

John F. Morrison Professor of Military History 

Dr. Theodore k Wilson 

CA& Hisfaricsl Office 

Dr. John Panin. C.&Z H&or&w? 

Dr. Willia,m G. Rebertson. Deputy CAC Historian 

Research Committee 

LTC Gary L. Bounds, Chief 

MAJ(P) Charles E. Helter MA&P) Gary H. Wade 

CPT Jonathan M. i-&se MAI Scoft A. McMichael 

Dr. R&en H. Berlin 

Teaching Committee 

LTC John A. Hixson. Chief 

LTC Philtip W. Chitdress LTC Michael T. Chase 

LTC Pstrick H. German LTC Michael E. Hall 

CPT(P) Roger CirilIo Dr. Robsrt M. Epstein 

Or. ChrEstapher R. Gab& SFC Robert R. Cordell 

Hislor;cal SBrvices commiem? 

Or. Lawrence A. “fates. Chief 

Alice WI. M&an, Editor 

Elizabeth R. Snake. Librarian 

staff 

SFC Danny 6. Carlson Genevieve Han 

SFC Nelson C. Rogers Carctyn conway 

Clara Rhoades Cynthia Taare 

Sharon Tows 

Ceavenworth Papers are published by the Combat Studies Institute, U.S. Army Command and 

General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, KS 

66027. The views expressed in this publication are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Department of Defense or 

any element thereof. Leavenworth Papers are 

available from the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, 

Washington, DC 20402. 

Leavenworth Papers US ISSN 0195 3451 
- Dr. Edward J. DreaDr. Edward J. Drea wrote this Leavenworth Paper while 

he was a research fellow at Combat Studies Institute, Fort 

Leavenworth, Kansas. A graduate of Canisius College, he 

received his master’s in history from Sophia University, Tokyo, 

Japan, and his doctorate in history from the University of 

Kansas. He lived and studied in Japan for six years. His Air 

Force service included tours in Japan and Vietnam. He is the 

author of The 1942 Japanese General Election: Political 

Mobilization in Wartime Jepan (f979) and Nomonhan: 

Japanese-Soviet Tactical Combat, 1939, Leavenworth Paper 

no. 2 (1981). In December 1983, Dr. Drea became assistant 

director of the Historical Services Division at the U.S. Army 

Military History Institute, Carlisle Barracks, PA 17013. 

COMBAT STUDIES INSTITUTE 

Mission 

The Combat Studies institute was established on 18 June 1979 as a separate, department-level 

activity within the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, for 

the purpose of accomplishing the following missions: 

1. Conduct research on historical topics pertinent to the current doctrinal concerns of the Army 

and publish and distribute the results of such research in a variety of formats to the Active 

Army and Reserve components. 

2. Prepare and present mstrwction in military history at CGSC and assist other CGSC departments 

in integrating applicable military history materials into their resident and nonresident instruction. 

3. Serve as the TRADOC executive agent for the development and coordination of an integrated, 

progressive program of military history instruction in the TRADOC service school system. 

4. Direct the CAC Historical Program. 

5. Supervise the Fort Leavenworth Museum.