Operation Cartwheel - Background To Operation Cartwheel

Background To Operation Cartwheel

Japanese forces had captured Rabaul, on New Britain, in the Territory of New Guinea, from Australian forces in February 1942 and turned it into their major forward base in the South Pacific, and the main obstacle in the two Allied theaters. MacArthur formulated a strategic outline, the Elkton Plan, to capture Rabaul from bases in Australia and New Guinea. Admiral Ernest J. King, the Chief of Naval Operations, proposed a plan with similar elements but under Navy command. Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall, whose main goal was for the U.S. to concentrate its efforts against Nazi Germany in Europe and not against the Japanese in the Pacific, proposed a compromise plan in which the task would be divided into three stages, the first under Navy command and the second two under MacArthur's direction and the control of the Army. This strategic plan, which was never formally adopted by the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff but which was ultimately implemented, called for:

• Capture of Tulagi (later Guadalcanal) and the Santa Cruz Islands (Operation Watchtower)
• Capture of the northeast coast of New Guinea and the central Solomons
• Reduction of Rabaul and related bases

The protracted battle for Guadalcanal—followed by the unopposed seizure of the Russell Islands (Operation Cleanslate) on 21 February 1943—resulted in Japanese attempts to reinforce the area by sea. MacArthur's air forces countered in the Battle of the Bismarck Sea from 2-5 March 1943. The disastrous losses suffered by the Japanese prompted Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto to initiate I Go (Operation 'I'), a series of air attacks against Allied airfields and shipping at both Guadalcanal and New Guinea, which ultimately resulted in Yamamoto's death on 18 April 1943.