Operation Cartwheel
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Operation Cartwheel was a major military operation for the Allies in the Pacific theatre of World War II. Cartwheel was an operation aimed at neutralising the major Japanese base at Rabaul. The operation was directed by the Supreme Allied Commander in the South West Pacific Area (SWPA), General Douglas MacArthur, whose forces had advanced along the northeast coast of New Guinea and occupied nearby islands. Allied forces from the South Pacific Area, under Admiral William Halsey, advanced through the Solomon Islands toward Bougainville. The Allied forces involved were from Australia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the US, and various Pacific Islands.
The eastern part of the Territory of New Guinea, and the northern Solomon Islands; the area in which Operation Cartwheel took place, from June 1943.
US Marines hit three feet (1 metre) of rough water as they leave their LST to take the beach at Cape Gloucester, New Britain. 26 December 1943. (Source: National Archives)
Elkton III Plan, March 1943.
William Halsey Jr.
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William Frederick "Bull" Halsey Jr. was an American Navy admiral during World War II. He is one of four officers to have attained the rank of five-star fleet admiral of the United States Navy, the others being William Leahy, Ernest J. King, and Chester W. Nimitz.
An SBD Dauntless flies anti-submarine patrol over Enterprise and Saratoga.
Halsey in the South Pacific (May 1944)
Admirals Nimitz and Halsey discuss South Pacific strategy in early 1943.