Tag Archives: BOUGAINVILLE OPERATION

To Find a Path

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77 Years Ago Today:

Jacquinot Bay, New Britain. 1944-11-06. Members of B Company, 1st New Guinea Infantry Battalion aboard the former Hawkesbury River (New South Wales) vehicular ferry, the Frances Peat, which is to transport them to Pomio Village where the unit is to establish its headquarters. Identified personnel is company Sergeant Major Kube (with machete).

Note the machetes, Owen SMGs, No. III Lee-Enfields, dog tags, and British kit– along with not much else. Interestingly, many of the men have bicep dressings, possibly from recent inoculations. AWM Photo 076702 https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/076702

One of four battalions raised in New Guinea during WWII, 1 NGIB was formed in March 1944 from a cadre that had been in the ranks as early as 1942 and soon started deploying company-sized elements in support of combat operations on Bougainville and on New Guinea, where their particular skillset was in high-demand in the thick jungle.

The unit was folded into the Royal Pacific Islands Regiment (RPIR) before being disbanded in June 1946.

Reformed in 1951 as part of the Australian Army, the RPIR became part of the Papua New Guinea Defence Force (PNGDF) in 1975 and carried the battle honors of the old 1 NGIB on its crest. In an ode to their old task of ranging and scouting, the RPIR’s motto today is “To Find a Path.”

Bougainville remembered

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(Photo: USMC 63280. Colourised by Paul Reynolds. https://www.facebook.com/PhotoColourisation Historic Military Photo Colourisations)

(Photo: USMC 63280. Colourised by Paul Reynolds. Historic Military Photo Colourisations)

Official caption: BOUGAINVILLE OPERATION, November 1943. Cpl William Coffron, USMC, fires at a sniper on Puruata Island, during landing operations in Empress Augusta Bay, Bougainville, November 1943. He was covering Marine gun positions firing from Puruata on Torokina Island nearby.

It should be noted that Marines only recently switched from Springfield 1903s augmented by Johnson M1942 rifles and Reising SMGs to the M1 shown above at the time of the operation.

In honor of the battle which took place 73 years ago this month, SECNAV has come through with a decent ship name.

Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus announced 9 November that the name of the next America-class amphibious assault ship will be USS Bougainville (LHA 8).

The naming ceremony took place at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina last week.

LHA-8 will be the second ship to be named after Bougainville, an island in the northern Solomons, which was the location of a World War II campaign in 1943-1944 during which allies secured a strategic airfield from Japan. Success at Bougainville isolated all Japanese forces left in the Solomons.

The first Bougainville was an escort carrier that was launched in 1944, a year after the Bougainville campaign began. She was decommissioned for the first time in 1946. She was then brought back into service for five years before earning two battle stars for its service in World War II and being struck from the naval register in 1960.