The Bougainville campaign
The Bougainville campaign was a prolonged action against Japanese forces entrenched in the island of Bougainville off Papua New Guinea. It took place during WWII and was part of Operation Cartwheel, the Allied’s grand strategy in the South Pacific. The Bougainville campaign was one of the best examples of coordination between the Navy and Marine Corps and remains one of the most resounding successes of the war in the Pacific.
The campaign took place in the Northern Solomon’s in two phases. In the first phase, American troops landed and held the perimeter around the beachhead at Toro kina, this lasted from November 1943 through November 1944. In the second phase, American troops were relieved by Australian troops who went on the offensive, mopping up pockets of starving, isolated but still-determined Japanese. This lasted from November 1944 until August 1945, when the last Japanese soldiers on the island surrendered.
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The original USS Bougainville (CVE 100) was an escort carrier that was commissioned in Astoria, OR on June 18, 1944. Unlike most of her sister ships, she did not operate in a direct combat role supporting amphibious assaults or conducting antisubmarine warfare, but rather, she performed logistical missions for both land bases and the fleet carriers. She earned two Battle stars for her efforts during WWII.