Bougainville campaign (1943-45)

Naval Operations off Bougainville - 31 Oct-2 Nov 1943

U.S. troops go over the side of a Coast Guard manned combat transport to enter the landing barges at Empress Augusta Bay, Bougainville, as the invasion gets under way. November 1943

LCVP landing craft circle while awaiting landing orders, during the invasion of Cape Torokina, Bougainville, 1 November 1943. Photographed by PFC P. Scheer from a 20mm gun position on board USS American Legion (APA-17). The invasion beaches are in the background, being shelled, and there are planes over the beaches. The smoking volcano in the far center distance is Mount Bagana.

Hill 260 being shelled by Americal Division artillery fire, on 19 March 1944. The firing continued for several hours at the end of whitch time it was believed that all enemy resistance had been neutralized.

3rd Battalion, 9th U.S. Marines battle Japanese infantry from the 54th Infantry Division November 7 or 8, 1943 on Bougainville island during the Battle of the Koromokina Lagoon.

U.S. Marine `Raiders' and their dogs, which are used for scouting and running messages, starting off for the jungle front lines on Bougainville. ca. November/December 1943

Marine 75mm howitzer crew at Torokina in December 1943

U.S. Army Soldiers advancing at dawn in the cover of a M4 Sherman tank, clearing out Japanese forces that had tried to infiltrate the U.S. lines at night; March 1944

These men have earned the bloody reputation of being skillful jungle fighters. They are U.S. Marine Raiders gathered in front of a Japanese dugout on Cape Totkina on Bougainville, Solomon Islands, which they helped to take. January 1944

"Negro troops of the 24th Infantry, attached to the Americal Division, wait to advance behind a tank assault on the Jap[anese], along Empress Augusta Bay on Bougainville.", 1944

3d Division Marines fan out on the double to get across the exposed shoreline and plunge, already deployed for combat, into Bougainville jungle

Men of the Third Marines hotly engaged on Blue Beach shortly after their landing on Bougainville

A Marine Dive Bomber from VMSB-144 turns gently toward the beachhead area prior to peeling off in one of the prelanding airstrikes at Torokina on D-Day morning

Image:Antiaircraft gunners at Cape Torokina.jpg

"Sgt. John C. Clark...and S/Sgt. Ford M. Shaw...(left to right) clean their rifles in bivouac area alongside the East West Trail, Bougainville. They are members of Co. E, 25th Combat Team, 93rd Division..."

Masatane Kanda (left seated) surrenders Japanese forces on Bougainville to Allied commanders on September 8, 1945.