Battle of Arawe 1943
.jpg){kind=link}
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Year | 1943 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
|---|---|---|
| Era | World War II era (1939–1945) | derived from year |
| Location | Papua New Guinea | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Oceania | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Pacific War | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | United States | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | -6.1544, 149.0369 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Arawe (also known as Operation Director) was fought between Allied and Japanese forces during the New Britain campaign of World War II. The battle formed part of the Allied Operation Cartwheel and was a diversion before a larger landing at Cape Gloucester in late December 1943. The Japanese military was expecting an Allied offensive in western New Britain and was reinforcing the region at the time of the Allied landing in the Arawe area on 15 December 1943. The Allies secured Arawe after about a month of intermittent fighting with the outnumbered Japanese force.
Initial Allied goals for the landing at Arawe included securing a base for American PT boats and diverting Japanese forces away from Cape Gloucester. The PT boat base was subsequently deemed unnecessary and not built. Only a small Japanese force was stationed at Arawe at the time, although reinforcements were en route. The main Allied landing on 15 December was successful despite a failed subsidiary landing and problems coordinating the landing craft. American forces quickly secured a beachhead and dug in. Japanese air units made large-scale raids against the Arawe area in the days after the landing, and in late December Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) troops unsuccessfully counterattacked the American force.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Arawe (revision 1379245358), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Nearby battles
- Battle of Cape Gloucester 1943 · 104 km
- Landing at Scarlet Beach 1943 · 136 km
- Battle of Wareo 1943 · 142 km
- Battle of Talasea 1944 · 145 km
- Battle of Sattelberg 1943 · 145 km
- Battle of the Bismarck Sea 1943 · 150 km
Other battles of the Pacific War
- Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands 1942
- Fall of Singapore 1942
- Indian Ocean raid 1942
- Koli Point action 1942
- Naval Battle of Guadalcanal 1942
- Battle of Attu 1943
- Battle of Bairoko 1943
- Battle of Blackett Strait 1943
- Battle of Kolombangara 1943
- Battle of Kula Gulf 1943
All 56 battles of the Pacific War →
Browse more: battles in Papua New Guinea · Oceania · World War II era battles