Battle of the Hongorai River
The Battle of the Hongorai River took place during the Second World War and involved Australian, New Zealand and Japanese forces. Part of the wider Bougainville Campaign of the Pacific theatre, the battle was fought in the southern sector of Bougainville Island. Coming after the Battle of Slater's Knoll in which a strong Japanese counterattack was defeated, the battle occurred in two distinct periods between 17 April and 22 May 1945, as elements of the Australian 15th Brigade advanced south along the Buin Road.
Australian engineers move up the escarpment south of the Hongorai River in May 1945. Engineers played a vital part in the Australian advance.
RAAF Boomerang with RNZAF Corsairs on Bougainville 1945
A bulldozer clears a path through the jungle so that supplies can be brought up during the 57th/60th Infantry Battalion's advance along Commando Road.
Soldiers from the 57th/60th Infantry Battalion cross the Hongorai River
The Bougainville campaign was a series of land and naval battles of the Pacific campaign of World War II between Allied forces and the Empire of Japan, named after the island of Bougainville. It was part of Operation Cartwheel, the Allied grand strategy in the South Pacific.
United States Army soldiers hunt Japanese infiltrators on Bougainville in March 1944.
Landing beaches near Cape Torokina
Landing craft circling off Cape Torokina
Antiaircraft gunners at Cape Torokina
