Lae

U.S. Army photograph

Lae (146.983E 6.728S) is located at the base of the Huon Peninsula at the mouth of the Markham River. In 1941, it was the largest settlement in northeastern New Guinea, with a good anchorage and an airstrip. It was also the key to the Ramu and Markham Valley to the west, where flat terrain with relatively little jungle cover was ideal for building roads and airfields.

Japanese Landings at Lae

By March 1942 the Japanese were winding up their campaign in the Netherlands East Indies and were looking for new worlds to conquer. The importance of Australia as a base for a future Allied counteroffensive was clear to both sides, and the Japanese began preparations to cut the sea lanes between Australia and the U.S. West Coast. The Japanese planned to secure eastern New Guinea, including strategic Port Moresby, before advancing southeast towards Fiji and Samoa.

On 26 February 1942 King ordered Nimitz  to maintain some of his carrier strength in the ANZAC area to guard against the expected Japanese move. On 2 March King sent additional orders for Leary, commanding ANZAC, and Brown, commanding Task Force 11 (Lexington), to strike Rabaul around 10 March. Four days later Fletcher with Task Force 17 (Yorktown) had joined Brown in the Coral Sea. Brown planned to have one carrier strike Rabaul and the other strike Gasmata, then bombard both bases with surface strike groups detached from the task forces. Crace was eager to see some action and welcomed his bombardment mission against Gasmata, but "Poco" Smith was aghast at the prospect of taking his cruisers up St. George Channel to Rabaul with no guarantee of air cover and the distinct possibility of encountering a superior Japanese cruiser force when he got there.

Meanwhile Inoue prepared for Operation SR to seize the Lae-Salamaua area, including the airstrip at Lae from which the Japanese could project air power forward to Port Moresby. On 5 March 1942 Kajioka left Rabaul with SR Invasion Force, consisting of one light cruiser, six destroyers, three minelayer, a seaplane tender, and five transports. They were to be supported by Goto with his Support Force of four heavy cruisers, two light cruisers, and three destroyers, while air cover was provided by 15 A6M "Zero" fighters, 21 G4M "Betty" bombers, and six H6K "Mavis" flying boats at Rabaul. Another 19 Zeros were to be shuttled in by carrier Shoho on 9 March, and a number of these were due to stage through Gasmata to the airstrip at Lae once it was captured.

On 6 March 1942 Brown was refueling in preparation for the dash in to the launch point when intelligence began pouring in of a Japanese move west from New Britain. Brown disregarded the intelligence until just before midnight on 7 March, when definite word came in of a Japanese convoy 150 miles southwest of Gasmata heading for the Lae area. Presented with a juicy target far from Japanese air cover, Brown immediately abandoned the Rabaul raid and prepared to attack the convoy when it reach Lae. However, Lae was a difficult target; the approach from the east would require Brown's force to steam through an area well reconnoitered by the Japanese to avoid the poorly charted reefs of the Louisiade Archipelago off the southeast tip of New Guinea. A better solution was identified by Frederick Sherman, captain of Lexington, who discovered that the Gulf of Papua west of Port Moresby was within comfortable flying distance of Lae. However, there were no good charts of New Guinea and it was rumored that the Owen Stanley Mountains reached to 15,000 feet (4600 meters) or more, too high for heavily laden torpedo bombers.  The Lexington air group commander, William Ault, flew in to Port Moresby and learned that there was a 7,500 foot (2300 meter) pass through the mountains almost directly along the projected route and that the weather was usually favorable early in the morning.

Word came on 8 March of Japanese transports off Salamaua and Brown was in position to launch his strikes by dawn on 10 March 1942. To increase the size of his strike, Sherman launched his fighters first, then his strike aircraft, then quickly recovered and refueled his escort fighters and relaunched them to catch up with the strike. A total of 18 F4F Wildcats, 61 SBD Dauntless dive bombers, and 25 TBD Devastator torpedo bombers were sent out. The American pilots claimed extensive damage, including five transports, three cruisers, and a destroyer sunk and a minelayer and two more destroyers probably sunk and a seaplane tender badly damaged. Fletcher's combat intelligence officer failed to confirm such losses, but Brown declined to launch a second strike, citing the damage already inflicted and deteriorating weather over the mountain pass.  Actual damage was three transports and a minelayer sunk and another transport, a seaplane tender, another minelayer, and two destroyers damaged. This was a significant loss to 4 Fleet, though the transports were already almost finished unloading and the occupation of Lae completed. Inoue called off the occupation of Port Moresby until carrier support could be provided by Combined Fleet.

As Allied air power grew, the Japanese began construction of a road from Madang to Lae to avoid reliance on coastal barges.

The Lae-Salamaua Campaign

Lae was recaptured by the Allies in late 1943. The campaign opened on 30 June 1943 with a small landing at Nassau Bay to the south. Adachi responded by setting up a barge line to bring reinforcements into Lae and Salamaua. MacArthur decided that local air superiority must be established before making his next move. His gifted air commander, George Kenney, discounted the Japanese airfields at Lae and Salamaua themselves, because they lacked the logistical support to pose a significant threat. However, the airfields in western New Guinea and New Britain were close enough to the two towns that fighters from the Allied airbase at Dobodura could not assure air superiority.

Kenney met the challenge with one of the most successful deception operations of the war. Early in June an Allied patrol had scouted an abandoned field at Tsili Tsili, located just 40 miles inland from Lae, and concluded that it was suitable for development as a fighter base. On 16 June troops and engineers were flown in to the strip and began quietly improving it. Meanwhile, a conspicuous dummy airstrip was scraped out of the vegetation at Bena Bena, some miles away. Tsili Tsili itself was basing aircraft by 26 July but was not discovered by the Japanese until 14 August.

On 10 August the Japanese massed over 250 aircraft at Wewak for an air counteroffensive. These began raiding Tsili Tsili as soon as it was discovered. However, on 17 August, as the Japanese were preparing to launch a massive strike against the new Allied airfield, some 48 heavy bombers, 31 B-25 strafers, and 85 P-38 Lightning fighters surprised the Japanese and destroyed 70 aircraft on the ground. A second strike the next day destroyed many more Japanese aircraft.

Meanwhile American PT boats, which had become adept at barge hunting, were seriously disrupting the barge line from Rabaul. They were aided during daylight by Allied aircraft. The Japanese responded by bringing in obsolescent Ki-21 "Sally" bombers to hunt the PT boats, but this proved unsuccessful.

By late July, 3 Australian Division from Wau had joined with elements of 41 Division to drive the Japanese to within six miles of Salamaua. Here they were joined by additional troops brought in by 2 Engineer Special Brigade. The Japanese responded with sharp but unsuccessful counterattacks, and by August there were 8000 Japanese left at Salamaua and only 2000 at Lae.

On the night of 22-23 August 1943, a force of four destroyers shelled Lae. Although they did negligible damage, this marked the first time in eighteen months that major Allied warships had operated in the reef-strewn waters north of Milne Bay. A combination of hydrographic surveys and improved radar on the destroyers made the sortie possible.

The destroyer sortie also paved the way for a major amphibious assault by Barbey's VII Amphibious Corps:

Allied order of battle

Barbey brought the Australian infantry ashore some 15 to 17 miles (24 to 27 km) east of Lae on 4 September 1943. A raid by six Zeros and three Bettys from Lae managed to destroy an LCI. Imamura launched an 80-plane raid from Rabaul, but this was intercepted by 48 Lightnings directed from destroyer Reid off Finschhafen. The fighters destroyer 23 Japanese aircraft at the cost of two of their own, and another was shot down by Reid. The Vals and Bettys damaged two more LSTs. However, the bulk of the troops and supplies were ashore by evening. They began to advance west, supported by landing craft that allowed them to move around river obstacles and outflank Japanese holdouts.

The U.S. 503 Parachute Regiment landed at Nadzab the next day. Kenney threw the works into this operation (300 aircraft) while MacArthur observed from his personal B-17. The Japanese were swiftly overwhelmed, and within 24 hours hours troops of Australian 7 Division were being flown in. By 14 September these troops had closed on Lae.

After enduring a bombardment by American destroyers on 9 September 1943, the Japanese commander decided to pull the garrison out and make for the north coast of the Huon Peninsula. The last Japanese pulled out of Lae on 15 September. 1500 of the 2000 men made it across the Huon Peninsula, but only about 400 were still fit for combat by the time they arrived, on 14 October.

References

Lundstrom (2006)

Morison (1950)

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