Expanding the Perimeter

The 3rd Marine Division and the 37th Infantry Division conducted an amphibious assault on the island of Bougainville at the Cape of Torokina. Fierce jungle fighting defined this island battle as the Americans sought to expand their perimeter on the …

1942-11-01

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The 3rd Marine Division and the 37th Infantry Division conducted an amphibious assault on the island of Bougainville at the Cape of Torokina. Fierce jungle fighting defined this island battle as the Americans sought to expand their perimeter on the island to build up several airfields and ultimately eject the last Japanese forces from the Solomon Islands. The first airfield would a be fighter strip close to the beach with later additional, larger airfields built further inland. While fighting was in starts and fits along the entire perimeter, it was fiercest in the sector of the 3rd Marine Division as it advanced inland.

Bougainville Island, New Guinea

The Landings at Cape Torokina, also known as Operation Cherryblossom, took place at the beginning of the Bougainville campaign in World War II. The amphibious landings were carried out by elements of the United States Marine Corps in November 1943 on Bougainville Island in the South Pacific, as part of Allied efforts to advance towards the main Japanese base around Rabaul under Operation Cartwheel. Coming in the wake of Allied successes at Guadalcanal and in the central Solomons, the landings were intended to secure a beachhead with the purpose of establishing several bases from which to project air and naval power closer towards Rabaul, in an effort to neutralize the large Japanese force that had been established there.

Wikipedia: Landings at Cape Torokina

American

Japanese