Admiralty Islands, Battle of

The Admiralty Islands are located some 200 miles northeast of New Guinea and, captured by Australian forces early in World War I, became part of the Australian mandate of New Guinea in 1921. The islands were occupied by Japan in April 1942. The Japanese established air bases on them and used Seeadler Harbor at Manus Island as a fleet anchorage. Pacific Allied theater commander Gen. Douglas MacArthur needed to isolate and reduce the major Japanese base at Rabaul, chief town on New Britain Island, Papua New Guinea. To do this, he understood that the Japanese facilities on the Admiralty Islands would first have to be captured, and he assigned the U.S. Army's 1st Cavalry Division, supported by the 73rd Wing of the Royal Australian Air Force, to seize the islands. Commanded by Lt. Gen. Walter Krueger, the 1st 2 Acheson, Dean Cavalry, covered by Australian air support, landed on Los Negros Island on February 29, 1944. After a week of fighting, the 1st Cavalry advanced to Manus Island, where it encountered extremely tenacious resistance from the large Japanese garrison there: two full infantry battalions and various naval units. Fighting, principally on Manus, continued throughout most of the spring before Krueger declared the islands secure on May 18, 1944. Losses to the 1st Cavalry Division were 326 men killed and 1,189 wounded. Japanese losses on Manus were probably about 2,000 killed. Further reading: Rottman, Gordon I. Japanese Pacific Island Defenses 1941–45. London: Osprey, 2003; United States Army. United States Army in World War II: War in the Pacific, Cartwheel, the Reduction of Rabaul. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1999.