XIX: Thio Beach, October 1942
Four carriers, three battleships, two hundred aircraft and ten thousand men. The Japanese invasion force was an armada that could not be ignored, aimed at the island both sides considered vital. Yamamoto was gambling that Fletcher would bring the US Navy out to fight the decisive battle that he had not at Fiji. Japan’s greatest admiral believed his enemy would not have a choice: if they surrendered New Caledonia, they would be giving up whatever control they had in the South Pacific, leaving Australia open to invasion. It was a price that the Americans could not afford. They would fight. They had to.
Japan’s invasion of New Caledonia, delayed so many times, finally began on October 19th, 1942 with a massive air raid. Waves of D3A bombers launched from Efate and all four carriers struck Magenta and Tontouta, while Zeroes duelled with Wildcats and attempted to keep any Allied bombers away from the landing craft. Another group of bombers, long range G3M ‘Nell’s operating out of Guadalcanal, was sent to bomb the city of Noumea, and most importantly the overcrowded ports that undoubtedly held thousands of tons of supplies. Further raids, directed at Darwin and Cooktown, were launched in an attempt to distract the Allies while the landings took place, and midget submarines attacked Pago Pago, further adding to the confusion.
General Patch was not surprised when the Japanese landed at Thio. At Viti Levu, the decision to land far from an objective in the hopes of evading the enemy had been a new idea, and considering how well it had worked out there he believed there was some chance the Japanese would try it again. New Caledonia was far too large for every possible landing site to be garrisoned in strength, but Patch believed that the deployment of some light forces at locations that could serve as landing beaches would buy him time and make a landing more expensive for the Japanese – at Thio this was the G Company of the 182nd Infantry Regiment. Once the landing had taken place, those light units could retreat into the jungle and report back.
As another wave of Zeroes arrived to patrol the skies of northern New Caledonia, General Yi and 10,000 Japanese infantrymen stormed ashore. The Americans engaged, but soon realised that the invading force was too large to be stopped, or even really slowed down, by just a company, and a retreat into the hills was ordered. The village of Thio was taken within three hours. Unlike in Fiji, the Japanese pushed south immediately: every day spent securing the beachhead was one less the infantry would have to capture Noumea before the cyclone season began or the supplies ran out. Thio beach was to be nothing more than a drop-off point for supplies and a short-lived field HQ.
As New Caledonia was a French territory, the French governments aligned with both sides took great interest in the events of the battle. Adolf Hitler quickly pushed the Vichy regime to celebrate the Japanese invasion as “the triumph of the will and bravery of Japanese liberators over the craven traitors of France”. Even though New Caledonia was far from events in Europe, the battle was championed as a sign of imminent victory for the Axis across the world. That would last for just four days, when the Second Battle of El Alamein began.
Japan from the very beginning of the operation claimed that the invasion was an “act of collaboration with the rightful government of France to ensure peace and security in the overseas territories”, but in practice Vichy had no influence at all on the battle. Any likely collaborators had been taken out of the island months ago, and the Japanese Army barely acknowledged French rule existing on the island at all: the Rising Sun, not the Tricolour, was flown from Thio and other occupied villages, and there were no French officers present alongside Yamamoto and Hyakutake when decisions were made and orders given out. Hitler’s attention had never been directed towards events in the Pacific for long, and after events in North Africa and Stalingrad grew in importance once again, he appears to have forgotten about New Caledonia entirely.
Charles de Gaulle immediately rejected the claims coming out of Vichy and Goebbels’ offices, declaring the invasion a “despicable act of Japanese aggression against sacred French soil”, and considering it was Free French forces controlling the administration of New Caledonia, this was the line adopted by the Allies. Roosevelt however was infuriated when de Gaulle followed up with demands for more forces to be sent to defend the island regardless of the situation in other areas (at one point insisting that half of MacArthur’s army in Australia be immediately shipped to Noumea). With de Gaulle offering no troops of his own, Roosevelt ignored the general’s demands and informed him that the defence of New Caledonia would be a matter for the Armed Forces, not politicians.
As Patch began moving some of his forces towards Thio, Admiral Fletcher was focusing his attention on the Imperial Navy. While he had one fewer carrier than the Japanese, he could count on much larger numbers of aircraft from New Caledonia than the Japanese could hope to supply on Efate, and reinforcements could be called from Australia if an urgent need arose (MacArthur having been ordered by Roosevelt to approve any requests from Fletcher). The morning raids had disrupted the forces on New Caledonia to some degree, but once Thio was reported to be Yamamoto’s target, the search for his carriers was on. If recent landings were anything to go by, the Japanese would want to get out as soon as possible. Fletcher did not aim to let that happen.
Recon planes discovered the Japanese northwest of Thio in the late afternoon, too late for a strike against them to be ordered that day. As expected, the Japanese were heading north, and would be halfway back to Efate when the sun rose the next day. Any strike would have to take place at dawn, before Yamamoto could get out of range of the bombers. Fletcher hoped for another surprise attack like Samoa, but he how likely it was that the Japanese would expect his attack. His opponent had planned Pearl Harbour and the Fiji campaign, both huge successes against all odds: he was no fool.
Much to Fletcher’s surprise, it would be Yamamoto that scored the first hit at sea. Around 0200, before any aircraft were even loaded for the upcoming dawn strike, the submarine I-122 found Fletcher’s navy south of Noumea. Within minutes, two torpedoes had been launched, hitting the battleship Washington, before escaping almost undetected. The battleship developed a ten degree list to starboard, and was ordered to Brisbane for repairs.
The morning’s strike soon turned into a frantic battle. While Yamamoto was busy organising another raid on Noumea, he left Yamaguchi to handle the carriers. Both remembered the harsh lesson of Samoa, and when General Yi reported sightings of US aircraft flying past Thio, every Zero that could be put into the air scrambled to meet the incoming Wildcats and SBDs. Fourteen Allied aircraft were lost in the attacks on the carriers, nine of them bombers, while they managed to heavily damage Kaga and scored a minor hit on Akagi. Yamaguchi, down seven fighters, launched his own strike, which resulted in minor damage to Wasp. A final torpedo delivered by a B5N bomber then finished off the damaged Washington, leading both sides to call the battle a draw.
- BNC
Stupid will be stupid.
