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25 Hard-earned victories in eastern New Guinea and Guadalcanal in the first months of 1943 checked Japan’s southward advance and set the conditions for an Allied counterstrike. After much debate over command relationships and resource allocation, the Joint Chiefs of Sta= (jcs) and theater commanders in the Pacific settled on a plan that focused on the isolation of Rabaul. By 1943, the Japanese had fortified this natural harbor on the northeastern tip of New Britain into a base that accommodated a substantial complement of warships, planes, and soldiers. The campaign against this Japanese staging area and strategic outpost involved two separate commands—swpa under General MacArthur and sopac under Admiral Halsey. Dubbed cartwheel, the plan called for MacArthur to advance northwest up the coast of New Guinea as Halsey island-hopped on an almost parallel axis up the Solomons chain. Scheduled to begin in the summer of 1943, the campaign was expected to culminate at the end of the year with swpa establishing a lodgment on the western tip of New Britain. The need to extend the reach of Allied air cover determined cartwheel ’sopeningmoves.LandingsonWoodlarkandKiriwinaandtheconstructionof airdromesattheselocationswouldbringRabaulandthenorthernSolomonswithinrangeof U.S.fightersandmediumbombers.Roughly two hundred miles o= the eastern tip of New Guinea, these small islands would also serve as way stations for planes as they shifted from one area to another, flying missions in support of either MacArthur or Halsey. In the preliminary stages of planning for cartwheel, the sopac commander suggested that the Allies occupy the two islands and volunteered to provide the ground forces to do the job. When the details were finalized in April 1943, Halsey followed through on his o=er and transferred the 112th Cavalry out of sopac and into swpa, where it fell under the control of Lt. Gen. Walter Krueger’s Sixth Army and drew the Woodlark mission.1 As a result of this change of assignment, the 112th bid farewell to its horses and left New Caledonia in May 1943. These developments came as a shock to the troopers, many of whom believed they would never actually fight the Japanese. They expected the unit to remain mounted and, as such, unsuited for jungle warfare. Senior leaders were not as surprised. Cunningham expected to move at any time, and Grant knew the regiment’s days of parading around for dignitaries were numbered.2 Coming a mere three weeks after the 112th had been issued its last contingent of horses, chapter 2 Closer to the Cauldron Woodlark and Arawe 26 chapter 2 the marching orders precipitated a flurry of activity. In their final days on New Caledonia, the cavalrymen received additional clothing, canvas jungle boots, machetes, and mosquito nets. Now dismounted, the unit faced the challenge of determining how to carry the mortars, machine guns, and radios that had long ridden on the backs of its horses. After two weeks of breaking camp and loading its vehicles and equipment onto transports, the 112th sailed on 13 May 1943.3 Landing at Townsville, Australia, four days later, the regiment began to train for the Woodlark operation. Although Sixth Army believed no enemy soldiers were on the island, the leaders of the 112th could not be certain.4 Facing the grim possibility of combat, they prepared in earnest—and without horses to confuse the issue of how the outfit would fight. The cavalrymen spent several days on platoon- and squad-level infantry tactics , specifically scouting and patrolling. These small-unit drills helped to assimilate the eighty-five replacements assigned to the unit as it departed NewCaledonia.Sincethe112thexpectedtoseizeWoodlarkandlatersecure the airdrome that would be constructed there, regimental and squadron exercises concentrated on defending prepared positions along the coast. Troopers dug weapons emplacements, laid barbed-wire obstacles, and practiced occupying their assigned sectors at night. Leaders also devoted several hours to hand-to-hand combat and bayonet training. Previously marginalized topics, like malaria control and first-aid procedures, received Kimbe Bay Milne Bay Sepik R. Ram u R . S t . G e o r g e ’ s C hannel The Slot Vitiaz Strait r e t s e c u o l G e p a C PA C I F I C O C E A N C o r a l S e a S o l o m o n S e a B i s m a r c k S e a Gulf of Papua ADMIRALTY ISLANDS St. Matthias I. Manus I. Emirau I. Huon Pen. Woodlark I. Goodenough...

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