Admin Note: Before leaving for a family vacation to Italy, we had left Princeton in the waters just off the northern coast of New Guinea...
22 APR 44
The amphibious landings in Hollandia conducted by Task Force 77, dubbed OPERATION RECKLESS, occurred on 21 April at 7:00 a.m. (Humboldt Bay) and 7:45 a.m. (Tanahmerah Bay), with Task Force 58 providing air support.
Task Group 58.2's carriers, USS Bunker Hill, USS Yorktown and Princeton's sister ship USS Monterey, began launching at 0500. At 0618 Princeton's fellow TG 58.3 carriers Langley, Lexington and Enterprise began launching aircraft. Two hours after the first launches it was apparent that opposition was lighter than expected and the War Diary reports that "At 0710 received order from ComTaskGroup 58.3 addressed to all carriers delaying all future air operations scheduled for one hour, including times on station over target area."
The reason for this lack of opposition appears to be courtesy of the U.S. Army Air Corps, specifically units of the 5th Air Force, which had struck Hollandia from 30 March to 4 April and done significant damage to Japanese forces there.
The U.S. Army Center of Military History notes that...
By late March, Kenney (Lt. Gen. George C. Kenney, MacArthur's Air Chief) knew from deciphered Japanese communications that about 350 enemy warplanes were concentrated near Hollandia where they believed themselves safely beyond the range of Allied air strikes. Employing new model P-38s whose extended range made them ideal as escorts, Kenney sent sixty B-24 heavy bombers against Hollandia on 30 March. Follow-up raids demolished nearly all the operational Japanese aircraft at Hollandia on the ground. Never again would the enemy contest air superiority over New Guinea.
Hollandia Airfield, New Guinea. Japanese aircraft lie wrecked amid bomb craters, seen from a U.S. Navy carrier plane during raids on 21 April 1944. This damage probably resulted from U.S. Army air forces attacks earlier in the month.
Admiral Nimitz's Graybook noted the raids as well:
As the day progressed Princeton's role in the operation was reduced by approximately half, and strike missions were changed to CAP and ASP. The War Diary notes that "During the latter part of this day's operations, scheduled support missions were reduced or cancelled when opposition was lacking and targets were not available. Reports from ground forces ashore indicated favorable progress was being made in both landings."
Hollandia , New Guinea, Operation, April 1944. LST's unloading on Beach Red Two, Tanamerah Bay, 22 April 1944. LST-22 is in the center, with LST-18 next to the right. Note smoke and propeller wash from one LST at left as she backs clear of the beach. In center foreground is USS SC-738.
As a kid I learned to associate the words “New Guinea” or "Papua" with a place lost in time, home to cannibals, giant boiling pots and shrunken heads. And possibly undiscovered still living dinosaurs. What I have read about New Guinea as an adult has disabused me of those characterizations, but it’s still not a place I’d like to get stranded.
In the photo above, I don't initially notice the landing craft or the smaller boats. I notice the unrelenting jungle. Almost no beach, as if the jungle itself wants no part of civilization. In his book "War at the End of the World," author Jim Duffy attributes to soldiers of the Japanese Imperial Army a saying:
“Heaven is Java; hell is Burma; but no one returns alive from New Guinea.”
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