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Bradley, Omar (1893–1981) a second time to intercept Western Allied shipping supporting ground forces on Bougainville, leading to a small naval battle at Cape St George off New Ireland on November 25 U.S marines and army troopers beat back Japanese 6th Division attacks on a slowly expanding perimeter that was soon reinforced and protected by 50,000 men Once the Americans advanced four miles from the beachhead Seabees began building two airstrips The first plane landed on December 19 After that, air supremacy was established and the Japanese retreated into the jungle, many dying there from illness rather than enemy firepower The last major Japanese assault was made on March 9, 1944, after Lieutenant General Hyakatake Harukichi marched 19,000 exhausted, demoralized, and undersupplied men over rugged mountains to assault a force of 60,000 well-prepared and dug-in enemy troops around Empress Augusta Bay A bloody four-day fight followed over possession of two key hills, designated #700 and #260 on Western Allied maps, connected by a low “saddle.” Heavy artillery was the deciding factor, in support of tanks and well dug-in infantry Increasingly desperate, often suicidal Japanese probes were made to March 23, until even Hyakatake’s men could take no more When the remnant of the Japanese force withdrew, it left over 5,500 dead behind for just 263 Americans killed More Japanese died of wounds, disease, and despair in the backward trek After that disaster the rump of the Japanese garrison was a spent force in terms of future offensive action With the Western Allies no longer pressing to clear the island each side settled in for a war of desultory patrols and occasional perimeter skirmishes, while both suffered from debilitating tropical heat and diseases Neither force had the power or the will to attack and overrun the other Japanese supply sharply deteriorated as the main fighting in the Pacific moved farther north over the course of 1944, making the last defenders on Bougainville more pathetic than threatening In December 1944, Australian 2nd Corps took over Bougainville from the Americans The Australians were given a mission to suppress the last pockets of enemy resistance by General Thomas Blamey The bitter, and some say mostly useless, fighting that resulted lasted into August 1945 It cost 500 Australian dead and another 1,500 wounded Contemporary Australian opinion, and many later historians, regarded the Australian portion of the Bougainville campaign as wasteful of lives and strategically unnecessary See also African Americans; CARTWHEEL Suggested Reading: Harry Gailey, Bougainville, 1943–1945 (1991) BRADLEY, OMAR (1893–1981) U.S general Bradley was an infantry officer by training and inclination, a fact reflected in his affectionate nickname among troops and the news media: the “G.I.’s General.” That spoke to his genuine solicitude and expressed concern for minimizing casualties The image of Bradley as a general who always strove to the right thing by his men was greatly enhanced by the self-portrait he drew in postwar memoirs and while advising on portrayal of himself and other commanders in the highly influential 1970 feature fi lm “Patton.” Subsequent studies by military historians have been less kind to 183
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