Big Pigeon - Pottawattamie County, Iowa
  • Home
    • Usage Hints
    • Acknowledgments
    • Resources >
      • Free Sites
      • Pay Sites
      • Print Resources
      • Search Engines
      • Land Records
      • Resources - Denmark >
        • Finding Danish Ancestors
    • Project Mgt - Public >
      • Website Overview
      • Website Log
      • Project Overview
      • Mac Computer Use
      • Weebly Use
      • Reunion Use
      • Project History
      • Image Provenance
    • Project Mgt - Private >
      • Site Management
      • Site Plan
      • Contact List
      • Backup Info & Log
      • System Info & Log
      • Image Storage
      • E-Mail Log
      • Asset Organization
      • History Index
      • Binders & Photos
      • Upon My Death
      • Donations & Dispersal
  • Family
    • Christiansen
    • Rasmussen
    • Christiansen/Rasmussen News
    • Larsen/Larson
    • Hansen
    • Larsen/Hansen News
    • Allied Families
    • Wall of Honor
  • St. Paul's
    • Early Families >
      • Early Families Help
      • Early Families More Lists
    • St. Paul's Roots
    • St. Paul's Timeline
    • St. Paul's Resources
  • Pott. Co.
    • Early History >
      • Missouri River
      • Native Americans
      • Colonial Period
    • Big Pigeon Area >
      • Area Towns >
        • Beebeetown
        • Crescent
        • Honey Creeek
        • Loveland
        • Neola
        • Persia
        • Underwood
        • Weston
        • Lost Locales
      • Danes from Dronninglund
      • Maps & Plats
      • Big Pigeon Galleries >
        • Gallery 1 - Area Historic Structures
        • Gallery 2 - Grange Sunday School
    • Avoca >
      • Gold Star Avoca
      • Cuppy's Grove
    • Pott. Co. Addendum
    • LDS History >
      • LDS Links
      • Gallery 1 - Mormon Maps
    • A House Divided >
      • Endnotes
      • Niels Peder Pedersen
      • Ane Katrine Pedersen
      • Kirsten Pedersen
      • Kirsten's Story >
        • Kirsten's LDS Daughters
        • Kirsten's Daughter, Karen Bondo
        • Kirsten's Son, Anders Johnson
        • Kirsten's Niece, Christine Mortensen
        • Kirsten's Niece, Anne Marie Larsen
    • More History >
      • Iowa History
      • American History
  • WWII Roster
    • The Roster >
      • Roster-A
      • Roster-B
      • Roster-C
      • Roster-D
      • Roster-EF
      • Roster-G
      • Roster-H
      • Roster-IJ
      • Roster-KL
      • Roster-M
      • Roster-NO
      • Roster-P
      • Roster-QR
      • Roster-S
      • Roster-TUV
      • Roster-WXYZ
      • Other In-Service Deaths
      • Post-Separation Deaths
    • Roster Notes >
      • Awards for Valor
      • Iowa Casualties & Dead
    • Homes >
      • Council Bluffs
      • Rural Pott. Co.
      • Cass Co.
      • Harrison Co.
      • Mills Co.
      • Montgomery Co.
      • Shelby Co.
      • Other Counties
      • Other States
    • Deaths >
      • War with Japan Deaths
      • The Atlantic Deaths
      • Mediterranean Theater Deaths
      • European Theater Deaths
      • Stateside Deaths
      • The Air Dead
      • The Sea Dead
    • Roster Photos
    • Roster Outliers
    • About the Roster
  • WWII
    • WWII Overview
    • US in WWII - Organization
    • US in WWII - Operations
    • WWII References >
      • WWII Free Sites
      • WWII Pay Sites
      • WWII Personnel Lists
    • WWII Personnel >
      • WWII Casualties
      • WWII Deaths
      • WWII Burials
      • Service Numbers
    • WWII Ground Forces
    • WWII in The Air
    • WWII at Sea
    • WWII at Home
    • Civilian Victims
    • Strategic Bombing
    • The Cold War
    • WW I >
      • Iowa In WW I
  • WWII-Japan
    • WWII - Japan Overview
    • Japan Ascendant
    • US Navy War w/ Japan >
      • US Submarine Force
      • Third & Fifth Fleets
    • US Air Force War w/ Japan >
      • Fifth Air Force
      • Seventh Air Force
      • Thirteenth Air Force
    • Japan Lashes Out >
      • Pearl Harbor
      • Guam & Wake Island
      • Malaya & Singapore Lost
      • The Dutch Indies Lost
      • The Philippines Lost
      • New Guinea & Solomons
    • Japan Overreaches >
      • Coral Sea
      • Midway
    • South & SW Pacific >
      • Solomons Naval War
      • Solomon Is. - Guadalcanal
      • SE New Guinea - Papua
      • NE New Guinea - Lae to Madang
      • Solomon Is. - New Georgia
      • Solomon Is. - Bougainville
      • Bismarck Archipelago
      • Western New Guinea
    • North Pacific >
      • Alaska
      • Attu & Kiska
      • Pacific Lend-Lease Routes
    • Central Pacific >
      • Gilbert Islands
      • Marshall Islands
      • Mariana Islands
      • Palau Islands
      • Pacific Comm. Zone
    • Philippines Liberated >
      • Leyte
      • Battle of Leyte Gulf
      • Philippines Naval War
      • Luzon
      • Southern Philippines
    • Iwo Jima & Okinawa >
      • Iwo Jima
      • Land Battle of Okinawa
      • Naval Battle of Okinawa
    • China-Burma-India >
      • China - 1941-45
      • India - 1942-45
      • Burma - 1941-45
      • Crossing the Hump
    • Japan Overpowered >
      • Japan Under Attack
      • Strategic Air War - Japan
      • Japan Vanquished
  • WWII-Germany
    • WWII-Germany Overview
    • Battle of the Atlantic
    • The MTO >
      • North Africa & Sicily >
        • Operation Torch
        • The Race to Tunis
        • Tunisia
        • Sicily
      • Italian Mainland >
        • Salerno-Naples-Foggia
        • To the Gustav Line
        • Battle of Anzio
        • Cassino - the Gustav Line
        • Cassino to Rome
        • Rome To Florence
        • Northern Apennines
        • The Po Valley
      • The MTO Sea War
      • The MTO Air War
      • MTO Comm. Zone
    • The ETO >
      • Normandy Campaign >
        • D-Day
        • Normandy after D-Day
      • France Liberated >
        • Normandy Breakout
        • Northern France
        • Southern France
        • The Allies Stall
      • Arnhem & Antwerp >
        • Arnhem - Market Garden
        • Antwerp
      • Rhineland 1944
      • Lorraine & Alsace >
        • Lorraine Campaign
        • Alsace Campaign
      • Ardennes/Bulge Overview >
        • Ardennes/Bulge Details
      • Rhineland 1945 >
        • Ninth & First Armies
        • Third & Seventh Armies
        • North, Feb/Mar, 9th/1st Armies
        • Mid, Feb, 3rd Army
        • Mid, Mar, 1st/3rd Armies
        • South, Mar, 3rd/7th Armies
      • Central Europe >
        • Crossing the Rhine
        • Central Germany
      • The ETO Air War
      • The ETO Sea War
      • ETO Comm. Zone
    • The Eastern Front
Picture
Picture
Japan Lashes Out
 bigpigeon.us webpage WWII - Japan > Japan Lashes Out > New Guinea & the Solomons, updated by RAC 18 May 2022.
​

This webpage consists of a geopolitical overview of the South and Southwest Pacific area prior to WWII and a summary of the Japanese invasion of portions of this area early in 1942.  See the South & SW Pacific webpages for information about the 1942-44 Allied reconquest of this area.
Before WWII, the Island of New Guinea was divided into three jurisdictions:
  • Western New Guinea was part of the Netherlands East Indies, todays Indonesia.
  • Southeastern New Guinea, known as Papua, was a territory of the Dominion of Australia.
  • The Territory of New Guinea, which included northeastern New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago, and the northern Solomon Island of Bougainville, was administered by Australia under a mandate from the League of Nations. Before WW I, it had been a German colony.
Today's nation of Papua includes former Southeastern New Guinea and the Territory of New Guinea.
Northern Melanesia 1920-1940
Northern Melanesia 1920-1940
Also shown above are:
  • the British colony of the Solomon Islands.
  • the New Hebrides, then jointly administered by Great Britian and France and now the island nation of Vanuatu.
The following more-detailed map shows a portion of this area. Cape York, on the bottom left, is part of Australia itself.​ The three New Guinea capitals are Hollandia, the capital of the Dutch area, in the left center, Rabaul, on the island of New Britain in the center, and the Papuan capital Port Moresby in the bottom left.
  • Between January and July of 1942, Japanese forces occupied key locations in Melanesia.
  • From the beginning of the Solomon Islands campaign on Guadualcanal in August 1942, and until the Gilbert Islands campaign to the east in November 1943, most Allied combat in the Pacific was in the area shown above.
  • United States, Australian, and New Zealand forces painfully forced the Japanese from the occupied areas in brutal battles sometimes lasting for months. Over twenty Pottawattamie County area servicemen, Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine, died.
New Guinea & the Solomons
New Guinea (eastern part), the Solomon Islands, the Bismarck Archipelago, and the Admiralty Islands
1942 Japanese advances:
  • 23 Jan: Rabaul on northern New Britain and  Bougainville in the Solomon Islands. The Japanese then developed Rabaul into their major base in the South/Southwest Pacific.
  • 7 Mar: Salamaua and Lae in eastern  New Guinea.
  • 3 May: Tulagi on Florida Is. just north of Guadalcanal in the Solomons.
  • ​21 Jul: Buna/Gona in eastern New Guinea. 
  • July: Guadalcanal in the central Solomons.
Japanese Advances in Melanesia - Early 1942
Japanese Advances in Melanesia - Early 1942
Sources for the New Guinea & the Solomon Islands webpage:
  • The Northern Melanesia 1920-1940 map was found at https://omniatlas.com/maps/australasia/19281018/.
  • The New Guinea (eastern part) ... map is taken from The War At Sea 1939 - 1945, Volume 3, the Offensive by Captain S. W. Roskill.
  • The Japanese Advances in Melanesia - Early 1942 map is courtesy of emersonkent.com and was found at http://www.emersonkent.com/map_archive/micronesia_melanesia_new_guinea_1942.htm.
  • Most of the entries in the 1942 Japanese Advances timeline come from http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/pacificwar/timeline.htm.
Proudly powered by Weebly