Battle of Kaiapit 1943
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 19 September 1943 – 20 September 1943 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1943 | Wikidata P580 (start 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 | Finisterre Range campaign | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | United States | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | -6.2667, 146.2478 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Kaiapit was an action fought in 1943 between Australian and Japanese forces in New Guinea during the Markham and Ramu Valley – Finisterre Range campaign of World War II. Following the landings at Nadzab and at Lae, the Allies attempted to exploit their success with an advance into the upper Markham Valley, starting with Kaiapit. The Japanese intended to use Kaiapit to threaten the Allied position at Nadzab, and to create a diversion to allow the Japanese garrison at Lae time to escape.
The Australian 2/6th Independent Company flew in to the Markham Valley from Port Moresby in 13 United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) C-47 Dakotas, making a difficult landing on a rough airstrip. Unaware that a much larger Japanese force was also headed for Kaiapit, the company attacked the village on 19 September to secure the area so that it could be developed into an airfield. The company then held it against a strong counter-attack. During two days of fighting the Australians defeated a larger Japanese force while suffering relatively few losses.
The Australian victory at Kaiapit enabled the Australian 7th Division to be flown in to the upper Markham Valley.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Kaiapit (revision 1370444505), 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
- Landing at Nadzab 1943 · 59 km
- Battle of John's Knoll–Trevor's Ridge 1943 · 88 km
- Battle of Madang 1944 · 127 km
- Battle of Sio 1943 · 129 km
- Battle of Wau 1943 · 130 km
- Battle of Mount Tambu 1943 · 131 km
Browse more: battles in Papua New Guinea · Oceania · World War II era battles