Bougainville: A Step to Victory 1947 US Army Film HR-A-5

more at http://quickfound.net/

LANDING OPERATION AND SUBSEQUENT CAPTURE OF BOUGAINVILLE IN 1943 BY AMERICAN FORCES OF THE 37TH DIVISION, 14TH CORPS, AND 3D MARINE DIVISION.

Originally a public domain film from the National Archives, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and one-pass brightness-contrast-color correction & mild video noise reduction applied.

The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bougainville_campaign

Wikipedia license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

The Bougainville campaign was a series of land and naval battles of the Pacific campaign of World War II between Allied forces and the Empire of Japan, named after the island of Bougainville. It was part of Operation Cartwheel, the Allied grand strategy in the South Pacific. The campaign took place in the Northern Solomons in two phases. The first phase, in which American troops landed and held the perimeter around the beachhead at Torokina, lasted from November 1943 through November 1944.

The second phase, in which primarily Australian troops went on the offensive, mopping up pockets of starving, isolated but still-determined Japanese, lasted from November 1944 until August 1945, when the last Japanese soldiers on the island surrendered. Operations during the final phase of the campaign saw the Australian forces advance north towards the Bonis Peninsula and south towards the main Japanese stronghold around Buin, although the war ended before these two enclaves were completely destroyed...

In March–April 1942, the Japanese landed on Bougainville as part of their advance into the South Pacific. At the time, there was only a small Australian garrison on the island which consisted of about 20 soldiers from the 1st Independent Company and some coastwatchers. Shortly after the Japanese arrived, the bulk of the Australian force was evacuated by the Allies, although some of the coastwatchers remained behind to provide intelligence...

Rear Admiral Theodore Wilkinson, Commander Third Fleet Amphibious Forces, was assigned by Halsey to direct the landings at Cape Torokina from aboard his flagship, the attack transport George Clymer. The ships under Wilkinson's command would disembark the I Marine Amphibious Corps, commanded by Major General Alexander Vandegrift, victor of the land campaign on Guadalcanal. Vandegrift's force, a total of 14,321 men, consisted of the 3rd Marine Division (reinforced), under Maj. Gen. Allen H. Turnage, the U.S. Army's 37th Infantry Division, under Maj. Gen. Robert S. Beightler, and the Advance Naval Base Unit No. 7...

Defense and expansion of the US lodgment at Cape Torokina involved protracted and often bitter jungle warfare, with many casualties resulting from malaria and other tropical diseases. Except for patrol skirmishes, all of the major combat to expand the beachhead occurred in the Marine sector. From 6 to 19 November, the remaining regiment of the 3rd Marine Division and the US Army 37th Infantry Division were landed and the beachhead gradually expanded...

On 15 December, the I Marine Amphibious Corps and General Geiger were replaced by the US Army's XIV Corps, led by Major General Oscar W. Griswold, the victor of the land campaign on New Georgia. On 28 December, the 3rd Marine Division, exhausted because most of the fighting had taken place in its sector, was replaced by the Army's Americal Division under Major General John R. Hodge. The 37th Division (Army), was then placed under Griswold's XIV Corps...

The invasion of the Philippines had been scheduled for January 1945 but the rapid pace of Allied victories in the Pacific caused General MacArthur to bring forward the Philippines operation to October 1944. MacArthur would need all the ground troops he could get for the Leyte landings, so by mid-July MacArthur had decided to withdraw Griswold's XIV Corps from Bougainville for rest and refit, to be replaced by the Australian II Corps.

The Australian Government and military chose to conduct aggressive operations on Bougainville with the goal of destroying the Japanese garrison. This decision was motivated by a desire to bring the campaign to a conclusion and so free up troops to be used elsewhere, liberate Australian territory and the inhabitants of the island from Japanese rule, and demonstrate that Australian forces were playing an active role in the war...