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The Battle of Porton Plantation (8–10 June 1945) took place at Porton Plantation, near the village of Soraken on Bougainville Island, in the Solomon Islands archipelago during World War II. Involving forces from Australia, New Zealand and Japan, the battle was part of the wider Bougainville campaign, which had begun in late 1943 and lasted until the end of the war in August 1945. The fighting occurred after a company-sized Australian force made an amphibious landing north of the Porton Plantation jetties in an attempt to outflank the Japanese positions on the Ratsua front, which were holding up the advance of the 26th and the 31st/51st Battalions from the 11th Brigade. The Australians landed unopposed and established a small perimeter, however a number of their landing craft ran aground and they were unable to bring their heavy weapons and support elements ashore. Troops from the Japanese 87th Naval Garrison Force quickly surrounded the beachhead and, as their supply situation grew desperate, the Australians were forced to withdraw. In the course of their evacuation by sea another landing craft ran aground. Over the next two days several unsuccessful rescue attempts were made until eventually, in the early morning of 11 June, the last Australian survivors were picked up. The battle was a victory for the Japanese and it proved instrumental in helping them to regain the initiative in the northern sector of Bougainville. As a result, shortly afterwards the Australian forces on Bougainville changed the focus of their operations to the southern sector of the island where they were able to advance along the coastal plain towards the main Japanese position at Buin. Since the end of the war, there has been considerable criticism of the planning undertaken by the Australians prior to the operation, and it has been argued that the operation failed due to poor intelligence and lack of resources and was ultimately unnecessary. ==Background== On 22 November 1944, the Australian II Corps under Lieutenant General Stanley Savige took over responsibility for Allied operations on Bougainville from the US XIV Corps and throughout November and December Australian units began relieving the Americans who were then redeployed on subsequent operations in the Philippines.〔.〕 Although Japanese forces on Bougainville actually numbered around 40,000 men at the time,〔.〕 Allied intelligence failed to determine this accurately, estimating that there were only about 17,500 defenders. As a result of this error, Australian planning staff believed that they were opposed by a roughly equal-sized force and the Australian corps commander, Savige, consequently decided that he would pursue an aggressive offensive campaign to clear the Japanese from Bougainville.〔.〕 The majority of the Japanese force was believed to be concentrated in the south and as a result the main effort of the Australian plan was focused upon driving towards Buin. Supporting operations were also conducted along two other fronts. In the north, it was planned that the Japanese would be forced into the narrow Bonis Peninsula and contained there while, in the centre, the seizure of Pearl Ridge would give the Australians control of the east–west avenues of approach, as well as affording them protection against further counter-attacks and opening the way for a drive to the east coast.〔.〕 In late December, the 11th Brigade, under the command of Brigadier John Stevenson, took over control of the northern sector of the island from the 7th Brigade, which was transferred to the southern sector to take part in the main offensive. Throughout January the brigade advanced north along the coast from Kuraio Mission, clearing the main settlements while sending patrols inland in an effort to flush out the Japanese from the high features in an effort to draw them into fighting in the open.〔.〕 In mid-January the lead Australian battalion, the 31st/51st Battalion, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Kelly, came up against a strong Japanese position at Tsimba Ridge and over the course of three weeks fought to gain control of the feature. The Australians lost 23 killed and 53 wounded while the Japanese had at least 66 men killed.〔.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Battle of Porton Plantation」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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