Battle of Arawe order of battle explained

This is an order of battle listing the Allied and Japanese forces involved in the Battle of Arawe from 15 December 1943 to 24 February 1944.

Allies

Ground forces

• Director Task Force^[1]
  • 112th Cavalry Regimental Combat Team
    • 112th Cavalry Regiment
    • 148th Field Artillery Battalion (12 x 105mm M2A1 howitzers)
    • 59th Engineer Company (Combat)
  • 236th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion (Searchlight) less elements
  • two batteries of the 470th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion (Automatic Weapons)
  • A Company, 1st Amphibious Tractor Battalion USMC
  • detachment, 26th Quartermaster War Dog Platoon.
  • B Company, 1st Tank Battalion USMC (arrived 12 January)^[2]
  • Engineer, medical, ordnance and other support units^[3]
  • 2nd Battalion, 158th Infantry Regiment (force reserve)
    • G Company (arrived about 18 December)^[4]
    • F Company (arrived about 10 January)^[5]

Naval forces

• Task Force 74.1 (covering force)
  • Rear Admiral Victor Crutchley
  • Cruisers
    • (flagship)
      • • Destroyers
          • • • • • • • • Task Force 76
  • Destroyers^[6]
    • (flagship)
      • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Transport group
    • ^[7]
      • • • • • • • • • two patrol craft
    • two submarine chasers
  • Service group
    • three LSTs
    • three tug boats
      • • Elements, Boat Battalion, 592nd Engineer Boat and Short Regiment, 2nd Engineer Special Brigade (17 x LCVP, 9 x LCM, 2 rocket-firing DUKWs, 1 x repair and salvage boat)^{[8] [9]}
• Beach Party Number 1^[10]

Japan

Ground forces

• Merkus Garrison (withdrew after the Allied landing)
  • Two provisional companies drawn from the 51st Division.^[11]
• Komori Force
  • 1st Battalion, 81st Infantry Regiment (headquarters, two rifle companies, one machine gun platoon only, arrived 25 December)^[12]
    • Company, 54th Infantry Regiment^[13]
    • Engineers
  • 1st Battalion, 141st Infantry Regiment (arrived 29 December)^[14]
  • Detachments from other units were also assigned to the Arawe area

Naval forces

• Southeast Area Fleet / 25th Air Flotilla (sub-unit of 11th Air Fleet)
  • 201 Air Group (Lakunai Airfield, Rabaul)^[15]
  • 204 Air Group (Lakunai)^[15]
  • 253 Air Group (Tobera Airfield, Rabaul)^[16]
• 2nd Air Flotilla (sub-unit of 1st Air Fleet)
  • Hiyō fighter group (Kavieng/Lakunai)^[17]
  • Ryūhō fighter group (Kavieng/Lakunai)^[17]
  • Jun'yō fighter group (Lakunai)^[18]

References

• Book: Barbey, Daniel E.. MacArthur's Amphibious Navy: Seventh Amphibious Force Operations 1943–1945. registration. United States Naval Institute. Annapolis. 1969.
• Web site: Craven. Wesley Frank. James Lea Cate. Vol. IV, The Pacific: Guadalcanal to Saipan, August 1942 to July 1944. The Army Air Forces in World War II. US Office of Air Force History.
• Book: Gill, G. Hermon . Royal Australian Navy 1942–1945 . . 1968 . Australian War Memorial . Canberra .
• Book: Hata, Ikuhiko. Ikuhiko Hata. Yasuho Izawa. Christopher Shores. 2011. Japanese Naval Air Force Fighter Units and Their Aces, 1932–1945. Grub Street. London. 978-1-906502-84-3.
• Book: Odgers, George . George Odgers . Air War Against Japan 1943–1945 . Australia in the War of 1939–1945. Series 3 – Air . 1968 . reprint . Australian War Memorial . Canberra .
• Book: Morison , Samuel Eliot . Samuel Eliot Morison . 1958 . . Castle Books . 0-7858-1307-1.
• Web site: Miller. John Jr.. 1959. CARTWHEEL: The Reduction of Rabaul. United States Army in World War II: The War in the Pacific. Office of the Chief of Military History, US Department of the Army. 20 October 2006.
• Book: Rottman, Gordon. U.S. Marine Corps World War II Order of Battle : Ground and Air Units in the Pacific War, 1939–1945 . 2002a . Greenwood Press . Westport . 0-313-31906-5 .
• Book: Rottman, Gordon . US Special Warfare Units in the Pacific Theatre 1941–45. Battle Orders. 2005 . Osprey . Botley . 1-84176-707-7 .
• Book: Rottman, Gordon. World War II US Cavalry Units. Pacific Theater. Ospery Publishing. Botley. 2009. 978-1-84603-451-0.
• Web site: Shaw. Henry I.. Douglas T. Kane. 1963. Volume II: Isolation of Rabaul. History of US Marine Corps Operations in World War II. 18 October 2006. https://web.archive.org/web/20061120062643/http://ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USMC/II/index.html. 20 November 2006 . live.

Notes and References

1. Rottman (2009), p. 24
2. Shaw and Kane (1963), p. 392
3. Miller (1959), p. 277
4. Miller (1959), p. 288
5. Miller (1959), p. 289
6. Gill (1968), p. 338
7. Morison (1958), p. 374
8. Miller (1959), pp. 283–284
9. Shaw and Kane (1963), p. 336
10. Barbey (1969), pp. 103–104
11. Shaw and Kane (1963), pp. 339–340
12. Shaw and Kane (1963), pp. 327–328 and 343
13. Miller (1959), p. 280
14. Shaw and Kane (1963), p. 391
15. Hata (2011), p. 65
16. Hata (2011), p. 66
17. Hata (2011), pp. 66–68
18. Hata (2011), p. 68