Image description: Map of the Allied invasion of Borneo, May-July 1945. Norman was involved in the Oboe VI operation on June 10, 1945, on Labuan Island, just off the north coast of Borneo near Brunei. (Image source: Reports of General MacArthur: The Campaigns of MacArthur in the Pacific, Volume 1, Chapter 12, plate 109; accessed via https://history.army.mil/books/wwii/MacArthur%20Reports/MacArthur%20V1/ch12.htm)
Borneo is an island in Southeast Asia situated between the Philippines and the Malay Penninsula. Today, the island comprises parts of Malaysia (north) and Indonesia (south), as well as the tiny nation of Brunei on the north coast. At the start of WWII, the island was divided between two colonial powers: the British (in the north) and the Dutch (in the south). The Japanese occupied Borneo beginning in January 1942 on their drive through Southeast Asia (shortly after Pearl Harbor), which aimed to create a "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere." The island was also highly attractive to the resource-strapped Japanese due to its rubber plantations and oil fields. In addition, Borneo offered a strategic location in Southeast Asia for shipping lanes, airfields and harbors. As its became obvious Japan was losing the war, and in order to liberate Borneo and deny Japan the above resources, the Allied forces invaded the island halfway through 1945. It was to be one of the last battles of WWII.
Image description: "D-Day- Labuan Island, Borneo" (Personal collection of Norman Nigh) This would have been June 10, 1945. The pictured ships are LSTs (landing ship, tank) most likely carrying Australian tanks and troops, as well as other equipment, to Brown Beach.
The Allied invasion of Borneo was primarily an Australian effort and took place over May, June, and July of 1945. Collectively, the invasion was known as Operation Oboe, and it consisted of three components. Oboe I occurred on May 1, 1945 in Tarakan, a small island directly adjacent to the east coast of Borneo and one of its principle oil-producing areas. The next month saw the execution of Oboe VI in Brunei Bay on the northwest coast of Borneo, which simultaneously targeted Labuan and Muara Islands, as well as Brunei on the main island. Oboe II took place on July 1st near Balikpapan on the eastern coast of the Borneo, south of Tarakan. (The original invasion plan included Oboes III, IV and V, but these were later scrapped.)
Norman and the 593rd Boat Regiment were involved in Oboe VI. Norm's LCM, along with those of Companies C and B, entered Brunei Bay and landed at Brown Beach on Labuan Island on June 10. Brown Beach was chosen as a landing location due to its lack of surrounding coral reefs. After successfully navigating sandbars, and with the escort of Allied Navy and Air Forces, the gunboats in the convoy adequately strafed and shelled the beach area to deter enemy forces. Norm and others in the 593rd then used their LCMs to deliver Australian Matilda tanks, tank crew members, and other equipment to build up the beachhead, which would become the 593rd's home for the next four months. Meanwhile, troops from the Australian I Corps, Ninth Division were deposited onto the beach mostly via LSTs (see above photo) and LVTs (landing tracked vehicles). For the first several days after the invasion, the 593rd's LCMs were busy shuttling cargo from liberty ships anchored in the bay to the shore until docks were adequately repaired. The 593rd Boat Regiment was one of only three non-Australian ground units involved in the Borneo invasion, and sadly, its role is rarely mentioned in the literature on the Oboe Operations.
Image description: " Labuan, North Borneo, support craft moving in towards Victoria Town and Brown Beach to assist the landing on the island by members of 24th Infantry Brigade (of the Australian 9th Division) during the Oboe 6 Operation." Taken on June 10th, 1945. (Source: Wikimedia commons, accessed via
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:American_Support_Craft_(AWM_108818).jpg ) The "support craft" in the above photo are primarily LCMs; which would have been those of the 593rd Boat Regiment. Norman's LCM is very likely in this photo.
Having recently retaken the Philippines, Supreme Commander General Douglas MacArthur was on hand to oversee Oboe VI. From the deck of the USS Boise, he watched as the LCMs and other craft arrived in Brunei Bay and began to disperse to their assigned beaches, carrying troops and equipment. Fortunately, he noted little enemy resistance. Only one Japanese plane appeared to defend the area; it dropped a bomb that missed its target. After troops and supplies made it ashore, the Australian Ninth Division troops moved inland and captured Labuan Island's airfields. General MacArthur also went ashore.
Image description: Lieutenant Colonel Mervyn Jeanes (left), 43rd Infantry Battalion (part of Ninth Division), General Douglas MacArthur (center), Supreme Commander Southwest Pacific Area, and Lieutenant General Sir Leslie Morshead (right), Commander of the I Corps, inspecting positions held by the Australians after their landing on Labuan. (Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Morshead_%26_MacArthur_Labuan_AWM_109060.jpg)
With most of the enemy neutralized on Labuan, Australian Ninth Division troops began moving to the main island of Borneo and into its interior. Roads in Borneo were essentially nonexistent or very inadequate, so the Australians relied on the 593rd LCMs for the following few months to serve as their "water taxis" and surprise the Japanese in inland locations. During this time, the LCMs also were engaged in missions to rescue allied soldiers or POWs from inland locations and to patrol an extensive area among the rivers and coast of northern Borneo. Some of the waterways proved extremely challenging for the LCMs. In his book Operation Borneo, James Pounds (himself having served in the 593rd EBSR) writes, "Some of the rivers traveled by the 593rd boats in Borneo were barely navigable at some points and only wide enough for one small craft to pass through at a time. In several places, crew members had to stand on the ramps of the LCMs with machetes and cut away the overhanging limbs of trees and dense mangroves that form a virtual archway over the water."
Image description: "Beautiful river, Borneo" (Personal collection of Norman Nigh).
Although the initial sweep of Ninth Division troops wiped out much of the Japanese presence on Labuan Island, a small group of Japanese soldiers remained, having concealed themselves in a mangrove swamp. On the evening of June 21st, members of this group (every account I've read says a different number; somewhere between 50 and 80) moved through the swamp to the 593rd B Company camp site and at around four in the morning, and launched a desperate, last-ditch effort to inflict harm upon the Allies through a Banzai attack. Unfortunately, five members of Company B were killed in the attack, and five were wounded. Meanwhile, 48 Japanese soldiers were killed. Fortunately, Company C's camp was in a separate location.
Norman and Company C were still in Borneo at the end of the war. Atomic bombs fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6th and 9th, 1945, respectively. Japan formally surrendered on September 2nd, after which Japanese forces in the Brunei Bay area of Borneo formally surrendered on Labuan Island on September 10. In late October, Norm and other members of the 593rd in Labuan boarded the US Liberty Ship Richard Yates and traveled across the Sulu Sea to Batangas, just south of Manila, in the Philippines.
Image description: "Taken when the Nips landed here to surrender Borneo." (Personal collection of Norman Nigh) This would have been on September 10, 1945. Note the white cross over the rising sun on the plane to indicate Japan's surrender. Note also the jeep moving towards the plane to take its passengers to the surrender ceremony starring Japanese Lieutenant General Baba Masao and Australian Major General George Wootten. The majority of the onlookers that day were Australian troops. General Baba was later found guilty of war crimes and executed in 1947. Below is a video of the surrender:
References:
Case, Gerard R. and Pounds, James A., Operation Borneo: The Last, Untold Story of the War in the Pacific, 1945, (AuthorHouse Publishing, 2004)
Dormaier, Alfred A. "Brief History of Company C" (U.S. Army War College, Historical Records Branch)
MacArthur, Douglas. Reports of General MacArthur: The Campaigns of MacArthur in the Pacific, Volume One, "The Westward Drive Along New Guinea," (Washington: Library of Congress) pp.134-165 (accessed via https://history.army.mil/books/wwii/MacArthur%20Reports/MacArthur%20V1/index.htm)
Paquette, Ernest W., Our Business is Beachheads: The 3rd ESB and 593rd EB&SR, (Self-Published, 1993)
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