bigpigeon.us webpage World Wars > WW II - Japan > Japan Lashes Out > New Guinea and the Solomons, updated by RAC 7 Oct 2020. 

See the South & SW Pacific webarea for information about the Allied reconquest of this area.

The following map shows the South Pacific area sometimes known as Melanesia.  This area was under Australian administration before the Japanese invasions of early 1942. Cape York, on the bottom left, is part of Australia itself.​
  • 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: