Image description: Map of the Southwest Pacific Area, 1942, from the Papua Campaign Brochure by Charles R. Anderson, produced by the U.S. Army Center of Military History
Norman Nigh's WWII experience unfolded in the Southwest Pacific Area (SWPA). About twice the size of Europe, its east-west axis spanned approximately 3,700 miles, from the Indian Ocean to the Solomon Islands. It stretched about 4,700 miles from Tasmania (off the southern coast of Australia) north to the island of Luzon (the largest and northern-most island in the Philippines.)
In March 1942, Roosevelt and Churchill divided responsibilities in the Asia-Pacific region. They decided the British would oversee all war efforts west of Singapore, leaving the Pacific to the Americans. The U.S. Joint Chiefs thus divided the Pacific into four areas of operational command. The North, Central and South Pacific Areas were designated as the responsibility of the Navy. Meanwhile, the Southwest Pacific, due to its comprising a significant number of landmasses (islands), was the U.S. Army's domain with General Douglass MacArthur serving as Supreme Commander. Originally, the area was to include only a section south of the equator containing Australia and New Guinea extending toward the Malay Peninsula, but George Marshall (Army Chief of Staff at the time) had the boundaries re-drawn to include the Philippines in order to please MacArthur.
To General MacArthur, the Philippine Islands were the prize of the SWPA, and wresting control of them from Japanese hands was at the heart of his strategy in the region. At the outbreak of the war, the Philippines was a colony of the United States. When Japan invaded the archipelago on December 8, 1941- ten hours after Pearl Harbor- MacArthur was in Manila. He had been working with Philippine President Manual Quezon to train the islands' military, at first in preparation for its promised independence, then in anticipation of a Japanese invasion. After the earlier-than-anticipated arrival of the enemy (MacArthur was expecting it in the spring or summer), the general was evacuated from the US Army stronghold on Corregidor Island in Manila Bay on March 11, 1942. "I shall return," he vowed while en route to his new command center in Australia.
Image description: General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander of the SWPA (source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Douglas_MacArthur_58-61.jpg)
Neutralizing New Guinea was critical for delivering MacAurthur's promise. His strategy was for troops to "leap frog" up the northern coast of the island and "hit them where they ain't," bypassing Japanese strongholds to cut them off from supplies and potential reinforcements. The success of the strategy ultimately led the Allies to take control of New Guinea in time to launch the Philippine invasions of Leyte Island in October 1944 and Luzon Island (Manila's location) in January/February 1945.
Norm arrived in the SWPA on February 2, 1944 when the Sea Flasher, a U.S. Army transport ship, docked at Goodenough Island, off the coast of New Guinea. (See those three little islands off the eastern tip of Papua New Guinea in the map above? Goodenough Island is the westernmost one of the three.)
Back of photo: Pray tell, Gramps, where is this beach exactly? (Personal collection of Norman Nigh)
Norman and the other men of the 593rd EB&SR Company C were based at Goodenough Island for over two months. They spent the time not only acclimating to the new tropical climate (a tad different than that of Indiana), they also received their LCMs (Landing Craft Mechanized), the boats they would operate for the duration of their time in the SWPA to deliver troops and supplies to beachheads and patrol inland waterways. This was the start of 14 months on and around New Guinea. Norm and Company C would participate in a series of landings and offenses- primarily with the 5th and 6th Australian Division- spanning the north coast of the island.
Image description: "Al Fikis firing 30 cal. on Goodenough Isle" (Personal collection of Norman Nigh). Al Fikis was Norman's boat mate and frequently appeared in his photos.
On April 15, 1945, Company C left New Guinea and traveled more than 700 miles to Morotai Island, a small island located halfway between New Guinea and the southern-most islands of the Philippines (Mindanao). There they would stay for two months as Norm and Company C would prepare for the invasion of Borneo via Brunei Bay on June 10, 1945, one of the last landings in the war. Norm and Company C where still in Borneo when the Japanese formerly surrendered on September 2, 1945. They finally left at the end of October for Batangas, Philippines, before returning Stateside.
References:
Borneman, Arthur R. MacArthur at War: World War II in the Pacific (New York: Back Bay Books, 2016)
Dormaier, Alfred A. "Brief History of Company C" (U.S. Army War College, Historical Records Branch)
Watson, Robert Meredith, Jr. Seahorse Soldiering: MacArthur's Amphibian Engineers from New Guinea to Nagoya (Bloomington: Xlibris Corporation, 2003)
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