Operations of the 25th Infantry in the Central Solomons: New Georgia - Arundel - Vella Lavella.

£3,000 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

This confidential report was written by several officers including Lt. Col. C.B. Smith, Col. James L. Dalton, Captain Robert McCalder, Maj. Gen. Robert S. Beightler, Colonel Douglass Sugg, Lt. Col. Joseph F. Ryneska, Lt. Col. F.B. Evans, Major Charles W. Davis, Lt. Col. John W. Ferris, and others. Based at Schofield Barracks on Hawaii, the 25th Infantry Division (also called “Tropic Lightning”) was activated in 1941 initially to defend the island in the immediate wake of the attack on Pearl Harbour. The next year it was deployed to assist in the Guadalcanal campaign in the Solomon Islands. The opening chapter details the activities of the division from the end of the Guadalcanal campaign to the beginning of the New Georgia campaign. The division was charged with a defensive mission “repelling any attempted landing by the Japanese in the sector bounded on the east by the Metapona River and on the west by the east delta of the Lunga River.” They also assisted in the development and defence of the base on Russell Island. On 20 July 1943, the division moved to New Georgia. They were called into action almost immediately and the report outlines their mission which involved attacks on Zieta, Bairoko Harbour, Piru Plantation in late July and August, as well as the operations on Arundel Island. This was all preparatory to the occupation of Kolombangara Island in early October. The second chapter provides a brief overview of each operation, and those following contain a full account o

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