Battle of the Bismarck Sea 1943
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Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 2 March 1943 – 4 March 1943 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1943 | Wikidata P580 (start time) |
| Era | World War II era (1939–1945) | derived from year |
| Nearest landmass | At sea (nearest continent: Oceania) | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Oceania | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Pacific War | Wikidata P361 |
| Coordinates | -7.2500, 148.2500 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of the Bismarck Sea (2–4 March 1943) took place in the South West Pacific Area (SWPA) during World War II when aircraft of the U.S. Fifth Air Force and the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) attacked a Japanese convoy carrying troops to Lae, New Guinea, as part of Operation 81. Most of the Japanese task force was destroyed, and Japanese troop losses were heavy.
The Japanese convoy was a result of a Japanese Imperial General Headquarters decision in December 1942 to reinforce their position in the South West Pacific theatre. A plan was devised to move some 6,900 troops from Rabaul directly to Lae. The plan was understood to be risky, because Allied air power in the area was strong, but the Japanese decided to proceed because otherwise, the troops would have to be landed a considerable distance away and march through inhospitable swamp, mountain, and jungle terrain without roads before reaching their destination. On 28 February 1943, the convoy – comprising eight destroyers and eight troop transports with an escort of about 100 fighter aircraft – set out from Simpson Harbour in Rabaul.
The Allies had detected preparations for the convoy, and naval codebreakers in Melbourne (FRUMEL) and Washington, DC, had decrypted and translated messages indicating the convoy's intended…
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of the Bismarck Sea (revision 1371762438), 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.
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All 56 battles of the Pacific War →
Browse more: battles at sea · Oceania · World War II era battles