page_title: Battle of Wickham Anchorage
section_title: Battle
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Wickham Anchorage / Battle
caption_attribution_description: Map of the New Georgia group of islands, central Solomon Islands, June, 1943.
context_page_description: The Battle of Wickham Anchorage took place during the New Georgia campaign in the Solomon Islands during the Pacific War from 30 June – 3 July 1943. During the operation US Marines and US Army troops landed by ship around Oleana Bay on Vangunu Island and advanced overland towards the anchorage where they attacked a garrison of Imperial Japanese Navy and Army troops. The purpose of the attack by the U.S. was to secure the lines of communication and supply between Allied forces involved in the New Georgia campaign and Allied bases in the southern Solomons. The U.S. forces were successful in driving the Japanese garrison from the area and securing the anchorage, which would later be used to stage landing craft for subsequent operations.
context_section_description: At around 18:00 hours on 29 June, a small force of United States Marine Corps Raiders from the 4th Marine Raider Battalion and United States Army soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 103rd Infantry Regiment embarked from the Russell Islands. A detachment of Colonel Daniel H. Hundley's Eastern Landing Force, these troops formed the Wickham Group, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Lester E. Brown. The Marine element amounted to two companies (N and Q) who had not been deployed to Segi Point with the rest of their battalion as part of a preliminary operation a few days earlier. These companies were commanded by the battalion's executive officer Major James R. Clark, and were augmented by a demolitions platoon and headquarters element from the 4th Marine Raider Battalion, as well as a battery of 105 mm howitzers from the 152nd Field Artillery Battalion and a battery of 90 mm anti-aircraft guns from the 70th Coastal Artillery Battalion. A detachment of Seabees from the 20th Naval Construction Battalion were also assigned for base development work and engineer support tasks.
  The invading force was carried aboard the destroyer transports Schley and McKean, upon which the Marines embarked, as well as seven Landing Craft Infantry (LCIs) for the US Army soldiers, escorted by a naval covering force under Rear Admiral George H. Fort aboard the destroyer Trever. The force was bound for a landing beach around 2.5 miles (4.0 km) to the west of the Vura village, around Oleana Bay.
  The area was defended by a platoon of Japanese troops from the 229th Infantry Regiment, under the command of Colonel Genjiro Hirata, and a company of the Kure 6th Special Naval Landing Force. These forces formed part of Major General Minoru Sasaki's Southeast (Nanto) Detached Force. US intelligence had estimated that the Wickham–Viru area was defended by between 290 and 460 Japanese personnel; in actuality there were a total of 310 troops (260 Army and 50 Navy) in the area. Prior to the operation, the Allies had carried out a reconnaissance of the area and the District Officer Donald Gilbert Kennedy, a New Zealander, had worked to establish a track inland from Oleana Bay along which his scouts operated without the knowledge of the Japanese. In conceiving the landing, US planners had determined that a landing at Oleana Bay, followed by an advance overland via this track, would be the best approach to Wickham Anchorage. They estimated that the march would take about five to six hours.
  Bad weather hindered the voyage to Oleana Bay, but by 03:35 hours on 30 June the convoy reached their destination. Embarkation of the Marines into their LCVPs began shortly afterwards only to be stopped when US naval commanders realized they were too far west than had been planned. As a result, the Marines disembarked and the vessels moved further east. After this was completed, the Marines embarked once again, but found their run to the shore hampered by bad weather; rain and mist obscured the shore and the flares that had been fired by the scouts of the previously-landed reconnaissance party. In the confusion, the LCIs carrying the US Army troops veered off course and broke into the formation of LCVPs causing it to lose its cohesion. Disorganized, each boat made its own way to the shore where several were badly damaged by waves as they crashed against the coral reef; nevertheless, the landing was unopposed and the Marines suffered no casualties. A further wave of Marines landed around 06:30 hours, while the LCIs carrying the 103rd Infantry waited until daylight and landed around 07:20 hours at the intended landing beach.
  As the troops came ashore and the scattered groups rallied around a beachhead, they made contact with the reconnaissance party. Officers from this group had determined that the Japanese were concentrated around Kaeruka, and not at Vura as intelligence had previously assessed. As a result, Brown decided to change his plans: while the main body advanced overland towards Kaeruka via the inland track, another force moved along a coastal track in the direction of Vu
caption: The New Georgia group of islands. Wickham Anchorage is located on the southeastern tip of Vangunu Island
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