Landings at Cape Torokina
The Landings at Cape Torokina, also known as Operation Cherryblossom, took place at the beginning of the Bougainville campaign in World War II. The amphibious landings were carried out by elements of the United States Marine Corps in November 1943 on Bougainville Island in the South Pacific, as part of Allied efforts to advance towards the main Japanese base around Rabaul under Operation Cartwheel. Coming in the wake of Allied successes at Guadalcanal and in the central Solomons, the landings were intended to secure a beachhead with the purpose of establishing several bases from which to project air and naval power closer towards Rabaul, in an effort to neutralize the large Japanese force that had been established there.
1st Battalion, 3rd Marines engaged during the landing at Cape Torokina.
Landing beaches near Cape Torokina
US Marines board landing craft in Empress Augusta Bay
A Japanese plane plunges into the sea ahead of the light cruiser USS Columbia, as she steams in column with other cruisers during the attack on Bougainville, 1–2 November 1943.
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