Podcasts about choiseul

In this episode, we dive into the coordinated landings on the Treasury Islands, the daring Choiseul raid, and the brutal jungle fighting that followed. From LSTs taking direct hits at Falamai to a New Zealand bulldozer operator burying a live pillbox under fire, the stakes were high from the first wave. We'll follow Loganforce's stand at Soanotalu, the deception that tied down enemy forces at Choiseul, and the calculated push through Green Island and Emirau that sealed off Raball. With PT boats patrolling tight waters, Seabees building airfields under fire, and Marines fighting in thick jungle, the campaign isolated Japan's strongest forward base and opened the road to the Philippines. ************* Visit HistoryoftheMarineCorps.com to subscribe to our newsletter, explore episode notes and images, and see our references. Follow us on social media for updates and bonus content: Facebook and Twitter (@marinehistory) and Instagram (@historyofthemarines). This episode is sponsored by Audible. Visit AudibleTrial.com/marinehistory for a free audiobook and a 30-day trial.

In Part II of the murder that sparked a revolution, the Chamber of Peers investigates Duke Praslin for his wife's brutal slaying.Sources:“ASSASSINAT DE MADAME LA DUCHESSE DE PRASLIN.” L'Ami de la religion, vol. 134. Paris. 1847.Eubule-Evans, A. “Letter to the Editor.” The Spectator, No. 3,396. 29 July, 1893. P. 16Greville, William Henry. Henry Greville's Diary (London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1883).Gronek, Oceane. “Small family murder at the Duke of Choiseul's.” Chateau Blandy. https://www.chateau-blandy.fr/en/node/303Loomis, Stanley. A Crime of Passion (New York: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1967).Lowndes, Marie Belloc. “The Praslin Murder: A Famous French Mystery Case.” Harper's Weekly, Vol. LVII, No. 2924. 4 January 1913. The Mirror Monthly Magazine, Vol II, July to December 1847 (London: Kent and Richards, 1847). P. 185-188.Savine, Albert. L'assassinat de la Duchess de Praslin (Paris: Louis-Michaud, 1908). The Spectator, No. 966, Vol. 20. (London: Joseph Clayton, 1847). P. 822-824.Verdict Press. Crimes of Passion (London: Verdict Press, 1975).Walton, Gerri. “Duchess de Choiseul-Praslin: Her Murder in 1847.” Geri Walton. 19 August, 2016. Duchess de Choiseul-Praslin: Her Murder in 1847 - geriwalton.comAs well as translated letters and journal entries by Duchess Praslin, 1840-1847.Music: Credits to Holizna, Fesilyan Studios & Virginia ListonFor more information, visit www.oldbloodpodcast.com

In 1847, servants of Paris's Hotel Sebastiani rushed to help Duchess Praslin after hearing her screams. This is part one of the murder that sparked a revolution. Sources:“ASSASSINAT DE MADAME LA DUCHESSE DE PRASLIN.” L'Ami de la religion, vol. 134. Paris. 1847.Eubule-Evans, A. “Letter to the Editor.” The Spectator, No. 3,396. 29 July, 1893. P. 16Greville, William Henry. Henry Greville's Diary (London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1883).Gronek, Oceane. “Small family murder at the Duke of Choiseul's.” Chateau Blandy. https://www.chateau-blandy.fr/en/node/303Loomis, Stanley. A Crime of Passion (New York: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1967).Lowndes, Marie Belloc. “The Praslin Murder: A Famous French Mystery Case.” Harper's Weekly, Vol. LVII, No. 2924. 4 January 1913. The Mirror Monthly Magazine, Vol II, July to December 1847 (London: Kent and Richards, 1847). P. 185-188.Savine, Albert. L'assassinat de la Duchess de Praslin (Paris: Louis-Michaud, 1908). The Spectator, No. 966, Vol. 20. (London: Joseph Clayton, 1847). P. 822-824.Verdict Press. Crimes of Passion (London: Verdict Press, 1975).Walton, Gerri. “Duchess de Choiseul-Praslin: Her Murder in 1847.” Geri Walton. 19 August, 2016. Duchess de Choiseul-Praslin: Her Murder in 1847 - geriwalton.comAs well as translated letters and journal entries by Duchess Praslin, 1840-1847.Music: Credits to Holizna, Fesilyan Studios & Virginia ListonFor more information, visit www.oldbloodpodcast.com

Nous sommes au début de l'été 1769, à Versailles. Louis XV, dans un courrier, réagit à l'aversion que son chef de gouvernement, le duc de Choiseul témoigne à l'égard de la favorite, Madame du Barry. Le roi écrit : « … Vous faites bien mes affaires, je suis content de vous ; mais gardez-vous des entours et des donneurs d'avis ; c'est ce que j'ai toujours haï et que je déteste plus que jamais. Vous connaissez Madame du Barry (…) Elle est jolie, j'en suis content, et je lui recommande tous les jours de prendre garde aussi à ses entours et donneurs d'avis : car vous croyez bien qu'elle n'en manque pas. Elle n'a nulle haine contre vous ; elle connaît votre esprit et ne vous veut point de mal. Le déchaînement contre elle a été affreux, à tort pour la plus grande partie. L'on serait à ses pieds si … Ainsi va le monde… » Madame du Barry est une des femmes de Louis XV qui les aimait beaucoup. Dans son entourage, on trouve, bien sûr, la reine Marie Leszczynska, ses filles, ses petites maîtresses et les favorites. Qu'ont-elles en commun ? Quelle rôle ont-elles joué dans le long règne du roi que l'on surnommait « le Bien aimé » ? Invitée : Cécile Berly, historienne, spécialiste du XVIIIe Merci pour votre écoute Un Jour dans l'Histoire, c'est également en direct tous les jours de la semaine de 13h15 à 14h30 sur www.rtbf.be/lapremiere Retrouvez tous les épisodes d'Un Jour dans l'Histoire sur notre plateforme Auvio.be :https://auvio.rtbf.be/emission/5936 Intéressés par l'histoire ? Vous pourriez également aimer nos autres podcasts : L'Histoire Continue: https://audmns.com/kSbpELwL'heure H : https://audmns.com/YagLLiKEt sa version à écouter en famille : La Mini Heure H https://audmns.com/YagLLiKAinsi que nos séries historiques :Chili, le Pays de mes Histoires : https://audmns.com/XHbnevhD-Day : https://audmns.com/JWRdPYIJoséphine Baker : https://audmns.com/wCfhoEwLa folle histoire de l'aviation : https://audmns.com/xAWjyWCLes Jeux Olympiques, l'étonnant miroir de notre Histoire : https://audmns.com/ZEIihzZMarguerite, la Voix d'une Résistante : https://audmns.com/zFDehnENapoléon, le crépuscule de l'Aigle : https://audmns.com/DcdnIUnUn Jour dans le Sport : https://audmns.com/xXlkHMHSous le sable des Pyramides : https://audmns.com/rXfVppvN'oubliez pas de vous y abonner pour ne rien manquer.Et si vous avez apprécié ce podcast, n'hésitez pas à nous donner des étoiles ou des commentaires, cela nous aide à le faire connaître plus largement.

In this episode Fiona, Sherween, and Chantal share their Dominica experiences - they recount their stay at Harmony Villas, the Kalinago naming ceremony, and the WATO Food Festival, which featured chefs from various Caribbean islands. The festival's authenticity, community spirit, and cultural exchange are emphasised. The hosts then share a few of their St Lucia moments as Sherween and Fiona welcome Chantal to their island for her first visit as an adult. Personal moments of joy include Fiona's visit to a locally owned farm in Mon Tete Choiseul, Chantal's time with her nephew Jeriah, and Sherween's decision to relocate to Choiseul. The episode concludes with reflections on the joy and connections formed during their much overdue reunion.This week's Under The Mango Tree is extra special, featuring a recording of the three hosts bursting into uncontrollable laughter over some pure foolishness—just like we did throughout the entire Dominica trip!Got feedback, comments, or want to partner with or sponsor *The (Relate)able Podcast? Reach out to our manager, BreAnna, at relateablepodcastmanager@gmail.com.Follow The *(Relate)able Podcast: Instagram: @therelateablepodcastTikTok: @therelateablepodcastYouTube: @therelateablepodcastTwitter: @relateablepodShow NotesWATO InstagramEntertainment Sound ProductionsKalinago TerritoryHarmony VillaMonTete CottagesSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/relateable. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Pour ce replay, nous recevons Angélique Gérard, la superwoman émotionnelle. Angélique est une femme d'exception : Elle fut l'une des pionnières à rejoindre Xavier Niel dans la folle aventure de FreeElle a été 2 fois à la tête du Classement Choiseul des leaders économiques de demain (seul Emmanuel Macron l'a été avant d'être élu Président) Elle est aussi une femme engagée sur de multiples causes , comme l'entrepreneuriat féminin. Nous nous replongeons dans ce premier épisode du podcast, nous avons notamment parlé des caleçons de François Hollande, de Xavier Niel, de pornographie, d'éducation, de la guerre, de burn out, de bad boy ou encore de Nicolas Sarkozy…Bon voyage avec Les Sages !

C'est le Fonds Monétaire International (FMI) qui sonne l'alerte : le cumul de la dette de tous les pays devrait dépasser les 100.000 milliards de dollars cette année, soit environ 93 % du PIB mondial. Un chiffre étourdissant, mais qui cache de très fortes disparités et des enjeux très différents selon les pays et les zones géographiques. Qui sont les principaux responsables de cette aggravation générale ? Les grandes puissances, les pays émergents ou les pays en développement ? L'affaiblissement de l'inflation et les cours de certaines matières premières vont-ils aider certains budgets en surchauffe ? Faut-il parler de bonnes et de mauvaises dettes ? En fonction des capacités d'emprunt, la question des liquidités n'est-elle pas plus importante ? Nous en parlons avec deux invités prestigieux en ligne de Washington où ils participaient aux assemblées annuelles du FMI et de la Banque Mondiale.NOS INVITES- Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, économiste en chef du Fonds Monétaire International- Anne-Laure Kiechel, fondatrice et présidente de Global Sovereign Advisory En fin d'émission, cap sur Marrakech (Maroc) théâtre les 31 octobre et 1er novembre du Choiseul Africa Business Forum 2024, événement (dont RFI est partenaire) qui réunit des centaines de décideurs venus du continent africain, mais aussi d'Europe et de la région du Golfe. Chaque année y est dévoilé le classement Choiseul 100 Africa qui récompense les talents émergents, âgés de moins de 40 ans.NOTRE INVITE- Pascal Lorot, président de l'Institut Choiseul.Suivez-nous sur Facebook et X et retrouvez les entretiens vidéos avec nos invités de l'économie sur la chaîne YouTube de RFI.

C'est le Fonds Monétaire International (FMI) qui sonne l'alerte : le cumul de la dette de tous les pays devrait dépasser les 100.000 milliards de dollars cette année, soit environ 93 % du PIB mondial. Un chiffre étourdissant, mais qui cache de très fortes disparités et des enjeux très différents selon les pays et les zones géographiques. Qui sont les principaux responsables de cette aggravation générale ? Les grandes puissances, les pays émergents ou les pays en développement ? L'affaiblissement de l'inflation et les cours de certaines matières premières vont-ils aider certains budgets en surchauffe ? Faut-il parler de bonnes et de mauvaises dettes ? En fonction des capacités d'emprunt, la question des liquidités n'est-elle pas plus importante ? Nous en parlons avec deux invités prestigieux en ligne de Washington où ils participaient aux assemblées annuelles du FMI et de la Banque Mondiale.NOS INVITES- Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, économiste en chef du Fonds Monétaire International- Anne-Laure Kiechel, fondatrice et présidente de Global Sovereign Advisory En fin d'émission, cap sur Marrakech (Maroc) théâtre les 31 octobre et 1er novembre du Choiseul Africa Business Forum 2024, événement (dont RFI est partenaire) qui réunit des centaines de décideurs venus du continent africain, mais aussi d'Europe et de la région du Golfe. Chaque année y est dévoilé le classement Choiseul 100 Africa qui récompense les talents émergents, âgés de moins de 40 ans.NOTRE INVITE- Pascal Lorot, président de l'Institut Choiseul.Suivez-nous sur Facebook et X et retrouvez les entretiens vidéos avec nos invités de l'économie sur la chaîne YouTube de RFI.

Le 2 mars 1758, Mme de Cergy rencontre à l'église le mystérieux Comte de Saint-Germain, un homme qu'elle n'a pas vu depuis 62 ans et qui n'a pas vieilli. Le Comte affirme être un alchimiste capable de prolonger sa vie et annonce une révolution imminente en France. À Versailles, il impressionne Mme de Pompadour et le roi Louis XV avec ses talents, notamment en purifiant un diamant et en prétendant pouvoir transformer l'argent en or. Cependant, il suscite la méfiance de M. de Choiseul, qui tente de le discréditer. Après une série d'intrigues, le Comte disparaît avec des fonds importants, mais réapparaît mystérieusement des années plus tard pour soutenir financièrement la Révolution française. Merci pour votre écoute Retrouvez l'ensemble des épisodes de l'Heure H sur notre plateforme Auvio.be : https://auvio.rtbf.be/emission/22750 Et si vous avez apprécié ce podcast, n'hésitez pas à nous donner des étoiles ou des commentaires, cela nous aide à le faire connaître plus largement.

In the headlines: a Water storage facility opens in Victoria, Choiseul; and Deputy Prime Minister, Hon. Dr. Ernest Hilaire, addresses the Chamber of Commerce executive on the Citizenship by Investment Program (CIP).

"Europa si no tiene a la OTAN no tiene ninguna capacidad de defensa militar". Eduardo Olier¿Un escenario de Segunda Guerra Fría? "No estamos en una guerra fría, sino en una guerra caliente" con múltiples guerras: en Europa, la guerra de Ucrania y el conflicto en Gaza. Es sorprende que aún así las bolsas estén tocando máximos, cuando lo que se compra de manera masiva es oro. Eduardo Olier, presidente del instituto Choiseul en España y profesor honorífico del CESEDEN. explica que estamos a la espera de las elecciones de EEUU el cinco de noviembre. "EEUU es de momento la potencia global", es mayor la economía de EEUU que la de China, pero respecto al PIB con capacidad de compra, es China quien ganaría, casi 7 billones de dólares por encima que el gobierno de Biden. EEUU dependiendo de quien gane cambiará geopolíticamente el mundo, si los republicanos se hacen con la mayoría respecto a los demócratas. Si ganan los republicanos la OTAN perdería peso y Europa quedaría desprotegida, según las encuestas. Rusia da la impresión de que es Putin y no es así. Si Putin saliera, la operación en Ucrania sería incluso más agresiva. El cambio de ministro de defensa es el típico movimiento estratega del gobierno ruso. "Aunque veamos a Putin, por detrás en Rusia hay un gran estructura que es la que mueve la guerra de Ucrania". Y la OTAN tampoco es un club donde todo el mundo esté de acuerdo, por lo que Eduardo Olier no cree que entre en la guerra. En economía, la Unión Europea crecerá alrededor del 1,7% frente a EEUU por encima del 3% y China por encima del 5%. "Europa si no tiene a la OTAN no tiene ninguna capacidad de defensa". Olier defiende que "la OTAN básicamente es EEUU, si no estuviese EEUU no sería nada", porque EEUU es quién saca las castañas del fuego. El problema de Europa es un problema político. Francia con una deuda por encima del 100% del PIB y Alemania tiene una crisis económica. Los países de la Unión Europea del este le preocupan que Rusia se meta en su paso. Nadie se pone de acuerdo y tomar decisiones comunes en Bruselas se complica. #europa #otan #rusia #defensa #putin #ucrania #ukrainewar #eeuu #stoltenberg #biden #deuda #europa #negociostv #vizner Si quieres entrar en la Academia de Negocios TV, este es el enlace:   https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwd8Byi93KbnsYmCcKLExvQ/join Síguenos en directo ➡️ https://bit.ly/2Ts9V3pSuscríbete a nuestro canal: https://bit.ly/3jsMzp2Suscríbete a nuestro segundo canal, másnegocios: https://n9.cl/4dca4Visita Negocios TV https://bit.ly/2Ts9V3pMás vídeos de Negocios TV: https://youtube.com/@NegociosTVSíguenos en Telegram: https://t.me/negociostvSíguenos en Instagram: https://bit.ly/3oytWndTwitter: https://bit.ly/3jz6LptFacebook: https://bit.ly/3e3kIuy

Faites un don et recevez un cadeau : http://don.storiavoce.com/ En 1648, les traités de Westphalie et de Munster font entrer l'Europe dans une nouvelle ère, celle de l'équilibre des puissances. Aux rêves hégémoniques de la papauté en crise se substitue la recherche d'équilibres afin de maintenir la paix en Europe. Visionnaire génial, le cardinal de Richelieu est le précurseur de ce nouvel âge selon les termes d'Henry Kissinger, à la fois père de l'Etat moderne et vulgarisateur de la raison d'Etat. Mazarin et Kaunitz, Choiseul et Pitt, Metternich et Bismarck sont ainsi les fils spirituels de "l'homme rouge". Au service du prince, ils ont promu une vision politique réaliste de la politique étrangère. Dans ce Grand entretien, Hubert Védrine nous présente les caractéristiques de ce nouvel âge politique, la grandeur de la diplomatie et ce qui, aujourd'hui, contribue à une remise en cause de son efficacité. L'invité : L'engagement d'Hubert Védrine sur la scène internationale a été et reste considérable. Il a été successivement conseiller diplomatique, porte-parole et secrétaire général de l'Élysée durant les deux septennats de François Mitterrand. Conseiller d'Etat en 1986, il devient ministre des Affaires étrangères (1997-2002) sous la présidence de Jacques Chirac. Aujourd'hui, Hubert Védrine mène des activités de conseil en géopolitique. Auteur de nombreux ouvrages sur la question, il vient aussi de publier Camus, notre rempart (Plon, 128 p., 18€) et de diriger Grands diplomates. Les maîtres des relations internationales de Mazarin à nos jours (Perrin, 416 p., 25€). Ce dernier ouvrage rassemble les contributions de vingt historiens et journalistes sur les grands négociateurs et diplomates de l'époque moderne et contemporaine. *** Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/HistoireEtCivilisationsMag Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/histoireetcivilisations/ Twitter : https://twitter.com/Storiavoce

Découvrez l'abonnement "Au Coeur de l'Histoire +" et accédez à des heures de programmes, des archives inédites, des épisodes en avant-première et une sélection d'épisodes sur des grandes thématiques. Profitez de cette offre sur Apple Podcasts dès aujourd'hui ! C'est l'histoire de deux femmes que tout oppose, dont les chemins se croisent à Versailles au crépuscule du règne de Louis XV. La première, la favorite du roi, est une parvenue ; la seconde, la dauphine, est une aristocrate. Dans un récit inédit, Virginie Girod vous raconte la rivalité entre Jeanne du Barry et Marie-Antoinette. L'histoire de Jeanne Bécu est celle d'une incroyable ascension sociale. Elle naît en 1743 dans un milieu populaire. La seule chose dont Jeanne dispose pour tenter d'échapper à sa condition est sa beauté. Jeanne fait la rencontre du comte du Barry, un aristocrate libertin. La belle Jeanne devient la coqueluche du Tout-Paris et bientôt, le comte l'introduit à Versailles en espérant qu'elle devienne la maîtresse de Louis XV. C'est le meilleur moyen d'obtenir les faveurs du souverain pour lui et ses amis. Le cœur de Louis XV est libre, il vient de perdre son amie Madame de Pompadour. Du Barry gagne vite une grande influence sur le roi… et se fait beaucoup d'ennemis à la cour, qui méprisent ses origines roturières. Marie-Antoinette, de son côté, voit le jour en 1755 à Vienne. Elle est l'une des dernières nées de l'archiduchesse Marie-Thérèse d'Autriche. Son mariage avec le Dauphin de France, le futur Louis XVI, est en partie organisé par le duc de Choiseul qui tenait à resserrer les liens avec l'Autriche, pour mieux s'opposer à l'Angleterre. Or, Choiseul déteste Jeanne du Barry, tout comme les filles de Louis XV. Marie-Antoinette est trop jeune pour comprendre les jeux d'influence. Elle prend donc également en grippe la favorite et ne lui adresse jamais la parole. Cette situation inconfortable plonge le roi dans l'embarras : elle a de l'affection pour la Dauphine, mais il en a plus encore pour sa maîtresse. Et si Marie-Antoinette devait être répudiée, ce serait la fin de l'alliance entre l'Autriche et la France ! Thèmes abordés : Louis XV, Versailles, Louis XV, Marie Antoinette "Au Coeur de l'Histoire" est un podcast Europe 1 Studio- Présentation : Virginie Girod - Production : Caroline Garnier - Réalisation : Clément Ibrahim- Composition de la musique originale : Julien Tharaud et Sébastien Guidis- Rédaction et Diffusion : Nathan Laporte- Communication : Marie Corpet- Visuel : Sidonie Mangin

Pour ce premier épisode, nous reçevons Angélique Gérard, la superwoman émotionnelle. Angélique est une femme exceptionnelle : l'une des pionnières à rejoindre Xavier Niel dans l'aventure de Free, elle a été 2 fois la tête du Classement Choiseul des leaders économiques de demain (Seul un monsieur nommé Emmanuel Macron l'a fait avant d'être élu Président.) c'est aussi une femme engagée sur de multiples causes comme l'entrepreneuriat féminin. Dans ce premier épisode, on a notamment parlé des caleçons de François Hollande, de Xavier Niel, de porno, d'éducation, de la guerre, de burn out, de bad boy ou encore de Nicolas Sarkozy…Bon voyage avec Les Sages !

  Last time we spoke about the invasion of the Treasury Islands. The time had come to begin operations against Bougainville, but in order to do so the allies had a few tricks up their sleeves. In order to make sure the landings at Cape Torokina at Empress Augusta Bay went safely, the allies would perform raids against Choiseul and the Treasury islands. It was hoped such actions would work as a diversion and confused the Japanese as to where the real operations were aimed. The landing on Mono saw some New Zealanders and Americans annihilate a 200 strong Japanese garrison. On Choiseul Paratroopers boldly raided a force 6 times larger than them. The raid was a success and thanks to John F Kennedy the Paratroopers were grabbed off the island before the Japanese could obliterate them. In the end the landings at Cape Torokina were a success and now a battle would be unleashed.  This episode is the battle of Empress Augusta Bay Welcome to the Pacific War Podcast Week by Week, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about world war two? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on world war two and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel you can find a few videos all the way from the Opium Wars of the 1800's until the end of the Pacific War in 1945.  So last time we covered the planning behind Operation Cherryblossom, the landings at Cape Torokina. As a means of confusing the enemy, the allies also chose to invade the Treasury islands and raided Choiseul. With Operation Cherryblossom in full swing, so begins the Bougainville campaign which we are going to be diving into now. At the end of October, after successfully invading the Treasury islands and the extremely bold attack upon Choiseul where the Paratroopers were outnumbered 6-1, combined with General Kenny's 5th air force and AirSols neutralizing Rabaul and nearly every airfield on Bougainville, the landings at Cape Torokina were finally launched. In a final act to aid operation cherryblossom, Admiral Sherman's Task force 38 departed Espiritu Santo on October 28th and Admiral Merrills Task Force did the same from Florida island on November 1st. They hoped to rendezvous near the Buka Passage three days later so they could prepare an attack against the Buka and Bonis airfields.  During the morning of November 1st, Admiral Merrill's cruisers arrived to their station and began firing upon the arifields. Then Sherman's carriers arrived off Buka passage to launch two separate air strikes. The first airstrike consisting of eighteen fighters, fifteen dive bombers, and eleven torpedo bombers hit Buka just after daylight. The second consisting of fourteen fighters, twenty-one dive bombers, and eleven torpedo bombers hit Buka again at midmorning. The airstrikes managed to shoot up a number of small ships within the harbor. Meanwhile after firing 2700 5 and 6 inch shells all over Buka and Bonis's airfields, Merrils task force 39 departed the Shortlands to bombard Poporang, Ballalo and Faisi.  On November 2nd, Sherman performed air strikes against Buka and Bonis's fields before departing south for Guadalcanal. Within those two days the Americans estimated they had destroyed around 30 aircraft and several small ships at the cost of 11 aircraft lost. The attacks had rendered the two Japanese airfields closest to Empress Augusta Bay basically unusable for when the landings would be made. The Japanese were now convinced that any invasion of Bougainville would have to be countered with all the aircraft and ships available within the southern theater. Yet they could not concentrate their entire naval and air forces against the Solomons, because the American and Australian forces on New Guinea would most likely be performing a landing on New Britain at any moment. Admiral Koga also expected the Americans to attempt a landing in the Gilbert or Marshalls. Thus the two pronged allied strategy was serving to freeze the Japanese army units within the New Guinea and Solomon areas.  Meanwhile Admiral Wilkinson's task force 31 were making final preparations for transport the 3rd Marine division. The amphibious assault would be facing a landing area defended by roughly 270 men. Once they overcame them, a defense perimeter would have to be hastily made because it was certain the Japanese commander on Bougainville would hammer them hard. General Vandergrift's plan was to land the 3rd and 9th marine regiments of Colonel George McHenry and Colonel Edward Craig and the 2nd raider battalion of Lt Colonel Joseph McCaffery abreast on 11 designated beaches covering a distance of 8000 or so yards. The 3rd raider battalion lt be Lt colonel Fred Beans would land at the same time on Puruata island to overcome an estimated 70 Japanese defenders there. Wilkinson wanted to land the forces abreast as quickly as possible and to have the transport unload the supplies off the bay by nightfall because he expected a rapid Japanese response, similar to what had occurred at Savo island.  On October 28th, General Turnage's men departed the New Hebrides in 20 combat transports and cargo ships commanded by Commodore Lawrence Reifsnider. The convoy proceeded using different routes, hoping to prevent the Japanese from discovering the size of their force, the three transport divisions would rendezvous with Wilkinsons destroyers by October 31st. Once linked up they would approach Bougainville under the cover of naval PBYs and Liberators. During the morning of November 1st, Minesweepers led by the destroyer Wadsworth were sent in to clear mines from the landing areas and to determine how dangerous the shoals were. The minesweepers found no mines, but did find plenty of uncharted shoals. Wadsworth radar confirmed that Cape Torokina's position within their naval charts was misplaced. Wadsworth had a number of tasks ahead of her. In addition to helping with the fire support at a range of around 3000 yards, she was to use her radar to confirm the actual location of Cape Torokina, Puruata island and the landing beaches. The coast of Bougainville had been chartered by the German Admiralty in 1890. The Germans had placed Cape Torokina and Mutupina Point around 9 miles southwest of their actual locations. Thankfully the submarine USS Guardfish reported that the air force and naval charts had misplaced Cape Torokina by around 7 miles and this is why Wadsworth was sent to investigate. Unsexy logistical stuff, but gravely important, as you don't want to waste any time during an amphibious landing searching for a lost beach. Wilkinson decided not the land the men until after daylight when it was possible to detect the offshore shoals. Shortly before sunrise, the minesweepers and destroyers began their bombardment. The Sigourney and Wadsworth fired at ranges of 13,000 yards upon Puruata Island, while the Terry bombarded closer to the shore of Cape Torokina. As each transport passed the cape, they fired 3 inch anti-aircraft guns hoping to hit Japanese positions or at least minimize their artillery. By 6:45am the transports began arriving off the beaches around 3000 yards from the shore. At 7:10am the LCVP's began taking men ashore. Simultaneously Wilkinsons destroyers began systematically bombarding the perimeter while 31 bombers from New Georgia bombed and strafed the landing areas. Within a few minutes around 7500 troops, roughly half of the total force were scrambling ashore and unloading with great speed and smoothness. The preliminary bombardment had failed however to smash the well concealed Japanese machine gun nests located on the southern beaches. These machine gun nests unleashed their lead upon the landing craft. The landing craft bearing a third of the force had immediately come under fire from Puruata island and some pillboxes on Cape Torokina. The 3rd raiders in particular were hit by machine gun fire from Puruata. Around 4 land craft were sunk from this, 10 others were badly damaged, over 70 men would be lost in the process.  The 9th marines landed themselves on 5 beaches to the north and were lucky to find little resistance from the Japanese. Once ashore they sorted themselves out quickly and began to move inland to discover the terrain was a nightmare. The beaches where they were led straight into some impassable swamp land. Nevertheless where there is a will there is a way, the marines began using fallen logs and debris to traverse the swamp until they came across some solid ground. By midmorning they would establish a narrow perimeter and began patrolling the greater area. They would establish a strong outpost on the Laruma River by 1pm. The boat crews were experienced a lot of issues with the high surf, combined with a lock of experience amongst them. Some of the LCVPS found themselves smashing into another, some dropped their men in deep water, some did not lower their ramps properly and the marines were forced to toss themselves over the sides into waist deep water. More than 30 landing craft were wrecked during the initial phase of the operation. Around 64 LCVPS and 22 LCMS were beached, many with damage beyond repair.  The 3rd marines and 2nd raiders would have a hell of a time landing. The 3rd marines landing south of the Koromokina river, they had no issues with shoals, nor the high surf, but they had landed directly in front of the main Japanese defenses. There was roughly 300 Japanese, but they did not have permanent defenses along the beaches of Yellow 2, Blue 2, and Blue 3. As the 3rd marines landed they began fighting with some Japanese killing many and sending them fleeing into the Jungle. Patrols were quickly organized who worked alongside the 2nd raiders patrols to fan out. The raiders upon landing found tougher resistance in the form of a reinforced platoon operating out of two bunkers and trenches located 30 yards inland. Once the raiders had blasted out the bunkers, the remaining Japanese began to retreat into the jungle. Like the 9th marines they would find swamp lands ahead of Yellow 1 making it difficult to advance. By midmorning the raiders reached the Buretoni Mission Trail. The main Japanese resistance hit the men who landed at Blue 1, just adjacent to Cape Torokina. There the Japanese had constructed 25 large and small log and earthen pillboxes around the perimeter of the cape. There were trenches connecting the pillboxes, some of the larger pillboxes measuring 6 feet by 6 feet, containing 75mm field guns. Each pillbox was covered by earth and camouflaged using jungle plants. Only 3 pillboxes had been hit by the naval and aerial bombardments prior to the landings. When the Americans hit the beaches in the area they immediately were forced to charge into the enemy bunkers. The Japanese 75 mm gun at Cape Torokina caused havoc upon the attackers. It was a well placed log and sand bunker and its approaches were protected by two smaller bunkers with a series of trenches manned by numerous Japanese. Sergeant Robert Owens of A company, 3rd marines grabbed 4 marines and charged the two small bunkers directly upon the mouths of some machine guns. The marines entered an emplacement through a fire port and drove the gun crew out. The surrounded trenches concentrated their fire on the brave marines, Sergeant Owns would be found later dead riddled with bullets. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for the action. Lt Colonel Joseph McCaffery was immediately mortally struck four times in the chest as he led the marines forward, he was replaced temporarily by Major Alan Shapley for the 2nd raiders. Despite the horrible losses the Americans cleared the Japanese positions and pushed further inland to pursue and kill the fleeing defenders. It is worthy to mention over 24 Doberman Pinschers, the official dog of the USMC between 1943-1945 from the 1st marine dog platoon proved invaluable during this point of the battle. The dogs were able to point out hidden snipers concealed in underbrushed. 549 War dogs would return from the war with only 4 not being able to return to civilian life, all very good boys. The 3rd raiders landing at Puruta had nearly all their boats shot at, but it was mostly small machine gun fire and did little to no damage. The Japanese had 3 or 4 deep well sandbagged emplacement on the seaward side where their machine guns nests fired upon the raiders. It took the raiders two hours upon landing to secure their beachhead around125 yards inland. Beans committed his reserves early in the afternoon, supported by some 75mm guns borrowed from the 9th marines, they moved halfway across the island, encountering sporadic Japanese sniper fire. The Japanese were outnumbered, by 3:30pm their resistance all but ended. The marines suffered 5 deaths and 32 wounded, around 29 dead Japanese would be found. They estimated another 70 Japanese escaped to Bougainville.  Soon after all the landing craft began to pull out, the Japanese began launching air strikes. For around two hours the transports and supply ships were zigzagging for their lives to evade dive bombers and fighters coming from Rabaul. The first air strike consisted of 9 Vals and 44 Zeros, they hit at around 7:35am almost immediately after the landings were made. General Twinning's 8 Kittyhawks and 8 P-38s managed to fight them off, downing 7 Japanese aircraft. The Wedsworth received a near miss during the battle. 10 minutes later, AirSols beat off another attack taking down another 8 Japanese aircraft. During the last attack, roughly 70 Japanese aircraft came in around 1pm and were met by 34 AirSols fighters. After all three attacked, the Japanese has used around 120 aircraft and lost 26, inflicting no serious damage to allied ships nor the marines ashore. But the air attacks did result in major delays for the unloading of supplies for some hours. To try and speed up the unloading process, Wilkinson stripped some men from the assault units to help unload cargo ashore. Additionally Wilkinson employed a method of light combat loading. It would take some days for the beaches to be fully sorted out, while the naval forces departed Empress Augusta Bay before nightfall to return to Guadalcanal. Thus 14,000 men and 6200 tons of supplies had been successfully placed ashore in 8 hours. By the end of the first day the marines had contested a ⅓ sector and reached their initial objectives, digging in uncomfortably for the night under torrential rain. The divisional perimeter was established by forward landing teams, who had very little to work with for maps. To the extreme left of the perimeter would be Company G of the 9th marines, who were in a vulnerable spot along the Lrauma river. Lucky for them the Japanese were quite disorganized and many were located southeast of Cape Torokina. At dusk there was only sporadic sniper fire directed at the ⅓ in the vicinity of the cape plantation and later an attack was made against the 2nd raiders at a roadblock they established along Mission Trail. General Turnage was now the official owner of a new lodgement on Bougainville. Generals Imamura and Hyakutake were quite slow to react to the landings. They sent the Iwasa detachment led by Major General Iwasa Shun, commanding the 6th infantry group. Backing him up would be the 1st and 3rd battalions of the 23rd regiment. Their first task was to hit the new enemy beachhead. As predicted by the allies, Admirals Kusaka and Samejima mustered every naval and aerial strength they had to try and smash the invaders. As part of Operation RO, Admiral Koga had sent over 250 aircraft from the 5 carriers of Admiral Ozawa's air fleet. Koga specifically stated the bulk of these were only going to be loaned for a short time, obviously they would have to return to the main fleet. Well the invasion of Bougainville certainly upset the plans, the planes would not be coming back on schedule. As Admiral Fukudome SHigeri, Koga's Chief of staff would later note “although the planes were not originally to be used in such offensive operations, we could not just stand by and not employ them." By midday on October the 31st, the Japanese had discovered the American task force that had departed Guadalcanal en route for Bougainville. The IJN were determined to interrupt the operation. Kusaka sent a cruiser-destroyer task force led by Vice admiral Omori Sentaro. Departing Rabual Omori had the two heavy cruisers, Myoko and Haguro; two light cruisers, Sendai and Nagara; and two destroyers. Now Omori was the commander of Cruiser division 5 of the Combined fleet, not of the 8th fleet. He just happened to be at Rabaul covering the movement of the 17th division at the time, he was given command of his division and the main strength of the 8th fleet. Omori sailed out at 3pm in the direction of the Shortland islands believing that to be the allied target. Poor weather hindered his force and his search planes failed to locate any allied ships. Thus by 9am on November the 1st he was on his way back to Rabaul. Yet right as his ships were turning around, suddenly they received reports that the Americans had hit the beaches of Cape Torokina. Omori was quickly reinforced with a destroyer squadron and a destroyer transport group consisting of the Amagiri, Fumizuki, Uzuki, Yunagi and Minazuki each carrying 200 troops of a 1000 special trained raider group of the 17th division. This was the 2nd mobile raiding units from the 2nd battalion, 54th regiment led by Major Miwa Mitsuhiro. They were going to perform a counter landing against the marines at Mutupino point near the village of Toroko, due south of the marine beachhead. Within 6 hours, Omoro departed once again to hit the enemy fleet, but he lacked a real battle plan. At 6:30pm Omori rendezvoused with the transports at the St. George channel and together they proceeded towards Bougainville. At 7:20 the convoy was spotted by an american bomber who dropped a bomb nearly hitting the Sendai. Based on this Omori knew the Americans knew he was coming so he concluded a counterlanding was far too dangerous. Instead he decided to send the slower destroyer transports back to Rabaul. Omori believed the enemy transports were still in Empress Augusta Bay, thus if he could sneak in and destroy them, the marines would be stuck on the island without much of their supplies and without hope of quick rescue.  Meanwhile Merrills task force 39 had retired to the vicinity of Vella Lavella, but soon received news of Omori's incoming convoy. Halsey had to order his only naval force in the area to go out once again to protect the beachhead and intercept the enemy. Merrills crews had been at it for more than 24 hours by this point and were quite exhausted. Now Merrill's force went in very cautiously, because they were aware the Japanese would be outgunning them and of course the IJN held the dreaded long lance torpedoes. Thus Merrill chose to detach his destroyers who would go out in front to see if they could intercept Omori's forces before the long lances could be put to use. He intended to take the fight to the west of Empress Augusta Bay where he could block the enemy from the beachhead. He had his leading destroyers 3 miles ahead and deployed his forces along a north-south axis with the cruisers in the center, maintaining a range of 19,000 yards or more from the deadly IJN destroyers and their feared long lances. His plan was to exploit the offensive capabilities of his destroyers by letting them unleash their attacks before he would have his cruisers unleash their 6 inch guns. He hoped his destroyers would be able to sneak into range and hit the Japanese destroyers before they could launch their torpedo salvos. Omori was at a disadvantage intelligence wise, he had no idea about Merrills forces whereabouts. Moreover he had to rely on spotter planes because he was forewarned their radar would give away their location to the enemy if used. As Omori would later tell interrogators  “We had some modified aircraft radar sets in action but they were unreliable. I do not know whether the sets or operators were poor, but I did not have confidence in them.” Thus he had no idea of the position or size of the American flotilla, still he believed the enemy transports were in the bay, though in reality they would be nearly 40 miles south. Omori still lacking any real battle plan arrayed his force in three columns with his two heavy cruisers Myoko and Haguro in the center; Ijuins screen of light cruiser Sendai; and destroyers Shiratsuyu, Samidare and Shigure to the left and rear admiral Osugi Morikazu's screen of light cruiser Agano; and destroyers Wakatsuki, Hatsukaze and Naganami. As the Japanese approached the area, task force 39 were sailing 20 miles west of the beachhead. Merrills flagship Montpelier was the first to make radar contact with the enemy at 2:30 on November 2nd. Omori's fleet was 35,900 yards out. Merrill's changed his course to head due north then reversed south with his cruisers to find a favorable position to try and cross Omori's T. Merrill sent Commander Bernard Austins destroyed out to hit the Japanese southern flank while Captain Burke was ordered to take an intercept course that would force the Japanese to be in a vulnerable position for the destroyers to launch torpedoes into their left flank. At 2:45am a Japanese aircraft finally spotted the Americans and began dropping flares over them to allowed the light cruiser Sendai to lead the northern column over. However by this point it was all but too late for the Japanese. Burke had closed in on their left flank and launched 25 torpedoes at Ijuin's column. After launching the torpedoes Burke had his ships separate and it would be an hour before they could all be gathered again to form a full circle and return to their firing positions. The battle would be very chaotic, the US destroyers experienced a hard time trying to maintain contact with each other and several times would fire upon each other by accident. All 25 torpedoes would miss, because Omori ordered his ships to make a hard right turn. At 2:50 the Samidare launched a full salvo of 8 torpedoes which missed their main targets but a single torpedo managed to hit the destroyer USS Foote blowing up a large part of her stern. Cruiser Cleveland and destroyer Spence would accidentally run into each other doing light damage trying to avoid the damaged Foote. Merrill could no longer wait for the results of the destroyer attacks and ordered his cruisers to open fire at 2:50am. Merrills cruisers would unleash a continuous fire using their 6 inch guns while maintaining a coordinated figure 8 pattern to confuse the enemy and avoid torpedoes. The tactic had been very well rehearsed and the commanders were perfectly in tune with another. James Fahey, a sailor aboard Merrill's flagship Montpelier, described the long night illuminated by lightning, flares, star shells, and muzzle flashes. “The big eight inch salvos, throwing up great geysers of water, were hitting very close to us. Our force fired star shells in front of the Jap warships so that our destroyers could attack with torpedoes. It was like putting a bright light in front of your eyes in the dark. It was impossible to see. The noise from our guns was deafening.” The Sendai was the first to be hit taking a 6 inch shell to her rudder before it exploded near her boiler rooms. Sendai experienced a series of explosions and quickly sank. The destroyers Samidare and Shiratsuyu behind the Sendai collided with another trying to evade the naval gunfire and would end up taking positions around the stricken Sendai already sinking by this point. Merrill then shifted the focus to the other two Japanese columns forcing Osugi's column to head west running across Omori's cruisers. The Hatsukaze tried to move between two heavy cruisers and collided with the Omori's flagship Myoko at 3:07. Hatsukaze was so crippled by the collision she was much easier to hit as a result was found by Burkes reformed 45th destroyer division by 5:30am and 5 of the destroyers proceeded to batter her with shells until she sank at 5:40am. The Myoko meanwhile was hit by 6 shells, but fortunately for her 4 of them were duds, not causing enough damage to slow down the flagship. Next the USS Spence and Thatcher ran into another, but were able to carry on the fight. Both sides were having trouble running into each other, Merrills cruisers performing the 8 pattern at high speed allowed them to evade most gunfire. At 3:20 Omori opened fire with his heavy armament, both torpedoes and naval gunfire from his cruisers. The torpedoes missed, but 3 dud shells hit Denver into her forward section, causing water to slow the ship down. The other cruisers were forced to slow their speed to match her. Light cruisers Columbia received a 8 inch shell hit, luckily it also failed to explode. The Japanese fire was becoming heavier and more accurate forcing Merrill to respond with a smoke screen in front of his cruisers. Merrill made sure to keep his distance from the Japanese. When their range closed in on 13,000 yards at 326 am he ordered a 180 degree turn to the north. The radical maneuvering by Merrills cruisers made it extremely difficult to accurately fire upon them, but also for Merrills cruisers to hit Omori's. At 3:30am Omori decided to retire in the mistaken belief that his Long Lances had sunk or heavily damaged Merrill's cruisers. Omori had received a false report claiming “one torpedo hit on leading US cruiser, two torpedo hits on second US cruiser, two torpedo hits on third US cruiser. Shell fire also reported on US Force.” In the meantime Burkes destroyers had re-entered the fray of battle and began firing upon the doomed Sendai. After they pursued the Shiratsuyu and Samidare but both destroyers got extremely lucky when Commander Austin confused Burke into believing that the ship he saw turning northwards was actually the Spence. By 4:00am the Sendai was sinking taking with her 185 crew. Ijuin and 311 other survivors would later be rescued on November 3rd by Submarine RO-104. The Hatsukaze would be the last to sink at 5:40am. As dawn was breaking, Merrill urgently called for all available fighters to come to his aid as he expected the Japanese to toss the kitchen sink of air forces at him. Just before 8am a formation of 80 Zeros and 18 dive bombers arrived and began attacking his cruisers desperately performing anti-aircraft maneuvers. The allied aircraft were delayed by bad weather resulting in only 8 Hellcats, 1 marine corsair, 3 P-38s and 4 New Zealander P40s showing up. The allied pilots would claim to down 16 Japanese aircraft, though in reality it would only be 8. Merrills forces performing a defensive circular cordon would claim to down 17 further Japanese aircraft. The Japanese managed two hits, one causing minor damage to the USS Montpelier. The Japanese had lost their chance to stop the invasion of Bougainville. Merrills handling of the battle, particularly his figure 8 maneuver, had negated the dreaded super weapon of the enemy, the Type 93 long lance torpedo. It was to be the last major surface engagement of the Solomons area. Halsey would later reflect on the Japanese attempt to hit the landing forces at Cape Torokina  “was the most desperate emergency that confronted me in my entire term as COMSOPAC (Commander South Pacific).” Commodore Reifsnider was ordered to bring his transports back to Cape Torokina to resume the unloading. The unloading of the cargo would be completed by 3pm. Vice admiral Omori's force withdrew back to Rabaul. It was soon joined by four more cruisers and a number of destroyers from Truk. The reluctant Admiral Koga according to Admiral Fukudome decided to commit some of the very best units from the undamaged 2nd fleet “to cooperate with the carrier-based planes which had been sent from Vice-Admiral Ozawa's fleet in order to check the [US] Bougainville operations.” 7 heavy cruisers, the Takao, Maya, Atago, Suzuya, Mogami, Chikuma, and Chokai; a light cruiser, the Noshiro; four destroyers; and a number of service ships would depart Truk on November 3. The once dominant IJN fleet so surely footed in the early days of the war now was hesitant and indecisive. Nevertheless, Koga would unleash another attack against Empress Augusta Bay. Koga placed the new naval force under Admiral Kurita who would attempt to intercept futher American forces enroute to Bougainville. On November 4th, Wilkinson would be bringing the 21st marines aboard 8 destroyer transports and 8 LSTs. 3548 men led by Colonel Evans Ames, alongside 5000 tons of supplies and equipment escorted by destroyers Waller, Saufley, Philip, Renshaw, Eaton and Sigourney.  Halsey received word of the new Japanese force and realized the situation was critical. If Halsey did not turn back the incoming threat, his forces on Bougainville would not receive their planned reinforcements. Halsey was thus ready to take a risk, he was going to send carriers. As Halsey would later write “perhaps the success of the South Pacific War, hung on it being stopped.”. Against conventional wisdom, that carriers should not be exposed to land-based aircraft attacks, he ordered Rear Admiral Sherman's task force built around the USS Saratoga and Princeton to face a force of possibly 200 Japanese aircraft. The risks for Hasley were personal as well as professional “I sincerely expected both air groups to be cut to pieces and both carriers stricken, if not lost. (I tried not to remember my son Bill was aboard one of them), but we could not let the men at Tokorina be wiped out while we stood by and wrung our hands.” Halsey's Chief of Staff, Admiral Carney, recalled that before making the decision to attack with his carriers, his commander “suddenly looked 150 years old.” Shermans task for now designated Task Group 50.4 consisted of carrier Saratoga; light carrier Princeton; and destroyers Stack, Sterett, Wilson, Izard, Conner, Bell, Charrette, Boyd, Bradford and Cowell. He would be supported by General Twinings AirSols in any way possible. Halsey also requested MacArthur allow Kenney's 5th air force to join in on the battle. On November 5th, aided by some bad weather, a surprise air raid was performed against Rabaul. Sherman's carrier force was 230 miles away from Rabaul near Cape Torokina when they began launching aircraft at 9am. The Saratoga launched 16 Avengers and 22 Dauntless. Princeton launched 7 Avengers. The carrier aircraft were escorted by 52 hellcats making a formation of 97 aircraft in all. This was their entire payload . The aircraft flew at a low level as they approached Rabaul anti-aircraft defenses by 10:20. They kept a tight formation, flying right through the flak which prevented the 70 Zeros from intercepting them properly. As we have seen during this series, the Japanese anti-aircraft guns were honestly pretty terrible. Added to this, the American aircraft enjoyed much better armor than their Japanese counterparts, particularly the Zero fighter. Commander Henry Caldwell led the bombers towards Blanche Bay where they peeled off at 14,500 feet. The Dauntless dive bombed the targets before them as the Avengers time their approaches to hit the same targets at the same time. Within just 30 minutes the attack absolutely devastated the Japanese plans. Heavy cruiser Maya was trying to leave the harbor during the attack but took a 500 lb bomb hit to her catapult area which set off a series of explosions, blowing up her engine rooms and causing heavy casualties. As Maya was left fully disabled, the Mogami managed to clear the harbor but took a torpedo hit. Her number 1 and 2 turrets were flooded, forcing her crews to scramble to put out fires.  The Atago suffered three very near misses, which damaged her hull, armament, and machinery.  The Takao took a bomb to her starboard side, damaging her hull and machinery. TheChikuma received only slight damage and was able to depart for Truk at 20:38. The Suzuya, which was just preparing for refueling, tried to evade and was only slightly damaged. Aside from this the other light cruisers and destroyers did not receive any damage. 70 sailors died aboard the Maya, 23  died aboard the Mogami, Takao and Atago. Captain George Chandler, a P-38 fighter pilot described how “There were B-24 bombers up high and B-25 bombers attacking right down on the deck dropping ‘frag' bombs on the airplanes along the runways … we did our best work at high altitude, but we also took part in combat a thousand feet off the ground.” Taking advantage of Hasleys daring attack, General Kenney sent 27 B-24's and 67 P-38s to bomb the warehouse area on the western side of the harbor. They were challenged by only 15 Zero's who would lose two in the process. The Japanese facilities were wrecked by the attack. The Americans lost 5 bombers and 5 fighters while taking down 11 Zeros. The cautious Admiral Mineichi Koga withdrew his forces back to Truk. The Japanese Naval threat to the invasion of Bougainville was ended. A Japanese naval officer later admitted that they had given up on Bougainville mainly because of “the serious damage received by several Second Fleet cruisers at Rabaul by carrier attack …” The success of the raid on Rabaul left Halsey ecstatic. “It is real music to me and opens the stops for a funeral dirge for Tojo's Rabaul.” Sherman grabbed all of his returning places expecting a Japanese counterstrike. A Japanese scout plane discovered Sherman's task force around midafternoon and Kusaka immediately dispatched eighteen torpedo bombers after the Americans. At around dusk the Japanese discovered what they believed to be the task force and attacked. Although they later claimed a great air victory, in reality they hit at an LCI and a PT boat escorting an LCT back from Cape Torokina. A torpedo lodged in the engine room of the LCI and killed one man. That was the extent of the damage to the "task force." In return, the Japanese lost one plane. It was hardly an even exchange, and no compensation at all for the havoc wreaked earlier upon the 2nd Fleet. Halsey yet again showed what a formidable and aggressive commander he could be, his gamble paid off greatly. The Americans had secured their naval superiority in the South Pacific and it would remain that way for the rest of the war. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. Admiral Merrill performed an excellent battle against a larger IJN force. Admiral Hasley lived up to his reputation, he performed a bold gamble and it paid off big time. Now the Americans would dominate the South Pacific for the rest of the Pacific War.  

Bernard Cottret fut l'un des amis les plus fidèles de Fréquence Protestante. Historien spécialiste de l'Angleterre moderne, cet homme chaleureux vouait au protestantisme une passion véritable, que n'interdisait pas l'esprit critique. Son épouse, Monique, est également l'une de nos historiennes favorites, qui a consacré nombre de livres au dix-huitième siècle – on citera notamment la biographie qu'elle a rédigée au sujet de Choiseul, parue chez Tallandier. Lorsque Bernard est mort, le 13 juillet 2020, Monique et lui rédigeaient un ouvrage monumental : « L'Europe des Lumières, 1680-1820» pour la maison Perrin. Ce livre est paru voici quelques semaines. C'est avec autant de bonheur que d'émotion que nous consacrons « Une heure avec… » à ce livre aussi rigoureux, riche d'enseignements qu'agréable à lire– nous allions écrire « lumineux». Grâce à Monique et Bernard Cottret, l'Europe des Lumières connaissent une jeunesse nouvelle. A partager sans retenue.

Last time we spoke about the defense of Finschhafen. Finschhafen was a enormous staging camp for the allies now. The Japanese could not sit idly by allowing such a strategic location to be in allied hands. General Katagiri launched a major counter offensive, kicked off with signal fires from Sattelberg. He sent a force of raiders to try and neutralise some heavy allied artillery, but it ended in failure. Having not neutralised their big guns, the rest of the counter offensive fell to pieces.  The Japanese would officially report 422 killed, 662 wounded. For the Australians they had 228 casualties of which 49 were dead. With the counter offensive done with, the allies now would go back on the offensive. The next large target was going to be the stronghold of sattelberg, but the Japanese were not going to make it easy on the allies. But today we are going to be jumping into some new places. This episode is the invasion of the treasury islands Welcome to the Pacific War Podcast Week by Week, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about world war two? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on world war two and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel you can find a few videos all the way from the Opium Wars of the 1800's until the end of the Pacific War in 1945.  For quite some time now we have been focusing on the New Guinea campaign, such as the offensives against Finschhafen and the Ramu valley. Today we are going to enter a new phase of the Pacific War. With the incoming invasions of the Gilbert and Marshall islands, the Northern Solomons and Western New Britain, General Douglas MacArthur and Admirals Hasley and Nimitz were going to turn up the heat. Admiral Halsey had just seized Vila, Barakoma, Munda and Rendova, gaining their valuable airfields for the forces of General Twinings AirSols to utilise. Within the central Solomons, Bougainville was finally within range of allied land-based aircraft. Lae, Salamaua and Finschhafen were taken, thus Operation Cartwheel would begin a new phase. Back in July, plans were formed for General Vandegrifts 1st Marine Amphibious corps to seize airfields sites at Buin and Kahili, the important Japanese anchorage at Tonolei Harbor, and the Faisi and Ballale islands in the neighboring Shortlands. That same month, the 43rd and 37th divisions were involved in the New Georgia campaign. Of the 5 divisions remaining under his control, Admiral Halsey planned to use the fresh and unblooded 3rd Marine division and the Army's 25th division for the invasion. He sought to keep the 2nd marine division and 3rd new zealand division in training for the conquest of Rabaul. Yet things had changed. Because of the intense resistance on New Georgia, the 25th division had to be committed. Then the decision to strike Makin and Tarawa in the Gilbert islands removed the 2nd marine division from Hasley's south pacific area. These changes ultimately dictated he would need a substitution, and it was to be the 37th division, whom had suffered 1100 casualties on New Georgia already. Nevertheless the 37th was in better condition than the 25th. The 3rd marine divisions task went unchanged. Major General Allen Turnage's 3rd Marine division was going to spearhead the invasion of Bougainville, with a launch date set for September. On top of this Halsey had received some reports indicating the Japanese were heavily reinforcing the Shortland Islands. He decided to bypass them and hit the Treasury island and Choiseul. It is also possible Halsey sought to perform these actions hoping to lure out the Japanese fleet into a major engagement. The treasury islands and Choiseul were lightly garrisoned, but held airfields that could be turned against Bougainville. Meanwhile , General MacArthur was planning the next stepping stone towards the Philippines. His overall plan was to break the Bismarcks Barrier through a series of aggressive leaps along the New Guinea-Mindanao axis. New Guinea as we are all quite familiar with by now, is a logistical nightmare. Lush jungles, raging rivers, cold mountains, every time of geographical nightmare was present. Thus to traverse the western landmass of it only on land was not exactly desired. What MacArthur's logistical team sought was to secure the 50 mile expanse of sea lying between New Guinea and New Britain. With that in hand Admiral Barbey's 7th Amphibious force would be able to transport troops along the coast, a significantly easier method than having the poor boys battle through the jungle. Rooke Island split the sea into the Vitiaz Strait and the narrower Dampier Strait. General Wootten's 9th Australian division were currently fighting for control of Vitiaz, but there had been no effort to date to hit the Dampier. MacArthur decided to capture Kavieng and the Admiralty Islands, because they represented enemy aerial threats against his westwards push through New Guinea. Closing in on the end of the year he also planned to amphibious assault Cape Gloucester, the northwestern point of New Britain which commanded the Dampier Strait. In hindsight the wisdom of landing at Cape Gloucester seems rather dubious. It was not necessary to seize the point in order to make use of the Vitiaz or Dampier strait. The Japanese did not have big artillery on the western end of New Britain to command the channel, the islands infrastructure was largely undeveloped. The only way the Japanese could interfere with the allied use of either strait was by torpedo boats, something they did not have many of. There of course was aircraft based on New Britain as well, but that would be neutralised by Kenney's AirSols.  MacArthur planned to have the AirSols hit Rabaul continuously; to seize the Green Islands, the Admiralty Islands and Kavieng. The Western New Britain operation was codenamed Operation Dexterity which would be sub divided into Operations Lazaretto and Backhander. There would be a staggered attack first hitting Gasmata performed by the 2nd battalion, 228th regiment. They would establish an air base in the southern coast of the island, this was operation Lazaretto. Operation Backhander would be the invasion of Cape Gloucester. Some of the landings could be carried out in November, but MacArthur chose to wait until the new airfields were established in the Markham and Ramu valleys as they would provide close air support for the amphibious operations.  On September the 10th, Admiral Hasley sent staff to present his plan for the invasion to Bougainville to MacArthur's staff. Halsey would be surprised to find MacArthur opposed using all their aircraft to strike Rabaul before the invasion of western New Britain. MacArthur proposed instead to continue heavy airstrikes against all Japanese airfields on Bougainville throughout October. Then in late October, Halsey's forces could occupy the Treasury islands and possibly northern Choiseul. Northern Choiseul could provide radar coverage and PT boat bases. On the 1st of November, Halsey's forces could then begin landing on Bougainville to form a beachhead before constructing a new airfield to host the AirSols so they could hit Rabaul just in time to take some pressure off MacArthur's troops advancing in New Guinea and New Britain. Thus MacArthur was determined to make the main goal of the operation not the securance over the entirety of Bougainville, but just a portion of it where an aerodrome could be established then used to batter Rabaul. Halsey was presented two options for his landing site: there was Kieta Harbor sitting on the northeast coast and Empress Augusta Bay on the southwest coast. Kieta seemed the better location from which to launch air strikes against Rabaul. Kieta also held a protected harbor, requiring Halsey's forces to move up the longer outside passage to secure Choiseul first. Empress Augusta Bay was on an exposed side of the island during an approaching monsoon season. It was closer to Rabaul and would only require the securing of the Treasury islands first. After further reconnaissance there was indications airfields could be constructed midway up the west coast of Bougainville at Cape Torokina on Empress Augusta Bay. Halsey chose it for the landing site stating on September 22nd “it's Torokina. Now get on your horses!”  The operation against Cape Torokina was codenamed Cherryblossom and its task was handed to the hero of Guadalcanal, General Vandegrift who formed the plans but it would not be he who lead the operation. Vandegrit was promoted to commandant of the Marines, the first serving marine to become a four star general, he had to depart for Washington. His replacement was Major General Charles Barrett the former commander of the 3rd Marine division. Barret was given command of the 1st Marine Amphibious corps and the responsibility over operation Cherryblossom. His mission statement read “land in the vicinity of Cape Torokina, seize and occupy and defend a beachhead including Torata Island and adjacent island— 3,750 yards west of Cape Torokina—allowing approximately 2,250 yards inland from the beach and 3,600 yards east of Cape Torokina. To prepare and continue the attack in coordination with the 37th Infantry on arrival.” However the mission statement was to be his last major contribution to the war.  On October 8th Barrett accidentally fell from the third floor of the officers quarters at Noumea and suffered a cerebral haemorrhage. He soon died afterwards and was recorded as an accidental death, but there was heavy speculation it was in fact a suicide. Thus the job fell to Major General Roy Geiger, the director of the marine aviation corp in washington. For the naval aspect of the mission Hasley had to do with what he had on hand. He would not be receiving any significant naval reinforcements, because Admiral Nimitz feared that any vessels lent to the 3rd fleet would not be able to come back in time to help with the invasion of the Gilberts. What Halsey could count on was task force 38 commanded by Rear Admiral Frederick Sherman built around carrier Saratoga and later joined by the Princeton; Admiral Merrills task for 39 comprised of cruiser division 12 and destroyer division 23; and Task force 31 commanded by Admiral Wilkinson consisting of three destroyer squadrons, transports and covering ships. It would be Admiral Wilkinson who would bring over the 3rd marine division, the 1st brigade and 3rd New Zealand division to invade the Treasury islands. Rear Admiral George Fort would take the reigns of the first offensive and Wilkinson would looked over the Torokina landings. Wilkinson would have 12 Attack transports and Amphibious cargo ships for the landings, just enough to get every echelon with their equipment over. The 3rd Marine division was reinforced with the 3rd marine defence battalion, the 198th coast artillery, the 2nd provisional marine raider regiment and the 1st marine parachute regiment. After landing at Cape Torokina they would later be reinforced by General Beightlers 37th division. The 29th, 34th and 36th New Zealander battalions of the 8th brigade group led by Brigadier Robert Row would hit the Treasury islands and help establish long range radar stations and a landing craft staging area. There was a final last minute change to the overall plan made by Halsey. They decided not to attempt seizing northern Choiseul but to instead send a marine raiding party around 656-725 men of the US 2nd Parachute battalion led by Lt Colonel Victor Krulak there to persuade the Japanese to divert forces to Choiseul from southern Bougainville.   To support the operation General Kenny's 5th air force would smash the airfields in Rabaul while the AirSols 489 aircraft would hit airfields in and around Bougainville. General Twinning tactics were to harass the Japanese every day, so he launched a total of 158 flights in October, comprising 3259 sorties and land and naval targets in Hahili, Kara, Ballale, Buka, Bonis and Choiseul. The result of this incredible air campaign was 5 Japanese airfields pulverized, 136 enemy aircraft claimed destroyed at the cost of 26 allied aircraft shot down. Meanwhile on October 12th, Kenney launched a raid using 349 aircraft smashing airstrips, shipping and supply dumps. The 6000-ton IJN transport Keisho Maru was sunk alongside two smaller craft. On the 18th 54 B-25's took off from Dobodura, but only caused minor damage. On October the 23rd, 24th and 25th daylight raids consisting of 45 B-242's, 62 B-25's and 61 B-24's respectively managed to shoot down 9 enemy planes, destroyed 25 aircraft on the ground and damaged another 27. On October 29th, he tossed a raid at Vunakanau's airdrome using 41 liberators covered by 75 P-38's and managed to destroy around 10 aircraft. The enemies attention was certainly diverted away from Rabaul. Now the Japanese knew an invasion of Bougainville was coming. They believed the main target of such an offensive would be first against the Shortlands or Kahili. General Kanda's 6th division was deployed to reinforce these places. His 1st battalion, 45th regiment was placed at Kieta, the rd battalion and 4th south sea garrison was sent to reinforce Bougainville while the rest were sent to the Shortland islands. Bougainville was given north/south/east/west sectors garrisoned by numerous forces under Kanda. Admiral Koga also launched Operation RO, a plan devised to strengthen Rabaul. Koga's intelligence indicated the Pacific Fleet was on a warpath, so he decided to take the entire combined fleet from Truk to Eniwetok, which Koga considered a good advance position where he could sortie and annihilate the enemy in a decisive naval battle. The combined fleet stayed a week in the uncomfortable and lonely lagoon until they departed having not found the allied pacific fleet. By October 24th the combined fleet travelled back to Truk while the aircrews of carriers Zuikaku, Shokaku and Zuiho reinforced Rabaul.  82 Zeros, 45 D3As, 40 B5Ns and 6 Yokosuka D4Y reconnaissance planes. 192 trained air crews in total would be in Rabaul by November 1st. They were just in time to intercept one of Kenney's raids consisting of 75 b-25's and 80 p-38s. The Japanese airmen claimed to have downed 9 B-25s, 10 P-38s at the cost of 20 aircraft and 3 small vessels. Koga alerted the 12th air fleet who were in Japan to prepare to head over to Rabaul, but instead of also sending the 8th fleet, he kept them back, still thinking a decisive naval battle would be on the menu soon in the central pacific.  General Sakai's 17th division were transported to New Britain in late september. Their first echelon comprising of the 53rd regiment arrived on october 5th and immediately began to move west to reinforce Cape Gloucester and the 3rd battalion went to northern Bougainville. The remainder of the 17th division would arrive between November 5th and 12th, though the auxiliary cruiser Kurita Maru caring the 1st battalion, 81st regiment was sunk by the USS Grayson. 1087 men, most of the battalion, were lost.  The invasion of the Treasuries codenamed Operation Goodtime. They would establish a staging area, an advanced naval base at Blanche Harbor and a radar station on the north coast of Mono Island. It was hoped the assault on the Treasuries would confused the Japanese as to where the major effort would actually be. At this time there was a short supply of assault forces throughout the Pacific and the Bougainville invasion was mere days away. Thus it was difficult to comprehend why an entire brigade would be used to subdue a tiny enemy garrison on one small island. It has been theorised that Halsey and Vandegrift were reluctant to use some untried New Zealand troops in the more ambitious undertaking, but were also under pressure from their Anzac allies to see some action. For whatever reason the Treasury island operation would be one of the few examples of Allied overkill during the mid Pacific War.  The 8th Brigade had limited shipping available to them. They would have eight destroyer transports, eight LCIs, two LSTs, eight LCMs, three LCTs and two APCs, under the command of Admiral Fort who was using the USS Raton as his flagship. The 34th battalion was going to land on the north side of Stirling Island to secure a nearby airfield; the 29th and 36th battalions would land abreast near Falami Point on southern Mono and Major George Logan D company of the 34th, designated Logan force would land at the mouth of the Soanotalu River to establish a radar station with the help of 20 seabees. The USS Pringle and Philip would perform a bombardment to help. The operation was set into motion on October 27th when the convoy departed guadalcanal and the Russells. George Fort's destroyers approached Blanche Harbor during a storm and began their bombardment. The assault waves raced through the harbor in two columns. As was suspected the 34th met zero resistance, they immediately went to work sending out patrols to make certain if there were any Japanese on the island they would not get to surprise them. Mortars were set up on the nearby Watson island, cool theres an island bearing my name to support the landings on Mono. The landings on Mono met very little resistance, basically just a bunch of surprised Japanese naval troops who offered some half hearted gunfire before withdrawing. The New Zealanders went to work establishing a perimeter as the Japanese began opening fire using mortars which managed to knock out two LST's killing 2 and wounding 30 men. Interesting to note this was the first amphibious assault launched by Kiwi's since the horrible Gallipoli campaign of 1916 and it was the second combat operation undertaken by Kiwi's during the Pacific War. The real resistance would come in the form of a air raid consisting of 25 vals who bombed the beachhead and support ships. The destroyers Cony  took two hits; eight crewmen were killed and ten wounded. An allied fighter patrol managed to shoot down 12 vals during the raid. To their north, the Logan force faced no difficult landing at the mouth of the Soanotalu river. They quickly formed a 150 yard perimeter and began working on the radar station. By the end of the day, all but one LST had successfully unloaded and cleared Blanche harbor, however during the night the New Zealanders tossed back numerous counter attacks, particular around the Saveke river. By the 28th the Japanese survivors were retreating north in the hope of escaping to Bougainville, but along the way they ran into the Logan Force. On October 29th during the late afternoon, 20 Japanese attacked the western part of the Logan Forces perimeter. They were easily beaten off with mortars and rifle fire, leaving 5 dead Japanese behind. The next day saw some intermittent firing against concealed Japanese. Scouts eventually figured out there was a larger number of Japanese to the west of the perimeter, but the area between Soanotalu and Malasi was clear of the enemy.  November began with the rest of the brigade coming over. The radar station was already up and running and the Logan Force had built themselves a small blockhouse near the landing barge. That said blockhouse immediately became the objective of the Japanese, since it represented the only hope of them escaping the island. As Brigadier Row's men began to occupy the central and northern parts of Mono, the Japanese began to infiltrate the Logan Forces perimeter. On the night of November 1st, the main breech was made across the News Zealanders line. A ton of Japanese had infiltrated the lines and managed to cut telephone wires from the blockhouse to the company HQ. Soon after this was accomplished a concerted attack was made against the blockhouse. 6 New Zealanders and 3 Americans defended it. They had automatic weapons, some 50 and 30 cal machine guns, but they were soon put out of action by the attacking Japanese who could have numbered between 70-100 men. The fight for the blockhouse would continue until dawn, with the surviving defenders beating off numerous attacks, mainly by tossing grenades. Captain Kirk, Sergeant DD Hannafin were both killed during the fight. Command of the blockhouse then fell to a cook of D Company, Private J.E Smith. By daybreak the Japanese finally were beaten off as the 3 remaining survivors were all wounded. 26 Japanese had been killed trying to overrun the blockhouse and seize the landing craft. Elsewhere across the perimeter the Japanese attacked throughout the night seeing another 15 dead Japanese in the western section and 9 in the east. It was to be there best chance at taking the blockhouse, for the next few days their attacks were much smaller and by November 4th, New Zealander patrols were fanning out and killing or capturing stragglers. The last significant action on Mono would be on November 6th when a dozen Japanese were routed from a cave during a two hour firefight east of Soanatalu. Operation Goodtime resulted in the annihilation of a Japanese garrison roughly 200 men strong, but it came at a cost. 40 New Zealanders and 12 Americans were killed with 174 wounded. The allies got their supply bases and radar station. Over on Choiseul, Operation Blissful was about to kick off. In an attempt to make the Japanese believe the Shortland islands were the target for their offensive, General Vandegrift tossed Lt Colonel Victor Krulaks 2nd Parachute battalion, roughly 656 men at a beach near the village of Voza. On October 27th the men and their equipment were loaded onto 8 LCMS and during the night the paratroopers were transferred over to four destroyer transports, the Kilty, Ward, Crosby and McKean, the same ships that had just been used to transport the New Zealanders for Operation Goodtime. Forts destroyers provided escort as the Paramarine landed at Voza shortly after midnight without any resistance. During the morning of the 28th they began unloading supplies from landing crafts that had been concealed on a smaller island offshore. Once landed they carried them up a narrow trail leading from the beach a mile northwest of Voza upon some high ground which would be their first base camp. Nearly a hundred friendly natives helped the marines carry the equipment up the beach and they also helped guide the men. Allied radio broadcasting finally alerted the Japanese to the imminent danger to southern Bougainville as Krulaks men began establishing their perimeter. The morning of the 29th brought an enemy strafing attack upon them and the native guides reported to Krulak that there was a barge staging base at Sangigai, the main Japanese position on Choiseul bay, garrisoned by around 150 men. Krulak decided that was to be the first objective, he sent out patrols going north and south. In the north Lt Averill with the help of native guides discover considerable evidence of the Japanese presence, abandoned equipment and rations, but no Japanese. In the south two patrols scouted the Japanese base near Sangigai. Krulak led one of the patrols personally and managed to surprise some Japanese who were unloading a barge. They killed 7 Japanese and sunk the barge before pulling out. The other patrol group ran into a Japanese platoon and got into a skirmish seeing another 7 dead Japanese. Thus Krulak got his confirmation there indeed was a Japanese base at Sangigai.  Early on the 30th, Krulak requested an air strike at it arrived at 6am. 12 Avengers with 26 fighter escorts hit Sangigai. Unfortunately some of the planes mistook the marines at Voza for the enemy and strafed them as well. No marines were killed but one of their boats was sunk, that Krulak had planned to use. As a result of the boat getting sunk, Companies E and 5 departed Voza overland to hit Sangigai. A Japanese outpost along the Vagara river opened fire on the paratroopers, but was easily overwhelmed. Krulak then divided his forces to perform a two pronged assault. Company E led by Captain Robert Manchester would advance along the coastline to hit the Japanese from the north, while Krulak with Company F would move inland to hit them from the rear.  Company E quickly advanced along the coast and began shelling the town with mortars and rockets during the afternoon, only to find out it was abandoned. The Japanese had taken up a new position on some high grounder in the interior. So the paramarines began destroying and looting the village. Meanwhile company F were advancing through rough terrain to try and secure some high ground near Sangigai where the retreating Japanese were just passing through. The Japanese literally walked right into F company and a hour long fight broke out. The Japanese outnumbered F company and as Krulak would later report “the outcome appeared to be in question, until the Japs destroyed their chances by an uncoordinated banzai charge which was badly cut up by our machine guns. Seventy-two Japs were killed and an undetermined number wounded. Marine losses were 6 killed, 1 missing and 12 wounded." The marines had 6 deaths, 12 wounded and one man missing. Krulak was wounded as well as F companies commander Spencer Pratt. The Japanese suffered a devastating 72 casualties Back over at E company after plundering the village they came across some documents  and Krulak reported "The one that fascinated me, it was a chart that portrayed the minefields around southern Bougainville. When I reported this, the night after the Sangigai attack, I saw my first flash message. I had never seen one before. It came back and said, "Transmit at once the coordinates of the limits of the minefields and all channels as shown going through it." So we laboriously encoded the critical locations and sent them off. To an armada going into that area this is not incidental information. This is necessary information. Halsey in true Halsey fashion was not satisfied to know where the minefields were; he, before the Torokina landings, sent in a minelayer there and dropped mines in the entrance ways to those channels and they got two Japanese ships.” E company then retired to the Vagara river and was later evacuated by boat back to the Voza area. F company followed suite but was delayed by the heavy engagement they had. The men stayed to bury their dead. The friendly natives reported a Japanese concentration to the north near the Warrior River, so Krulak sent a strong patrol up by boat to check it out. On November 1, the large patrol of 87 paratroopers from Company G,  led by Major Warner Bigger, headed north by landing craft towards Nukiki with orders "destroy the southern outposts of CHOISEUL BAY, and if possible to shell the Jap supply depot on GUPPY ISLAND." Major Bigger began an overland march along the eastern bank of the river and after crossing the warrior, their native guides became lost so they all had to bivouac for the night. In the early morning of November 2nd, Biggers men found themselves surrounded by Japanese who began infiltrating their perimeter from the rear. Bigger had the men continue north along the beach where the surprise attacked a small enemy outpost of 4 men. They managed to kill 3 of 4, but the last man ran away, thus the element of surprise was gone. Bigger knew the jig was up he could not hope to attack the main objective so instead he ordered the men to go shell Guppy island.  G Company setup some 60mm mortars in the water and fired 143 rounds at the island setting up two large fires, one looked to have hit a fuel dump. The Japanese were taken by surprise there and only offered resistance in the form of some poorly directed machine gun bursts. On the way back G company had to fight their way through because of the infiltrators. Krulak was notified of the situation and alerted a PT boat base at Vella Lavella. Lt Arthur Berndtson had 5 PT boats under his command there, 2 were already assigned to other missions, another was under repair. PT 59 only had ⅓ tanks worth of fuel, but her commander, Lt John F Kennedy, yes he is back in action, agreed to rescue the boys. Kennedy believed he had enough fuel to get to Choiseul and another boat could tow them back to base. Despite overheating the engines, at around 9:30 PT 59 escorted a small convoy to Voza and Bigger's men were off loaded. The PT-59 ran out of fuel on the return trip down the slot and was towed back to Lambu Lambu Cove. By this point the landings at Cape Torokina had been carried out, so a diversion was not really needed anymore. Furthermore the Japanese were moving in on the base camp from all directions. On the night of November 3rd, just in the nick of time, 3 LCIs from Vella Lavella arrived to successfully load Krulaks paratroopers and got them out of there before dawn of the 4th. The Paratroopers had been outnumbered 6-1. They managed to kill an estimated 143 Japanese, destroyed a major staging base at Sangigai, sunk two barges and destroyed a considerable amount of enemy fuel and supplies on Guppy island. The cost was 13 dead and 13 wounded. Krulaks after action report mentioned evidence that the Japanese had sent reinforcements from the Shortland islands to counter the Choiseul operation. On November 1st, the day of the Cape Torokina landings, the Japanese had sent a large bomer force south to Choiseul hunting a reported Task Force. The Japanese found nothing, and by the time they diverted back to Empress Augusta Bay, the landings were done, American fighters were ready to deal with them. It seems the Japanese had been greatly confused from all the activity around Bougainville, particularly from many intercepted messages. Its hard to say how successful the Choiseul raid actually was. It's possible the Japanese fell for the diversion, but no one really knows. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. The diversionary raids may or may not have had an effect on the landings at Cape Torokina. Regardless the multiple operations were all successful and the Japanese seemed none the wiser. Now the stranglehold over Bougainville would begin.

The Dugard Combined School honoured students who have excelled in various classes and in sport when the Institution hosted an award ceremony at the school's premises in Choiseul recently to the theme; Igniting Young minds, Making a Global Impact. Watch video news report: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeXnopAYiC0

Last time we spoke about operation Se-Go and the continued drive on Finschhafen. The evacuation of Kolombangara, designated operation Se-Go showcased how the Japanese were becoming experts at large scale evacuations. Nearly 10,000 men were safely evacuated from Kolombangara at the cost of some barges. Then in New Guinea, the Allies became aware the taking of Finschhafen was not going to be a cake walk. In fact Wootten sent word to the other commanders that he believed he was facing the full 20th division at Finschhafen. The other commanders were sending their men through the Ramu and Markham valleys finding rearguards everywhere they looked. Rivers and ridges were being taken at a quick pace and Finschhafen was technically seized, but certainly not secured. Now the allies would have to attack the stronghold of Sattelberg. And Today we are going to see some action upon land and sea. This episode is the naval battle of Vella Lavella Welcome to the Pacific War Podcast Week by Week, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about world war two? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on world war two and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel you can find a few videos all the way from the Opium Wars of the 1800's until the end of the Pacific War in 1945.  The Japanese had accomplished another astounding evacuation, managing to pull out nearly 10,000 men from the marooned and isolated Kolombangara. They managed this with limited craft and boldly under the nose of the enemy who enjoyed superiority over land, air and sea. Yet as you can imagine this certainly showcases how the tide of the war in the south pacific had decisively turned. Japanese naval operations were becoming increasingly concerned with evacuating troops as their positions grew hopeless. The campaign for the central solomons was falling apart for Japan, the invasion of Bougainville was imminent. However because of the evacuation of Kolombangara, one of its results would be the establishment of a staging base for barges and landing craft over at Horaniu, the northeast shore of Vella Lavella.  Now in  last episode we spoke about the actions of the Tsuruya unit who were busy delaying Brigadier Potter's New Zealander forces. The Japanese had their backs against the wall at Marquana Bay, holding by just a threat. They had little food or ammunition left with no possibility of re-supply or reinforcements. Despite insufficient resources, Admiral Samejima was determined to rescue the doomed Tsuruya unit. Samejima managed to convince Admiral Kusaka to carry out yet another evacuation, this time of Vella Lavella, slated for the night of October 6th. Before dawn on the 6th, Admiral Ijuin departed Rabaul with 9 destroyers divided into three groups. The first group led by Admiral Ijuin consisted of the Akigumo, Isokaze, Kazagumo and Yugumo. The 2nd group led by Captain Kanaoka Kunizo was aboard Fumizuki accompanied by Yunagi and Matsukaze and a transport unit of 6 barges, 30 folding boats and the transport Usaka Maru. The third group was led by Captain Hara Tameichi aboard the Shigure with Samidare as backup. A fourth group led by Commander Nakayama Shigoroku consisting of 5 subchasers, 3 vedettes and a barge would also depart Buin to help. Ijuin was to be the strike unit, Kanaoka the transport unit and Hara the Guard unit. Ijuin planned to have Kanaoka and Hara standing off Marquana Bay supported by the incoming 4th unit led by Shigoroku. Further support would be given in the form of 8 floatplanes that would try to bomb Potter's men with 20 zeros providing air cover.  During the morning of the 6th, Admiral Wilkinson received reports the Japanese might be attempting an evacuation of Choiseul. At that time his 10th echelon was underway transporting the IMAC advance base to Vella Lavella, leaving the only available force Captain Frank Walker with destroyers Selfridge, Chevalier and O'Bannon. Walker was just returning from a run up the slot passing by the Russells on his way home. Wilkinson sent word to Walker to pay specific attention to the coast of Choiseul as he passed around. During that afternoon, Admiral Halsey sent an alert to Wilkinson that the Tokyo Express was definitely about to make a run, but it was not to Choisuel, instead it was to Marquana bay. Wilkinson dispatched 3 destroyers from the 10th echelon, Ralph Talbot, Taylor and LaVallete with Commander Harold Larson to reinforce Walker around Sauka point to try and intercept the Japanese. Shortly after sending the orders, Walk received further intelligence. At 7:30pm he learnt that an unknown number of destroyers, 3 torpedo boats and 6 subchasers were enroute, expected to be in the area by 10:30 with an embarkation time of 11:30. At 9:02 he was told that possibly 9 destroyers were coming. A few minutes later another report passed on by some B-25's attacking buin stated they spotted 4 IJN destroyers or possibly Jintsu-class cruisers. Thus pretty uncertain of what was actually out there, Walker's crews were warned to expect the worse and they would sound General Quarters by 7pm. 40 minutes later the 938th seaplanes began harassing them. At 9:50 Walker announced over the TBS “When we round the corner close the gap and be ready for anything. I want to get the fish off without guns if possible.” Wilkinson's reinforcements only made it to the rendezvous point by 11:40, leading Walker to have to start the battle alone. Since the days of John Paul Jones, American naval lore had honored and applauded commanders who unleashed bold attacks on superior enemy forces, but in this case Walker would prove to be too rash.  Walker took his force around the north coast of Vella Lavella that night and began scouting the area finding no sign of the enemy. Meanwhile Ijuins strike force followed by Hara and Kanaoka proceeded to their staging point arrived at 10pm. Minutes later a scout plan reported 4 cruisers and 3 destroyers northeast of Vella Lavella on a western course. The plane most certainly saw the Selfridge, Chevalier and O'Bannon coming up the slot but mistook them as cruisers. Ijuin ordered Konaoka to take his group west towards the Shortlands while he and Hara turned back to meet the enemy. However Hara's force were a bit further west and having difficulty due to mist causing lack of visibility. at 10:30 the Americans made their first radar contact of the enemy and 5 minutes later lookouts aboard the Kazagumo sighted the Americans to their south. Consequently, Ijuin had just turned to port heading southwest to cross Walker's bows, but he misjudged the distance and instead opened the range. Walker responded by increasing his forces speed to 30 knots to try and head off the enemy. Upon seeing this, Ijuin changed his course at 10:45 to south-southeast to close the range, then at 10:48 ordered a 45 degree turn south. These maneuvers actually worked to the Americans advantage, and upon seeing he was presenting an easier target, Ijuin ordered another simultaneous turn to port which staggered his ships in line abreast on a course opposite and nearly parallel to Walker with their range rapidly closing. The maneuvering blunder allowed the Americans to pull up to the nearest group of 4 IJN destroyers and launch a half salvo of torpedoes. Most of the torpedoes were fired at the Yagumo which was being mistaken as a possible cruiser. Commander Osako Higashi aboard the Yagumo ordered 8 torpedoes to be launched before the guns began to fire. The Americans opened fire with their guns after the torpedoes turning Yagumo into a burning wreck quickly. Ijuin tried to course correct again going south then west.  But by this point, Hara had just made it to the battle at 11:01 the Americans saw his forces to their southwest and closed in to engage. This put Hara ahead and parallel to Walker giving the Americans the perfect position to launch another salvo of torpedoes. At the same time one of Yagumo's torpedoes hit Chevalier detonating her No 2 Gun Magazine, blowing the ship in two. Her brigade and aft section swung across O'Bannon's path forcing O'Bannon to ram into her starboard engine room. The force of the collision was mitigated by Commander Donald MacDonald who ordered an emergency full speed astern when he saw the explosion on Chevalier. Two minutes later a torpedo, most likely fired from Chevalier, hit Yagumo. At 11:06, one of Hara's destroyers landed a torpedo hit on the Selfridge, shearing off her bow and wrecking everything from the bridge forward. In just 5 minutes, 104 American sailors were dead and 66 were wounded. Both sides continued the brawl, at 11:17 Ijuin still taking a westward course, ordered torpedoes to be fired at what he thought were cruisers, probably the O'Bannon and Chevalier. He received a claim that one was sunk, so he decided to break off the battle and head for home. Meanwhile Geoerge Peckham aboard the Selfridge believed he had been hit by torpedo boats and wildly ordered men to track where they might be. It was an age old naval case of both sides fighting ghosts ships basically. Meanwhile Commander Nakayama's group began to approach Marquana bay from the north and Wilkinsons reinforcements group led by Larson were arriving from the south as well. At 10:55 Larson had received ordered from Walker to execute “William” which was the codename for torpedoes and “dog” was naval gunfire. Larsons group passed Yagumo who was undergoing her death throes and by 11:40 the group was in the battle area. Larson could not make out a contact on enemy ships and by midnight simply headed for Marquana bay, seeing nothing but crippled ships. Chevalier was beyond saving so she was scuttled, Selfridge was able to be repaired by 3:15am and would make a slow but safe journey home. Walker notified COMAIRSOLS they needed air cover as Nakayama's group passed east of the battle area but did not engage. Japanese barges began to load men as the 938ht floatplane harassed the New Zealanders artillery. Many New Zealanders reported hearing naval gunfire and what sounded like barges scraping against reefs. By 3:10am, Nakayama left for Buin with all 589 men of the Tsuruya unit. The Americans captured 74 survivors of the Yagumo who were marooned at Biloa, while 27 others would make their way to Buin using motorized whaleboats. Ijuin had lost 179 men dead with 74 captured. On October 8th, Potter's men determined the Japanese were indeed gone so they began occupying Marquana bay. Thus ended the battle of Vella Lavella.  The 1st battalion, 27th regiment landed at Ringi Cover on southern Kolombangara on October 6th finding 49 abandoned artillery pieces and some scattered Japanese who had been left behind. By October 15th Admiral Hasley declared operation Toenails terminated. Two days prior the Japanese had likewise terminated operation Se-go. Admiral Samejima would be forced to carry the blame for the loss of the central solomons. He went on the record to say this “The relations between the Army and Navy units in this area were extremely harmonious and satisfactory, and the foregoing is due to the character and judgment of Maj-Gen. Sasaki and Rear Admiral Ōta. However, because of my inexperience in commanding land operations, there were times when I failed to dispatch appropriate orders to Maj-Gen. Sasaki in conducting our operations. And the fact that there is evidence that I left the operations up to the arbitrary decisions of Maj-Gen. Sasaki to some degree clearly reveals the folly of placing a Naval Commander like me in charge of land operations involving Army and Navy units.” In the end his forces managed to hold back the enemy for nearly two months and he had pulled off a pretty incredible evacuation. Operation Toenails was a success for the allies managing to secure 4 new airbases at Munda, Segi, Ondonga and Barakoma. These acquisitions would have a huge impact on future campaigns against Bougainville and Rabaul. Admiral Halsey would receive some criticism for underestimating both the terrain and enemy during operation Toenails. Major General Harmon went on the record to say “Munda is a tough nut –much tougher in terrain, organization of the ground and determination of the Jap than we had thought,.  The Japanese agreed; an intelligence report dated 11 August stated that the “reasons for the slow advance of the enemy in Munda, etc, are due to the courage of our forces and the difficult fighting in the jungle.” The allies learned some important lessons such as the necessity of adequate medial support; the implementation of effective evacuation procedures; close air support for ground troops; the effectiveness of naval gunfire support or lack thereof it; and the 3 most effective weapons against the Japanese; the 155mm gun, tanks and dive bombers. These 3 weapons would be put into effect on Bougainville. The central solomons campaign saw 995 US Army, 192 marine and 500 US navy death with 4407 wounded. The New Zealanders and Fijians received 200 casualties. For the Japanese it was estimated 4000 died with 4500 wounded. Now we need to head over to New Guinea. General Vasey's men were preparing for an assault against Dumpu, while being harassed by the infilitration specialists of the Saito Unit. The Saito units had performed infilitrations against Dakisaria and Marawasa. On October 2nd, while the bulk of the 21st and 25th brigades were establishing bridgeheads to cross the Gusap and Tunkaat river. The 2/7th independent company at this time were trying to cross the Ramu into Kaigulin where a Japanese outpost was. The outpost was guarded by the Saito unit, 80 men of the 10th company, 78th regiment supported by the 3rd company. The Saito unit gave them hell, forcing the commandos to cross the Ramu elsewhere trying to hook around their right flank. They managed to pull the flanking maneuver and in the battle killed 6 Japanese. Interestingly Lt R.D Watts decapitated a Japanese using a katana he had acquired in a previous battle, a case of the turntables. I am now realizing when I make this dumb joke many of you might not have watched the office, I must sound even dumber than I am. The following day, Brigadier Dougherty ordered his men to only patrol as he was waiting for Brigadier Eather's forces to assemble in the Bumbum area. Yes, there is a place called Bumbum, I thought Nuk Nuk would be my favorite New Guinea area, I was wrong.  On the morning of October 4th, Dougherty ordered the 2/14th towards Wampun and the 2/16th to capture Dumpu. By 2pm, Captain C.L McInnes lead a company of the 2/14th to find Wampun deserted which was expected. However the men had marched all day in the heat, without any water. McInnes company was sent to Karam to search for water. Another company followed McInnes company soon after and a mile or so out they came across a banana plantation. They saw some troops cutting down banana leaves and assumed it was McInnes men, however these were actually Japanese of the Saito Unit. The forward patrol were carelessly advancing towards the banana plantation when bursts of machine gun and rifle fire hit Colonel Honner and Sergeant Pryor. Pyror wounded in his chin and chest tried to drag his commanding officer back, but Honnor had taken a shot to the leg and could only crawl. Honnor began screaming to his men to figure out the position of the enemy and this led Private Bennet to lead a small party to do so. The Japanese continued to fire upon them and Honnor was hit in his hand to add to his misery. Luckily for them the 2/14th sent a rescue party to extricate Honnor. Honnor was moved to safety by 5pm as Colonel O'Day prepared to attack the Japanese at the banana planation. At 6pm O'day led two platoons to rush their position where they killed 11 troops and a Japanese officers, driving the rest to flee into the jungle. The next morning they would also kill a few stragglers, the action cost 7 australian lives of the 2/14th while killing an estimated 26 Japanese and taking a single prisoner. Meanwhile the 2/16th had successfully crossed the Surinam River without facing any opposition. They sent a platoon ahead led by Lt Scott to check out Dumpu. At 4:40pm he reported back that it seemed Dumpu was still occupied. Major Symington led forward a company to prepare to attack Dumpu, but when they reached its outskirts they could visibly see Japanese fleeing the area. Thus Dougherty's men grabbed Dumpu without a fight. General Vasey believed 78th regiment had failed to relieve pressure on the retreating 51st division, but unbeknownst to him, General Nakano's men were already marching through the formidable Saruwaged range. The range had an altitude of 3000 meters where temperatures fell below 10 degrees. Anyone who tried to start a fire from the moss-covered wood would find it unbelievably difficult. Many men reported heating gunpowder from rifles to start fires. A lot of rifles were burnt away because of this. Their rations ran out quickly, leading to starving men turning upon the dead….and even the living. Private Kitamoto Masamich recalled “seeing three soldiers had pinned a trooper to the ground while one of them stabbed him in the heart with his bayonet. I watched shocked as the remaining three soldiers cut slices of the dead trooper's thigh and began to devour the human flesh. I shouted at them as flies swarmed about their faces… They had become mad with hunger and fatigue.' Kitamoto covered the corpse and moved on. Cannibalism reared its ugly head often for the Japanese, particularly in some parts of Burma by late 1945.  Until now the 7th division was enjoying a pretty uninterrupted advance to Dumpu. The Benabena was pretty secure as well, but General Nakai was establishing strong defensive positions along the Kankirei saddle. This would soon turn the campaign in the Ramu valley and Finisterre range into a gritty holding operation. In the meantime, the allies were being directed towards the FInschhafen campaign, with General Herring ordering Vasey to hold the Dumpu-Marawasa area. There he was to establish a new landing strip at Dumpu and to not make any large advances. Only the 2/27th battalion of Lt Colonel John Bishop would be allowed to advance into the Finisterre foothills. Dougherty hoped the 2/27th might reach Kumbarum within the Finisterre foothills and during a torrential rainstorm they overran the area with no opposition. Bishops men patrolled around and found the enemy was occupying the key feature guarding the exists of the Faria and Uria rivers from some mountains northwest of Kumbarum. Under the cover of rain, Lt King took 8 men to scramble up the feature which panicked the Japanese there causing them to flee without a fight. Thus it was named King's Hill and would become an important tactical position and observation post. Apparently Kings men had come up just when two battalions were changing their troops dispositions, and a platoon guarding King's Hill had retired before even seeing the allied forces. Regardless a company was sent to the Boganon mountain area, that rose some 41000 feet. The torrential rain caused a ton of delays for the construction of the new landing strip. In the meantime the 21st brigade patrolled as much as they could. The 2/16th and 2/14th patrolled west of the Mosia river finding no enemy. On the 6th, the 25th brigade sent patrols in all directions north of the Ramu Valley. They found signs of the enemy recently leaving the Boparimpum area; the same at Koram. Just a bit north of Koram, it looked like there was a Japanese outpost on some high ground. Patrols took care near this outpost as it was expected Japanese snipers were there, but when further prodded it seemed abandoned. The 2/2nd independent company patrolled the area of Sepu towards the Waimeriba crossing of the Ramu finding only signs the enemy had recently vacated the area. A small patrol skirmished with the enemy between Saus and Usini. Kesawai would be found unoccupied on the 5th. Overall it was concluded the Japanese had abandoned the Ramu Valley entirely.  On the 6th, Generals Vasey and Wootten received a signal that the 2/2nd, 2/4th, 2/6th and 2/7th independent companies would become cavalry commando squadrons which did not sit well with the experienced commandos. Since the beginning of 1943, the term “commando” had been increasingly used to describe a member of an independent company. The term was quite alien to the Australian Army, and the tasks undertaken by independent companies since the beginning of the pacific war were not at all like that of what British commandos did. In the short space of two years, the independent companies had built up a proud tradition  and the men regarded the term “independent company” as a much better description of what they did than the terms “cavalry” or “commando” and thus resented the change of title. The next day, Dougherty's 2/16th battalion occupied Bebei and the 2/27th battalion cautiously investigated the upper reaches of the Uria and Faria river valleys. When the men went past the Faria river towards some high ground they suddenly came across a party of 8 Japanese. A fight broke out as they killed 3 of the 8 Japanese receiving no casualties themselves. The Japanese looked to be withdrawing and the Australians dug in for the night in a place designated Guy's Post atop Buff's Knoll. These prodding actions prompted Nakai to order the 2nd battalion, 78th regiment to launch a counterattack against Buff's Knoll. An hour after midnight during a particularly rainy night, a Japanese platoon charged up the knoll. The first attack lasted about half and hour before petering out. The Australian company consolidated around Guy's Post established a defensive perimeter through out the night. However the night attack ultimately failed for the Japanese as they were not familiar with the terrain and the heavy rain made a mess of their advance. On the morning of October 8th, the Japanese tried to push again while the 2/27th consolidated their position in the Faria area. The Japanese barely budged the Australians and on October 9th, Colonel Bishop ordered the company to advance forward astride the main Japanese route going east towards the Kankiryo saddle. The man at Guy's Post followed them an hour or so behind as they skirmished with Japanese towards Trevors ridge and John's knoll. They would kill roughly 11 Japanese as they occupied both Trevors ridge and Johns knoll. Yet this is all for today on New Guinea as we are going to travel back to the CBI theater who we have not talked about in some time. Going way back to 1942, the Japanese empire had been at its zenith forcing the allies to come up with some special operations such as the Chindits. Our old onion necklace wearing friend Brigadier Wingate was running that show, but General Blamey also created his “inter-allied Services Department” known as the ISD. They were a military intelligence unit formed around several British special operations officers who had escaped Singapore before it hell. Inside the ISD later named the Services Reconnaissance Department, a raiding/commando unit was formed called the Z special unit. They were primarily Australian, but also held some British, Dutch, New Zealander, Timorese and Indonesian members. After escaping places like Singapore, and Sumatra, British Captain Ivan Lyon joined the units and became one of their leaders. He devised a plan to attack Japanese shipping in Singapore Harbor. His plan designated Operation Jaywick, called for traversing to the harbor in a vessel disguised as an Asian fishing boat. Then they were to use folboats or folding canoes to get over to enemy ships and attach limpet mines to them. Lyon was promoted to Major and began rigorous training 17th volunteers at Camp X,  a clifftop overlooking Refuge Bay to the north of Sydney. The men worked for weeks digging, breaking rock and clearing scrub around the campsite and parade ground, which worked as prelude to the long, and progressively longer days they would spent canoeing. There were plenty of route marches across rocky hills which Lyon said “consisted of point-to-point walking or scrambling, compass work, stalking and attacks'. The men were tested on elementary navigation, chart reading, tide tables, visual signaling with semaphore and morse and the use of prismatic compasses on land and sea. They trained using a variety of weapons such as Owen sub machine guns, Brens, Lewis guns, all with the view to shoot down enemy aircraft. The practiced unarmed combat, grenade tossing, limpet mining and gelignite. They also received numerous lectures on ship engines. By early 1943, the 17 men had been reduced to 10. They were then given a captured Japanese coastal fish carrier named the Krait which was powered by a Deutz four cylinder engine, had a beam of 11 feet and a range of 8000 miles with a max speed of 6.5 knots. They modified  the vessel to increase her storage capacity. On August 4th, the Krait departed Cairns en route to the submarine base at Exmouth Gulf on the northwest corner of Australia. On September 2nd, Lyon's commandos began their long and dangerous voyage sailing through the Lombok strait to Singapore. None of the men knew about the plan prior to the attack nor their destination.  It was on the third day that Lyon gathered the men to disclose the truth. ‘He said, “Righto, do you know where we're going?”'Some of the men said they believed it was Surabaya in East Java. After Lyon revealed their destination, Moss Berryman recalled ‘They couldn't believe it when they were told they were going to Singapore “to blow up a few ships”'Lyon could see one or two of the men were stunned at the thought of going so deep inside enemy territory. Jones recalled ‘Nobody expected to be going that far and there was sort of talk about how dangerous it was,'. Lyon reassured the men that wasn't the case. ‘This is not a dangerous trip, it's an experience.' But for anyone who didn't fancy it, Lyon said he understood and he would ‘drop you off at the first island we come to and if you're there when we come back we'll pick you up'. It was a smart psychological play as he knew on one would dare lose face in front of his mates. Lyon stared at their faces and they returned his gaze. No one moved. They were all fully committed. Their safety depending on maintaining the disguise of a local fishing boat, so the raiders stained their skin brown with dye to appear more Asiatic, I guess its sort of like the prime minister of my country on Halloween. Cramped on the Krait, the commandos reached the Java sea and passed the south west corner or Borneo getting 50 miles off her coast by September 14th. The enemy's high activity in the area forced Lyon to detour towards Panjang island with the intention of making their way to Durian island. Yet when they approached Durian island they spotted a observation post so they turned back to Panjang which lies approximately 25 miles south of Singapore.  On september 20th, 6 men on 3 canoes carrying 9 limpet mines each departed the Krait enroute to Singapore harbor. The raiders passed through Bulan and the Batam islands on september 22nd, reaching Donas island the next day. On the 24th Lyon sighted 13 sizable ships in the harbor, so he told the men they would be hitting them that night. Lyon distributed cyanide pills to all the men and told them ‘I leave it up to yourselves to decide what you want to do. But I can tell you now that if you get caught you won't have a very good time of it. They're not known for being gentlemen, the Japanese. Don't delude yourselves in thinking you are tough enough to resist interrogation. You could be tortured enough to give away the whole story. You may not be able to do anything about it. Above all, they had to think of their mates on the Krait. If they fell into enemy hands, the Japanese would want to know how we arrived in Singapore' The men rowed through the capricious tide, but it soon forced them back towards Dongas, instead they moved to Suber island the next day. On the night of september 26th, Lyon's raiders departed again, Canoe 1 held Lyon and Huston; Canoe 2 Davidson and falls and Canoe 3 Page and jones. Canoe 2 would hit the north shipping in Keppel Harbor while 1 and 3 would hit examination anchorage and the wharf at Pulau Bukon. Canoe 2 had the strongest men and was given the additional task of returning to Pompong to rendezvous with the Krait  Canoe 2 steered through an anchored ketch on the edge of the main channel, continuing between the islands of Biakang Mati and Tekukor. They arrived to Keppel Harbor and set their sights on a 6000 ton cargo ship sitting low in the water, indicating she had a full load. The found a second target, also a 6000 ton cargo vessel and a third ship of similar proportions, though the last looked not fully loaded. At 1:15am they attached the last of their 9 limpet mines, 3 per ship and made their escape towards Panjang.  The other two canoes had a much easier paddle from Subar. The tide was running east to west, allowing them to go with ease to their target. The paddled together until 9:30 when they separated. At Pulau Bukom an older freighter was mined amidship and around the engine rooms. Then they spotted a modern freighter with engines after and 3 sets of goalpost masts and another 6000 ton old freighter. Over in Examination Anchorage nothing suitable was found, so the raiders mined a tanker even though it was probably impossible to sink with mines. All 4 ships were mined, the men ate some chocolate rations and made their escape towards Dongas. The ships combined comprised around 39000 tons between them. On the way back, the exhausted commandos heard the distant explosions and the chaos that erupted in Singapore. When dawn broke, in Examination anchorage one ship was partially submerged, while two more would sink and 3 were heavily damaged including the tanker Shosei Mary. Canoe 2 and 3 waited until the commotion died down before returning to Panjang, reuniting with everyone aboard the Krait by October 2nd. Their return back to Australia was relatively uneventful, except for one tense incident in the Lombok strait when a IJN minesweeper approached their ship. The commandos remained cool and the minesweeper simply carried on.   The Japanese would retaliate for what happened during Operation Jaywick. On October 10th, the Kempeitai, those are military police of the IJA for those of you who dont know, you can sort of picture the Gestapo, but not quite the same. They went to Changi Prison in Singapore and began reading out a list of civilian names. These named men were taken away for interrogation, torture and in many cases execution. Over the course of 6 months, 50 Europeans and Australians suffered a brutal inquisition. They were beaten with knotted ropes, electrically shocked, had nails driven into the feet, the old cigarettes burnt onto their hands, arms and on their genitals ouch. They were waterboarded and in total 16 men would die. But no credible information was taken from any of them. The Japanese were far more brutal to the Malays and Chinese. Countless were tortured, interrogated and many executed with their severed heads put on posts around the city. After it was all said and done the Kempeitai filled a report speculating the raid had been carried out by two chinese and one Malay. They didn't believe it and their superiors did not either. The 6 months of horror is known as the Double Tenth Massacre.   There was another unit formed known as the M special Unit, which was a joint Australian, New Zealand, Dutch and British reconnaissance unit formed as a successor to the Coastwatchers. Their role was to gather intelligence on Japanese shipping and troop movements. To do this, small teams were landed behind enemy lines by sea, air and land. One of their first operations was Locust led by Lt Jack Fryer. A group of 4 men departed Benabena overland on January 21st and advance to Lumi airstrip. They formed a base camp thee and began observing the Japanese. In conjunction to Locust was operation Whiting, which was a team of 5 Dutchmen led by Sergeant Huibert Staverman who also departed Benabena to establish a coast-watching station in the hills above Hollandia, reaching Aitape by mid september. Unfortunately the operation would be a catastrophe as the Dutch were ambushed around Aitape. Sergeant Staverman, Corporal D.J Topman, privates H Pattiwal, M Reharing and radio operator Sergeant Len Siffleet were publicly executed at Eitape beach on October 24th of 1943.   Another important development was the Japanese seizure of Macau. Unlike the case of Portuguese held Timor taken in 1942, the Japanese has respected Portuguese neutrality in Macau. However there was a huge influx of Chinese, American and European refugees coming from Guangdong and Hong Kong and this aroused Japanese suspicions. After the fall of Hong Kong, the British had established a clandestine support organization inside Macau trying to gain intelligence on the Japanese in an effort rescue the prisoners from Hong Kong. British army aid group known as BAAG, was under the command of Lt Colonel Lindsay Tasman Ride. They operated out of Hong Kong, Waichow, Guilin, Sanbu, Kaiping, Kunming and other places. They had planned out escape routes from Macau for local Chinese using the route through Shekki or via the sea to a place called To Fuk. Guangzhouwan was another escape route that wealthy Chinese and other nationalities with resources could buy passage through. Another route used a heavily armed motor junk that went to the north west point of Macau, Kong CHung and took them as far as Sam Fau. From there with aid, they could get to Guilin and then Chongqing.    But then a blockade was imposed on the Chinese mainland. Macau's survival depended upon receiving rice and fuel from places like Vichy controlled Indochina and Guangzhouwan, but after the Japanese occupied them Macau suffered critical food shortages. Macau's ships were not allowed to be used by Portuguese to carry food and thus were dependent on foreign ships. On the night of August 18th, the British ship Sian, under Portuguese protection was commandeered by a combined fleet of Japanese and pro-Japanese Chinese run ships, which illegally entered Macau's inner harbor. There was a shootout leading to 20 dead British sailors and the Japanese allegedly discovered that the ship was transporting a shipment of illegal weapons to be sold to the NRA. The next morning Lt General Tanaka Hisakzu of the 23rd army ordered troops across the border who clashed briefly with Macau police forces before Lisbon ordered them to not resist.    Governor Mauricio Teixeira was forced to collaborate with the Japanese who starting in September demanded the installation of Japanese advisors or full blown military occupation. The result was Macau becoming a protectorate. The isolated port city became a center for smuggling and black market activities…which it kinda still is today haha.   I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. The battle for Vella Lavella was over, the Japanese yet again proved themselves experts at the art of evacuation. The battle for Finschhafen was not over by any means and now the allies were cautiously proceeding forward lest they repeat any mistakes learnt in Buna-Gona, Lae and Salamaua.   

Last time we spoke about the Huon Gulf offensive. The Japanese until now had not considered their losses at Guadalcanal and Buna-Gona as irretrievable, but with the loss of Salamaua and Lae there was a brutal realization they were going to have to pull back their defensive line. The absolute defense line was established as the entire empire of the rising sun took two steps back. Meanwhile General Douglas MacArthur and the allied war planners decided to revise operation Cartwheel. The enemy was in disarray and this provided an opportunity to keep them off balance and maintain the momentum. They decided to launch an offensive against the Huon Peninsula, to hit places like Finschhafen. The offensive began with another bang as forces landed and advanced to seize immediate objectives to the misery of the retreating Japanese.  This episode is Drive to Finschhafen  Welcome to the Pacific War Podcast Week by Week, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about world war two? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on world war two and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel you can find a few videos all the way from the Opium Wars of the 1800's until the end of the Pacific War in 1945.  Before we leap back over to New Guinea, we first need to talk about some developments in the Solomons. Admirals Kusaka and Samejima were about to launch Operation Se-Go, the evacuation of Kolombangara. Now after the battle of Vella Lavella, Brigadier Potter's 35th battalion was closing in on the Marquana Bay area by September 26th. Potter sent two New Zealander Platoons as a vanguard. To face them, Captain Tsuruya had organized his meager forces and successfully surrounded the New Zealander Platoons. This began a fight for the New Zealander's survival that would last until October 2nd. Worried about the fate of his two platoons, Potter ordered Lt Seward with 3 companies to rescue the platoons. Seward described the endeavor as running straight into a hornets nest. They ran straight into some Japanese machine gun positions, which they nicknamed Machine Gully, and it cost them 18 dead and 10 wounded. Tsuruya managed to halt their advance using Machine Gully, which was a dense rainforest concealing his men. On October 2nd, the two platoons were finally rescued. The horrible casualties prompted Potter to halt attacks until every landing craft could bring over the 37th battalion from Tambala bay to hit the other side. The 37ths movement down the rugged coast would be sluggish, giving the Japanese ample time to prepare for the evacuation of the Tsuruya unit. Meanwhile General Sasaki and Admiral Ota were getting their forces ready for the evacuation. Each unit was responsible for its supply and had to carry enough rations to last until october 5th. All the troops had to carry their weapons and as much ammunition as they could, while medical supplies were divided amongst them. Mountains guns, quick fire guns, heavy machine guns could be disassembled and carried if possible, everything else was to be destroyed. And I mean everything, even street signs were destroyed. Sasaki moved all the wounded to the north shore of Kolombangara who were to be the first loading onto the destroyers. Ota was in charge of all matters related to the embarkation such as communications; locating hiding places for the barges and loading which would take place between September 28-30th. They were expecting to evacuate 7660 men in all. Operation Se-Go began on the 27th, as General Yoshimura's barges headed for Kolombangara in separate groups and Admiral Ijuin prepared his force of 11 destroyers to run towards the northern coast the following day. Only one of Yoshimuras groups led by Commander Tanegashima were intercepted as they headed down the slot. 5 destroyers, the USS Claxton, Spence, Dyson, Foote and Charles Ausburne led by Captain Martin Gillan pounced on the force destroying 4 barges, but the rest eventually escaped to Kolombangara by the 28th with the other groups. Ota hid the barges as he awaited Ijuins destroyers. Ijuin's force were spotted by a PBY due northeast of Green Island, prompting Generals Moore and Twining to launch an air raid. A strike force of radar equipped B-24's of the 394th bombardment squadron intercepted Ijuin's destroyers as they were passing Bougainville strait. None of their bombing attempts found a hit luckily for Ijuin. Meanwhile the barges began to depart up the slot towards Choiseul seeing zero opposition. At Tuki point the barges awaited the destroyers before the loading process began. The only major mishap would occur when the commander of the barges carrying 735 men from Jack Harbor to board the Amagiri steered too widely, missed the signal light from the destroyers and began heading for Vella Lavella. By the time they figured out the mistake and returned to the loading area, the destroyers were gone, with only 1950 men aboard. With the 1950 men aboard, Ijuin's destroyers made their first dash, but would be intercepted again, this time by 27 B-24's. The strike was thwarted by Zero fighter escorts and bad weather allowing Ijuin to arrive safely at Buka by the 29th. After this, the Americans were now fully alert to what was going on and responded by bombing Choiseul. At 9:15am on the 29th, Kakasa was attacked by 17 Dauntless, 12 Avengers and 56 fighter escorts. Destroyers Patterson, McCalla, Foote and Ralph Talbot led by Captain Frank R Walker were sent up the slot to hunt barges as well. On september 29th, Tanegashima headed for Choiseul with 11 barges carrying 1100 men. At 10:30 the Americans found them. There was no moon that night, and frequent rain squalls dotted the slot. Upon seeing the Americans, Tanegashima ordered the barges to scatters and Walker detached McCalla to hunt a small group while the rest of his force hit a larger one. Yano, whose battalion was on the barges recalled his barge running at full speeds as shells flew all around them. No barge was sunk or seriously damaged as they made a quick escape. Thus the first stage of operation Se-Go saw the rescue of over 6000 men, relying on the combination of surprise and gambling to be honest. But 25 barges were lost in the process. For stage 2 Samejima would reinforce the surviving 43 barges and 5 vedettes with 3 torpedo boats and two other armed boats. Yoshimura and Ijuin planned to toss 3 destroyers Kazagumo, Yugumo and Akigumo to be a diversion for the Americans. On the other side, Admiral Halsey ordered Admiral Merill's task force 39 consisting of Light cruisers Montpelier and Denver; and destroyers Eaton, Waller, Cony, Renshaw, Spence, Claxton, Dyson, Selfridge and Charles Ausburne, to sweep the slot. Commander  Chandler with four destroyers, Pringle, Saufley, Radford and Greyson was in the lead, followed by Merrill with two cruisers and nine destroyers.  On the night of October 1st, while Yoshimura's barges were leaving Choiseul en route to Kolombangara. The Americans spotted the decoy destroyers northwest of Choiseul at 9:20 via a VP-54 Black Cat that began tailing the force as it heading in the direction of Vella Lavella. Now Merill had orders to not risk his cruisers unless heavy Japanese units were found, so he turned back and allowed Wilkinson's destroyers to advance. The American chased the decoy towards Vella Lavella as Yoshimura's barges went by relatively unmolested, though a small group of barges would be fired upon by US destroyers, losing 2 in the process. On the morning of October 2nd, Ijuin departed Rabaul with 9 destroyers and at Vila, the Yokosuka 7th guns would fire their last rounds before moving towards the coast. That night, Ijuin approached Kolombangara as Tanegashima awaited with 2100 men to be transported onto the destroyers. They managed to load 145 men by 10:35, but then the destroyers were forced to pull back as Americans had been spotted in the slot. Tanegashima nonetheless, headed for Sumbe Head with the rest, 600 men in all.  Commander Harold O. Larson with three destroyers, Ralph Talbot, Taylor and La Vallette dashed across the slot to hit barges. Largson located the barges and began firing upon them when Ijuin's destroyers appeared at 10:42. The Americans closed in on the Japanese and fired torpedoes at 11:25 scoring no hits. They then opened fire with their guns targeting the Minazuki. The Japanese scattered, prompting a chase, but it fell into nothing by midnight. In the end the Americans managed to sink 5 of Tanegashima barges. With that the Japanese had successfully completed operation Se-Go rescuing 4000 men in the second stage, for a near total of 10,000 men in all. The Japanese had truly proved themselves capable evacuatee's if that is a word, with the evacuation of Guadalcanal, Kiska and Kolombangara. That's all for the Solomon's as now we need to venture back to Green Hell. Poor General Adachi's 18th army was not giving a single break. Just a week after the fall of Lae, General MacArthur's southwest pacific area had launched two new offensives aimed at the Ramu Valley and Finschhafen. Operation Cartwheel had initially scheduled an offensive against the Huon Peninsula to take place 6 weeks after the taking of Lae, but MacArthur pushed this forward due to intelligence indicating the Japanese were in the process of sending heavy reinforcements from Madang to aid Ramu Valley and Finschhafen. The first objectives for the allies were Kaiaput and Dumpu in the Markham and Ramu valleys where airfields could be constructed to help General Kenney extend his arm. Lack of air and naval capability meant the Japanese would be forced to march nearly 200 miles to reach places like Finschhafen with reinforcements, giving MacArthur ample room to hit the port before they could.  Now in the previous episode we saw Brigadier Windeyer successfully land is forces at Scarlet Beach, with the 2/17th advancing further to secure the Song River area; the 2/15th captured Katika and the 2/13th were advancing southwards towards Heldsbach and Tareko. Just like at Lae, the Japanese were taken completely off guard by the landings, prompting General Adachi to order General Yamada to hit the enemy at the most opportune moment while General Katagiri's 20th division were quickly dispatched on 20 large barges for a coastal advance. Katagiri's men reached Sio by barge on September 21st and from there he dispatched his 2nd battalion, 79th regiment with 3 machine gun platoons and an artillery company to the Kalasa-Kelanoa area while the rest would concentrate around the Sio area until september 30th. Yamada ordered his forces to concentrate at the Sattelberg mountains, a important point 1000 meters above sea level which dominated the Finschhafen area. It was hoped holding such a point would allow a launching pad for future counter offensives. Meanwhile Windeyer ordered the 2/15th battalion to lead an advance towards the Bumi river while the 2/13th consolidated at the Heldsbach plantation Launch Jetty area. Yet Wootten also gave Windeyer that task of securing Sattelberg, so he ordered Lt Main's company of the 2/17th with an additional platoon for the job. On September 24th, Main signaled “Coy less one pl now approx 3 miles along main track and proceeding to Sattelberg. Patrol P.I.B moving ahead of coy”. Sattelberg was an interesting spot to defend. It was initially a 19th century German mission, about 5 miles inland with a height of 3150 feet. It offered a birds eye few of the coastal area making it a particularly important point. Allied intelligence misjudged how inaccessible it was and there was the belief its occupation was merely a method of guarding one's right flank. Yamada's men were easily able to slip into Sattelberg via the Tirimoro, Gurunkor and Kunawa, this certainly would not be the same case for the allied forces. On September 22, the 22nd battalion had departed Hopoi. They marched through a swampy terrain towards Wideru without opposition. By 8am on the 23rd, they saw their first signs of the Japanese occupation. They also ran into locals who began reporting to them the Japanese had spent the night at Buiengim. At 1:35pm they reached Bua where leading troops had a small skirmish with a Japanese outpost which quickly withdrew. By 4pm part of the Australian forces seized a steep ridge where the track cut around 250 yards east of Bua. When it began to get dark they began to be fired upon from a mountain gun. The fire was coming from an area near the mouth of the Mongi river. Meanwhile the 2/15th battalion were advancing along a coastal track with its leading platoon reaching the mouth of the Bumi by midday. The river looked to be fordable, what they didnt know was two mixed companies of the 85th naval garrison had fortified and wired positions on its southern bank. When the Australians began crossing they were fired upon, prompting Lt Shrapnel to order 6 3 inch mortars to be brought up to support the Bumi crossing. The battalion continued their advance along the foothills of the Kreutberg Range. This was the first time any units of the 9th division apart from the 2/24th battalion and some individual companies had done any hill-climbing on New Guinea. It was a very tough initiation. There was no track and zero water, the force had to cut their way for about 800 yards through dense jungle and then go up a slope so steep that any man carrying a heavy load had to have it passed up to him. Several tin hats clattered down the hillside and the stretcher bearers left all but two stretchers going half way up. The unsexy stuff about war, but terrain can be just as much of an enemy to you and your objective than the actual enemy. They reached the crest of the ridge, took a breather and then began advancing south. The next day the 2/13th began to join them, allowing the 2/15th to move off towards the Bumi. However to their amazement, upon reaching the river at 10am, they found it unoccupied on the southbank. Barbed wire was seen, but no Japanese. Then as they advanced some more they were fired upon, it was a deception. A company led by Captain Snell was ordered to cross the river to create a beachhead on the opposite bank. The men entered the waist deep water further down, seeing one man killed by enemy fire. Bullets were flying around as the Australians were providing cover fire. As the men crossing went further down they found an area not occupied by the enemy and formed a bridgehead. From there more men were able to safely get across. However the position under pouring rain forced the Australians to improvise. They had a supply issue and needed better access, so they cut a track around the foothills to the bridgehead positions. The difficulty was that the rain had really begun to kick in and it was causing enormous delays. Windeyer ordered a jeep track to be established from the coastal track due north of Kamloa to the bridgehead to compensate. A platoon of the 2/3rd pioneers and some men of the 2/17t7, 2/13th and 2/15th were employed to carry supplies along the current path until the track was made to their misery.   On September 25th Lt Mair led a patrol of the 2/13th out to deal with some troublesome enemy mortars to the east. At around 9am they found a Japanese outpost 20 feet above them. They were fired upon losing 2 men dead and 4 wounded. The enemy was firing from some bunkers and foxholes with barbed wire coming up from the river. Other patrols were made prodding the area as the 2/3rd field company and the pioneers of the 2/15th finished cutting the new jeep track. When the track was completed, Windeyer ordered the men to not advance south of the Bumi for another two days to allow more supplies to be brought up near the river crossing. Back over at Scarlet beach, Japanese aircraft were striking them early in the morning as allied aircraft hit airfields on New Britain. At 12:30pm on September 24th, a Japanese airforce of 12 bombs and 20 Zeros hit Australian positions at the north end of the airstrip. Artillery pieces that had been pounding Kakakog and the Salankaua plantation areas were hit hard. 60 or so bombs were dropped leading to 18 gunner casualties and the 2/3rd field company had 14 deaths and 19 wounded. Despite the airstrikes, by September 25th there was something worse to worry about emerging from the west. After the 2/17th began its advance to Sattelberg which Papuan infantryman had reported was unoccupied, it soon became apparent this was false. After passing 800 yards beyond Jivevaneng, the same papuan infantry could visually see the Sattelberg area was anything but unoccupied, it was heavily fortified. Now the 2/17th were still on the merry way to Sattelberg none the wiser, in fact they reached Jivevaneng and mistook it to be Sattelberg, not realizing they had to cross a place called Coconut Ridge to get to Sattelberg. Windeyer received brand new reports from the Papuans that Sattelberg was heavily fortified while simultaneously the 2/17th vanguard patrols ran into some forward defensive lines around Sattelberg. The 2/17th patrols were hit hard by mortars and grenades forced to pull back quickly. Windeyer decided he was stretched to thin in the area so he ordered everyone to pull back to Jivevaneng. The Japanese now saw the Australian presence on the Sattelberg Road, General Yamada planned an offensive against Heldsbach to cut the enemy off north of Arndt Point. Meanwhile by 2pm, Colonel Grace of the 2/13th was ordered to seize Snell's Hill a high ground southeast of the bridgehead. By 9am some platoons were patrolling the area, when Lt Webb's platoon ran 400 yards into a Japanese position sitting on a Spur controlling a track from Tirimoro. Lt Webb reported it in prompting Colonel Grace to call in for support. The men would be facing around 150 men of Yamadas 85th naval garrison.   Two companies of the 2/15th took up the job and would begin by literally falling and tumbling 150 yards from their assembly line. They were tripping over vines, bamboo and heavy timber descending down a valley. When they got 450 yards from the slope of Snell's Hill they were pretty exhausted. However Yamada's naval troops gave them no time to take breath as they began lobbing grenades down at them. Luckily the grenade shower was rather ineffective. The Australians used cover fire as they could not hope to toss grenades them themselves lest they tumble back down upon their charging men. The Australians charged up the slope bayonets fixed and as they came to its summit, many of the Japanese turned and fled. Sergeant Fink took his men through a kunai patch to try and hit the Japanese rear, managing to clear some machine gun nests in the process. During his sweeping maneuver 10 casualties were inflicted upon the Australians. Finks men drew a lot of the enemy fire, relieving pressure from the others who led a frontal and left wing attack. Over on the left wing Captain Stuarts men charged through some kunai grass overrunning two 13 mm machine gun nests. 40-50 Japanese panicked upon seeing this and ran back to an observation post. Soon the Australian platoons began to consolidate and applied pressure. Stuarts advanced in what he termed “an extended line-desert formation, not in a file according to orthodox jungle tactics”. Three 13mm guns were captured, 7 LMGS, a ton of mortars and rifles and 52 Japanese would be buried on the summit. It was an intense actions seeing potentially 100 casualties inflicted by the 2/15th who in return had 3 deaths and 7 wounded.   While the 2/15th had been tackling Snell Hill, the 2/13th tried to cut across the Tirimoro track to another high ground called Starvation Hill. Around 5 minutes after the Snell battle started, some gunfire could be seen coming over from the other high ground. A few platoon of the 2/13th were immediately ordered to check it out. As the men advanced along the Tirimoro track they came across thick vegetation along the slope going up to Starvation Hill. Companies 7 and 8 of the 238th were defending Starvation Hill and they held a great field of fire looking down. The men began to crawl through it going up along the slope. Men were on their hands and knees going through thick bamboo, the progress was slow and noisy because the bamboo would make sharp snapping sounds. The two leading platoons took what cover they could as a storm of fire erupted. Japanese LMG's were opening up forcing the Australians to try and pull back safely 150 yards and hunker down for the night. 9 men were cut down during the mayhem.  Over in the north, Yamada ordered the 3rd battalion, 80th regiment to hit Scarlet Beach. Enroute to Scarlet beach was Major Pike's company of the 2/17th who were guarding the approaches to the beach from Katika. Pike had sent a small patrol out and 2500 yards to the west they ran into patrols of Yamada's force. At around midday, 30 Japanese attacked a position west of Katika held by Lt McLeod. Two Japanese were killed, including an officer who had a marked map and what looked like an operation order on him. To the south Windeyer received a report of what was going on and ordered Pike to send out a stronger patrol to hit and locate the enemy so their artillery could fire upon them. A platoon went out in the afternoon and after 2000 yards or so found the enemy and ordered the artillery fire in. The platoon was met with heavy fire, leading Sergeant Brightwell to be shot dead as the men pulled back to Katika. Thus Yamada's plans to hit Scarlet Beach quickly dissolved into back and forth patrol skirmishes in the Sattelberg and Katika areas.   The new threat to the west, forced Windeyer to request reinforcements. Reluctantly, General MacArthur and Admirals Barbey and Carpender authorized the sending of reinforcements to an area they had assumed had a small enemy presence. General Herring met with Barbey aboard the Conyngham informing him Finschhafen would required an additional brigade. Barbey declined to transport the extra troops to Finschhafen on the grounds it was against MacArthurs orders. Apparently MacArthur's planners felt that Finschhafen was going to be a pushover and they had pretty much considered the operation won and down already. Herring then asked Carpender to help transport the additional units, but was amazed to discover that the Americans would not comply unless the matter went first to MacArthur. None the less Carpender planned to transport the units via small craft staging out of Lae when Finschhafen was cleared. Then Windeyers urgent requests for reinforcements came in, indicated things were not won and down and Finschhafen had not fallen. Herring then sent a secret signal to Blamey and MacArthur pleaded for additional help, which finally secured him the 2nd battalion of the 43rd regiment by the end of the month. Back over at Jivevaneng on the 27th telephone lines to Zag were suddenly cut and one of hte 2/17th's patrols made contact with the Japanese. The 2/17th at Jivevaneng opened fire with artillery  upon the Sattelberg area and along the main track. Then after dusk a platoon of screaming Japanese apparently screaming Tojo charged the Jivevaneng defensive lines. 6 of them were killed in the attack. Windeyer ordered what became known as the Sattelforce, two companies of the 2/17th led by Lt Main and Lt Pike to take control of the Sattelberg track and the tracks leading back to the beachhead. On the 28th, Sattelforce began probing, but between 3-8pm a company of Japanese made three consecutive attacks against them. All the attacks were coming from the front and left flank, seeing screaming Japanese charging madly upon them. Main's company was soon running low on ammunition and they feared a dawn attack was approaching. Main estimated the enemy had suffered up to 60 casualties at this point. During the morning of the 29th, Main's assumption about a dawn attack came true, as they were hit by a Japanese platoon, but after this the Japanese retired. Main's men found 30 dead Japanese after performing a intense defense in a rather isolated position. The 2/43rd battalion landing at Scarlet beach at 3:30am and their commander Lt Joshua was immediately ordered “you will relieve the troops known as Sattelforce…This relief to be completed as speedily as possible to enable 2/17 battalion to concentrate for operations against Finschhafen”. 13 Hours later they did just that. On september 27th, Windeyer ordered the 2/13th to exploit the gains made by the 2/15th to capture Kakakog, while the 2/15th would attack the Salankaua Plantation. Back over at Starvation Hill, Mortar Sergeant Chown led a patrol, getting as close as possible to the hill. A telephone wire was carried up and Chowne found himself an observation point at the edge of a bamboo patch, just 20 yards or so near the Japanese. Despite being dangerously close to the enemy, he directed 3 inch mortar fire down upon them. He only had 15 mortar bombs, thus this led him to be so critical with his positioning. Before firing them off he sent word to the other Platoon leaders that an attack could be made. A platoon led by Sergeant McVey advanced to the edge of the bamboo ready to pounce. Chown lined up McVeys men called the mortar fire and they charged up the slope. The Japanese were caught by complete surprise seeing the enemy suddenly on top of them. Many of the Japanese fled at the offset, thus Starvation Hill was captured with pinpoint precision. Unbeknownst to the Australians, the only Japanese atop Starvation were rearguards as the 7th and 8th companies of hte 238th regiment had already withdrawn over to Sattelberg that morning. The next day, the 2/13th made their way cautiously over to Kakakog. Their objectives were three demolished buildings known as the “triangle” and the remains of the Kakakog hospital designated “the city”. These were found on the west and east ends of Kakakog respectively. D Company led by Lt Cribb and A company led by Lt Cooper crossed over a spur on their way to hit the triangle. Cribb took the left and Cooper the right as they advanced upon the objective. They were met with a heavy bombardment, but the aim was apparently so bad the men joked “we were under more danger from falling coconuts than the gunnery itself”. Their attack only got 300 yards past Snell's Hill by september 29th. The next day the men continued to advance, and now the enemy's artillery took a toll upon them causing them to halt. Two other companies led by Lt stuart and Colbin were penetrating east of the Ilebbe Creek without any opposition. They got within 50 yards of the Salankaua Plantation but had to cross a bridge to close the distance. To ford the river was just as dangerous as attempting the bridge leading the companies to launch smaller patrols to prod out options. It quickly became apparent by the late afternoon the element of surprise was lost. Luckily for the frustrated men, the Salvation Army and YMCA were up with the troops. The religious and welfare organizations looked after the mens physical and spiritual comfort. After the war there were few Australian ex-soldiers who would not put a coin in a Salvo's box when it was passed around the pub or street corner, as it brought back memories of their aid during the fighting. One soldier who fought across the Bumi wrote  “Another army came down to the Bumi—its weapons a coffee urn, its captain a Good Samaritan. Proudly he hoisted his unit's flag… He came not to reproach us for past sins or preach of the men we might have been. It is ideal, practical Christianity; he succoured the wounded and sick, revived the tired and weary; his was a happy little half-way tavern for those that passed.”   The next day, the 2/17th were relieved and would advance south, while the 2/13th came up for another assault against Kakakog. At 6:20am Colvin reported back to Windeyer there was going to be delays as the men needed to first take some higher ground. Windeyer back over in Scarlet beach decided he would come over to see it for himself. In the meantime some patrols were poking around the Triangle and to their surprise they saw no sign of the enemy. When Windeyer arrived it was decided the men would attack from the northwest. The 2/13th hit the Triangle while the 2/17th hit Salankaua plantation. On October 1st they were supported by an aerial strike at 11am followed up by artillery. For some reason know one ever found out why, this all began at 10:35am instead. 10 Vultee Vengeances and 8 Bostons bombed and strafed Salankaua plantation and Kakakog, doing little damage, but keeping the Japanese hunkered down. As the aircraft disappeared the infantry had run to their assembly points just in the nick of time to be ready to advance under artillery barrage. When one platoon got 250 yards near the City, grenades and mortar fire occurred. The australians could now see the enemy was hiding in the area and waiting for them to advance. As men forded the Ilebbe creek they were fired upon heavily suffering a few casualties before the men dispersed for cover. Instead of continuing across many changed direction and joined the assault upon the Triangle. The Australians were getting pinned down in every sector, seeing men trying to hide behind anything they could. The situation seemed desperate, then suddenly Lt Crawford took charge of the situation and organized a bayonet fixed direct attack across the Ilebbe. Crawford ordered the men to toss their grenades over the top of two platoons charging over the creek in an attempt to rush the enemy post on the other side. One Private Rolfe stood up at the bank of the creek and began firing his Bren from the hip providing wild cover fire. The men charged over the creek, being fired upon by Japanese snipers from tree tops. Despite their firepower, the Japanese were unable to stop the bayonet charge as the Australians ran them down. Crawford was wounded during the action, but they practically annihilated the entire outpost, bayonetting many Japanese. Due east of them near the Salankaua plantation, the men began to take out the tree top snipers. 12 2 inch mortars helped keep the pressure and momentum going. The Creek area was secured seeing 50 dead Japanese at the cost of 27 Australians. With the Ilebbe Creek cleared out, the pressure increased against the Triangle and City. Artillery was raining down upon them, likewise heavy fire was coming back from Kakakog ridge. By 3pm the Australians found themselves pinned down again. Yet again they had to halt their attack and dig in for the night as they had 10 deaths and 70 wounded, though they estimated that they had killed between 80-100 Japanese atop Kakakog ridge. The casualties would force the Japanese to abandon the Salankaua plantation. Meanwhile  after advancing to Kasanga, the 22nd battalion was able to seize Timbulum and Logaweng without opposition and were now preparing to cross the Mape River. On October 2nd, the 2/13th would find Kakakog ridge abandoned, but they very cautiously checked every nock and cranny upon it expecting Japanese ambush. A forward patrol went to the triangle and saw signs of an evacuation, numerous dead Japanese and abandoned equipment everywhere. The 2/17th likewise found the mouth of the Bumi unoccupied and easily secured a bridgehead before finding Salanakaua plantation unoccupied as well. With the enemy gone, the 2/15th were set forward towards Simbang and the 2/17th towards Kolem. With that, Finschhafen had fallen. It was a bitter fight, but by early October it was evident the enemy were yielding the coastal stip to assemble further west at the peak of Sattelberg which dominated the entire area. The 2/17th had already found out the hard way what it was to approach Sattelberg, and now the 2/43rd were trying to rescue one of their companies pinned down at Jivevaneng. Though Finschhafen was theirs, it was by no means secure. Papuan infantry and friendly locals were sending reports the Japanese were entering the wareo-sattelberg area from the north. The cost for this victory had been 73 Australians killed, 285 wounded and 301 sick. To the west at Kaiapit, the Australians were consolidating their position along the Markham valley and preparing to resume their advance on Ramu. Brigadier Dougherty's brigade were flown over to Kaiapit to relieve King's valiant commandos. Meanwhile General Nakai ordered the Saito unit to infiltrate and raid the Australians position. The 80 men of the Saito unit were led by Captain Morisada who organized his men into 4 smaller attack groups. Back on September 23rd, 3 Saito groups carried out their first operation, successfully blowing up the billet of a commanding officer and setting fire to a entire kunai patch that delayed an Australian advance. Meanwhile the bulk of the Nakai detachment withdrew back to the Ramu valley where they established fortifications at the Kankirei Mountains. Kankieri means “summit of joy” and was named so on June of 1943 when troops of the 20th division reached its peak to look down upon Ramu valley, cheering as they did because they had just completed the road from Madang. However by late september the Australians now looked to be approaching said road to Madang.   By the 23rd the 2/16th battalion captured Antiragen and the Umi river crossing. The next day was quite a handful for them alongside the 2/6th independent company. Both had patrols probing the Sagerak when they ran into some Japanese rearguard. 2 inch mortars and rifles pushed the rearguard to pull back and soon some patrols were moving on towards Narawapum. Meanwhile a papuan company was patrolling its northern foothills trying to find a fast route for the Australians to take to catch up to the Japanese in the Boana-Wantoat areas. Around midday the 2/16th and 2/6th were crossing the Umi to secure some high ground south of Sagerak. They clashed with around 20 Japanese carrying full packs in the Narawapum area causing them to flee. All of these Japanese forces were from the 1st battalion, 78th regiment, struggling to estalbish decent delaying actions.    General Vasey then appointed a new objective, Dumpu, where he hoped to catch General Nakano's men whom he assumed were retreating up the Ramu Valley towards Bogadjim. In reality, Nakano's 51st division were withdrawing through the Saruwaged Range, whose track deteriorated as it went up the upper reaches of the Sanem river. Private Kitamoto who was traveling with the 51st would recall “After we escaped the clutches of the enemy we were confronted by nature. Here the living had to walk across the dead to stay on the track. Using the dead bodies as stepping stones and clinging to the slippery lichen covered rocks, the men made their way up the mountain. Fresh red blood ran from the mouth of the dead when they were stepped on and their glassy eyes stared us in the face. Approaching 4000 meters, the cold bit hard into the light summer uniforms the soldiers wore but the exhausted men could not stop to sleep or they would freeze to death. The screaming voices of the men who slipped from the log bridges to their death in the canyons below, and the wailing cries of the men who could move no more and were asking for help. It was a sense of hell, something quite out of this world.'   Under the belief there was a strong enemy presence covering the withdrawal, possibly the full 20th division, Dougherty decided to order the 2/16th back across the Umi river on september 25th. At the same time, Nakai had ordered the bulk of his 78th regiment to take up a position in the Gurumbu-Kankirei area;  for the 1st battalion, 26th field artillery regiment to defend the seashore in the Erima area; and for the 2rd battalion 78th regiment to advance into the Yokopi mountain area to defend Kesawai. Meanwhile the last battalion of the 21st brigade had just arrived to Kaiapit, so Vasey ordered Brigaider Eathers 25th brigade to be the next one flown in.  General Herring had decided to place the Bena Force under Vasey's command, which was ordered to cross the Ramu and assault Dumpu and Kesawai. For the next few days, heavy patrolling was conducted at Dumpu, the upper Ramu valley, Kaiapit, Sagerak and eventually past the Umi. Patrols would find no enemy at Kaiapit, nor Sagerak, this prompted Dougherty to believe there were no enemy east of the Umi. On september 28th, Dougherty ordered the 2/16th battalion to recross the river and successfully began occupying Sagerak as the rest of the brigade made their way over after. On the 29th, the 21st brigade were advancing west, taking Wankon Hill and Marawasa facing no opposition. On that same day, some Australian commandos of the Bena Froce led by Captain Dexter were advancing west of Kesawai where they established a new abmush position. The Australians tried to lure the Japanese to the ambush area with 3 men boldly coming over to the Japanese base, drawing their attention. The 3 men ran back to the ambush position and wondered if it worked, and soon 60 Japanese appeared. Their commanding officers were within 30 yards of the ambush are, when the Australians opened fire. The Australians had taken a semi circle position and the effect was like “a reaper's sycthe”. A larger group of Japanese then rapidly came over once they heard the gunfire and the Australians were soon running low on ammunition. Dexter was wounded, another man was killed, so they began a quick withdraw, racing back for the Ramu in broad daylight. While this was going on Eathers forces were beginning to assemble at Kaiapit.  On September 30th, Dougherty's units advance to the Gusap River which divided Markham and Ramu. In the battalions report of the crossing of the Gusap, they described it as such "It was a complete surprise to most of the battalion to learn that during the day's march—actually just before reaching Arifagan Creek—they had crossed the divide between the Markham and Ramu River basins. The divide was impossible to pinpoint on the ground as the gradients were imperceptible. The only visible indication that a divide had been crossed was that rivers were now flowing in the opposite direction from the Markham drainage basin." It was at this point Vasey realized he might not be facing the full strength of the 20th division as he received a report Wootten was apparently fighting them over at Finschhafen. Upon looking over the matter, Blamey and Herring decided to not heavily commit to Markham and Ramu Valleys, but instead prioritize the battle for Finschhafen. The commanders met at Lae on October 1st, where Herring agreed to allow Vasey to push towards Dumpu, but he would not allow him to remove the whole of two independent companies from the Benabena plateau. Vasey  ordered Dougherty and Eather to concentrate on the Gusap area and for the 2/7th independent company to scout the Bumbum area. God I love new guinea.  I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. The Japanese pulled off another incredible evacuation, similar to that of Guadalcanal and Kiska with operation Se-Go. Over on Green Hell the battle for Finschhafen was turning out not to be a pushover, and it was looking like another major offensive was afoot.   

Last time we spoke about the conclusion to the Lae-Salamaua campaign. Operation postern was unleashed with a bang. The Japanese were taken by complete surprise when the allies landed in the Lae Area. General Nakano frantically withdrew the forces from Salamaua over to Lae having been duped by the allied deception. Despite their fighting withdrawal, the Japanese not only lost Lae to the surprise attack, but ironically lost Salamaua at the same time. It was a race for the allied divisions to see who would seize both objectives. As the allies marched into Salamaua they realized it was so desolated, it probably would not be of use as a forward base, but Lae would prove extremely beneficial. Ultimately Nakano managed to get 8000 or more men out of the mayhem, now marching north for salvation, but the allies were not done yet. This episode is Huon Peninsula Offensive Welcome to the Pacific War Podcast Week by Week, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about world war two? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on world war two and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel you can find a few videos all the way from the Opium Wars of the 1800's until the end of the Pacific War in 1945.    Before we venture back to the boys on Green Hell, there had been some developments in the Solomons. On September 18th, Admiral Wilkinson brought over the first units of General Barrowcloughs 3rd division, the 35th and 37th battalions of the 14th brigade. They were brought over to Les Gill's plantation located at Joroveto north of Barakoma and they landed without any conflicts. Unbeknownst to them however, Admiral Sakamaki had launched an airstrike of 12 vals and 48 zeros. Luckily the allies tossed an interception in the form of 17 F4U Corsairs, 6 Hellcats and 4 P-40's which ran into them just over Baga island as Admiral Wilkinsons escorts force of 7 destroyers were making their escape. The air battle spread towards the east where the landing area was, but no shipping was damaged as the allies claimed to have knocked out 15 enemy aircraft at the cost of 3 Corsairs. Once he got ashore, Barrowclough assumed command of the Northern Landing force and set up his HQ on the eastern coast of Vella Lavella. In response, Wilkinson spread his fighter cover more thinly and scattered his LSTs away from Barakoma's anti-aircraft guns. On September 25th a large convoy carrying the 30th battalion, 14th brigade and some marines and Seabee units arrived at Ruravai. They began establishing an advance Marine base for an upcoming operation against Bougainville. This prompted Sakamaki to launch another air strike, this time of 8 vals and 40 zeros. Brigadier General James Moore had roughly 20 fighters to cover the convoy, but some of the vals managed to slip past them. At 11:13, 12 Hellcats intercepted the enemy, leading to dogfights with the Zeros, but two minutes later the Vals had come out from hiding in front of the sun. The vals were targeting the IMAC landing site at Ruravai where the 77th seabees had been clearing a beach area. The marines had some 40mm guns already set up when the Vals struck. Two bombs hit LST-167 forcing it vessel to beach itself while the rest of the bombs scattered across the beach killing 32 men and wounding 58. Sakamaki followed this up with another air strike on October 1st consisting of 8 vals and a dozen zeros again against Ruravai. The 1st marine parachute battalion was landing at the time, as Sakamaki's bombers successfully evaded allied rader and fighter patrols to hit the LSTs. LST-334 took a hit and near miss causing damage but no casualties. LST-448 was hit twice leaving her bursting into flames, killing 52 men with many more wounded. LAST-448 was hit again leading to her sinking while under tow. It was some pretty devastating air strikes, but it was also to be the last as the Japanese were in the midst of evacuating their troops from New Georgia and the 26th air flotilla was withdrawing from Buin. To the northwest, Fijina commandos ha discovered the Horaniu defense force were now scattered in an area between Tambala Bay and Marquana Bay. Barrowclough decided to order Bridagider Leslie Potter's 14th brigade to take out the enemy there. Potter planned to take the 35th battalion and his HQ up the western coast to Matu Soroto Bay while the 37th battalion would land at Doveli cover on the northern coast, hoping to trap the Japanese between both forces. On September 21st, Captain Tsuruya Yoshio had just arrived from Buin to take command of the rather disorganized Vella Lavella forces and began concentrating at Marquana Bay establishing a defensive perimeter. Potter's forces successfully landed at the designated points by september 24th and prepared their advance for the next day. Meanwhile Admiral Samejima and Kusaka were planning the evacuation of Kolombangara. To help them General Imamura was tossing over Major General Yoshimura Masayoshi's 2nd shipping detachment alongside 30 barges. Plans were quickly formed back in early september for Yoshimura to carrying out the evacuation in two stages beginning on September 28th and October 20th via the Choiseul route. Admiral Ijuin proposed using the 8th fleet destroyers for both transport and cover. Kusaka approved the plans and granted an additional 6 destroyers for Ijuins task, taken from the combined fleet, while also arranging some air cover from Sakamaki over Choiseul. The operation designated Se-gō, was mostly complete. Yoshimure assumed command over the Barges designated the 17th army sea battle unit, while under command of Samejima. He would have ultimately at his disposal 70 barges. Yoshimura had armed the barges usually with heavy machine guns and trained the crews to expect attacks from American destroyers and PT boats. He also outfitted them with repair tools. One of the largest problems he faced was how to move 70 barges and 9 small naval vedettes to the forward bases while keeping them hidden from enemy aircraft. The NGAF would confirm this problem on September 20th, when 8 Corsairs were patrolling and came across some barges. They managed to destroy 5 out of the 8 they found. Yoshimura recalled “it was an inauspicious start to the operation”. But he carried on none the less. Leaving buin on september 23rd, they arrived at Sumbe Head by the 25th where the 8th fleet sent a detachment of the Kure 7th to establish a base of operations. Kusaka flew into Vila to meet with General Sasaki and Admiral ota, landing in the midst of exploding shells. To prepare for the withdrawal Sakai had established 3 boarding points along Kolombangara; Jack harbor, Tuki point and Hambare harbor. At the same time he tried to conceal his intentions by increasing patrols and firing off the Yokosuka 7th guns against the enemy. Alongside this he had demolition teams blowing up all the airfield installations, which was mingling with General Barker's artillery. Construction units were beginning to cut trails to the boarding points. Against them was Admiral Halsey who held intelligence indicated the Japanese were planning to either reinforce or evacuate Kolombangara. Halsey send Admiral Merrills task force 39 to move up the Slot while Admiral Wilkinsons destroyers would swing south up Vella Gulf with the objective of catching the enemy between them. Halsey called it a “mouse trap”. On september 25th however, both the USS Columbia and Clevland reported sighting torpedo wakes, indicating a possible submarine force prompting Halsey to pull back the cruisers before the mousetrap was sprung, leaving only Wilkinsons destroyers to pounce on the evacuating Japanese. But thats all for the solomon's for now as we are jumping back to Green Hell. Salamaua and Lae had fallen. General Adachi was now determined to hold the Finisterre range, the Ramu Valley and the Huon Peninsula. He ordered Nakai detachment consisting of the 78th regiment less one company and a battalion of the 26th field artillery regiment led by Major General Nakai Masutaro to take up a position at Kaiapit. Masutaro's boys were to try and help halt the enemy pursuing General Nakano's fleeing 51st division. To make matters worse, although the original orders were for the fleeing men to carry their weapons, the Japanese progressively began to abandon their equipment as they fled. Rifle ammunition was the first to go, followed by helmets, then rifles. Kitamoto Masamichi ordered his engineers to gather as many of the abandoned rifles as they could and use their files to erase the chrysanthemum insignia off them. For those of you who don't know, the chrysanthemum is the symbol of the emperor, so they were going to literally waste time and resources to mitigate what they thought was a disgrace. Men also dropped rice, personal belongings, clothes, whatever they had to in order to survive. The logical thing to do is survive, not take time to file off the symbol of your emperor off the rifles. Major Shintani's 1st battalion of the 80th regiment apparently carried all their weapons across the Saruwaged, including 4 heavy machine guns. Shintani had told his men “the soldier who abandons his arms will be shot to death”. Shintani actually died during the crossing of the Saruwaged, but his men carried on his orders. Some of you might know already, but I am a Dad Carlin fanboy and he said it quite right in his piece on the pacific war about the Japanese. They did everything to the extreme. You just don't see the same radical behavior from the other belligerents of WW2. I find we often mock the Japanese naivety about believing their spirit would overcome the material difference, but by hell come high water they tried. They marched north via the Markham valley while General Katagiri's 20th division was sent to help defend Finschhafen. The Japanese had to shuffle their strategic plans at this point. Thus far they had not regarded the losses of Guadalcanal and Buna-Gona as irretrievable, always believing a decisive victory could be obtained allowing for their recapture. Now after losing Lae-Salamaua, the central solomons and the Aluetians, a brutal realization had dawned on them. With a new thrust into the central pacific, they now saw their perimeter was overextended and they needed to withdraw it. This created what became known as the absolute zone of national defense also called the absolute defense line. Tokyo drew the new perimeter line from western New Guinea through the Carolines to the Marianas, leaving most of the southeast area on the outpost line. The main goal was to build strong fortifications along the perimeter while General Imamura and Admiral Kusaka held the enemy at bay as long as possible.  General Imamura kept his 38th division to defend Rabaul and dispatched the 65th independent mixed brigade to Tuluvu. The 65th were ordered to develop a shipping point there and to maintain its airfield. Back on September 5th, Imamura sent Major General Matsuda Iwao to assume command of all the forces at Tuluvu which at that time consisted of the 65th brigade and the 4th shipping detachment, thus together they would be designated the Matsuda detachment. They were going to defend the coasts of western New Britain. Lt general Sakai Yasuchi's 17th division were dispatched from Shanghai to Rabaul to reinforce New Britain while Lt General Kanda Masatane's 6th division were sent to Bougainville to defend it at all dost. The 2nd battalion, 238th regiment would defend gasmata and the 51st transport regiment were deployed at Lorengau in the Admiralties. Now back over with the allies, when Lae was captured with such ease, this caused General Douglas MacArthur's HQ to revise the Cartwheel schedule. Originally it was planned to hit Finschhafen, the primary Japanese base for barge traffic. This was supposed to occur around 6 weeks after the fall of Lae. But like I said, because of Lae's quick capture, combined with some intelligence indicating the Japanese were heavily reinforcing Finschhafen and the Ramu Valley, MacArthur decided to order and immediate operation to secure the villages of Kaiaput and Dumpu in the Markham and Ramu valleys and to construct airfields for Kenney. Allied intelligence indicated the number of Japanese defending the immediate area of Finschhafen was roughly 350 men, providing MacArthur and his staff some optimism. It would be later discovered General Adachi had 5000 available men there. On September 17th MacArthur ordered Admiral Brabey to begin amphibious attack plans for Finschhafen to commence as soon as possible. The Markham and Ramu valleys were like a giant corridor some 115 miles long running from southeast and northwest, separating the Huon Peninsula from the rest of New Guinea. From end to end of the river corridor were large mountains rising on the north and south. The valley itself was flat kunai grass land, very suitable for airfields.  General Vasey's 7th division were earmarked to advance along the Markham and Ramu valleys as far as Dumpu. Dumpu would provide General Kenney with airfields required to isolate the Huon Peninsula. From there Kenney could hit Japanese supply convoys moving between Madang, Wewak and Hansa Bay. Meanwhile General Wootten's 9th division were given the task of amphibiously assaulting Finschhafen before exploiting along the coast to Sio and Saidor. Yet before any major operations could be unleashed there was still work to be done at Lae. General Milford's 5th division was given the task of cleaning up Lae so it could become a major forward base of operations. On September 22nd Milford moved his HQ to Lae. The western boundary between the new Lae Fortress and 7th division would be a line running north and south through Nadzab. The southern boundary would go as far as Nassau bay. Milford had the 15th, 29th and 4th brigade at his disposal. Milfords men immediately set to work clearing the interior approaches to the town of Lae against any possible Japanese counterattack while simultaneously aiding in the pursuit of the fleeing Japanese. The successful evacuation by the Japanese of Salamaua and then Lae had shocked the Australian commanders despite the fact they had been informed as early as May of intense Japanese patrol activities along the interior trails. A young Australian officer had earlier reported that the Japanese were surveying interior trails for a possible retreat across the mountains. On September 8th they acquired a order of evacuation document leaving no doubt how the Japanese were going to withdraw north. Mildfords HQ deduced the line of retreat was going to be from the Melambi river, Boana, Melasapipi, Iloka and Ulap. However this would prove to be deception on the part of General Nakano who changed the direction of the march to a steep trail along the east side of the Atzera range towards Sio.  Going back to the Quadrant Conference held in Quebec city between August 17th and August 24th, the allies had decided to make some major changes to Operation cartwheel. The main focus was now shifting to the Central Pacific and the Joint chiefs of staff planned to employ the 1st and 2nd marine divisions. For the southwest and south pacific areas this meant the central thrust was going to take a bunch of warships, transport ships and cargo ships. MacArthur was livid at the idea two marine divisions would basically prevent him from his objective of Rabaul. Thus in Quebec, it was decided to neutralize Rabaul rather than capture it. MacArthur also brought up the question of invading the southern philippines, but received no answer. He feared that even if the idea was approved, it might be handed over to Admiral Nimitz. Thus to bypass Rabaul, MacArthur's forces would seize Kavieng and the Admiralties. MacArthur would also have to neutralize Wewak and liberate the valuable Vogelkop Peninsula along New Guinea's northern coast.  Back over in New Guinea, General Nakano's men were continuing their withdrawal with the Australians in hot pursuit. On September 17th, th 2/14th battalion crossed the Atzera Range to capture Boana. The Japanese 30th independent engineer regiment and 51st engineer regiment were constructing a small bridge across the busu river using jungle wood. General Nakano had rejoined his HQ with the second echelon of men and he had such a rough time marched he had to be carried by four soldiers. On September 18th the 2/24th battalion reached Musom and Gawam. The Japanese defending Markham point had been completely cut off as of september 14th, receiving no supplies from Lae nor any information about the fact Lae and Salamaua had fallen into enemy hands. On the night of september 16th, 100 men of the 2nd battalion 328th regiment evacuated from Markham point, retreating towards to coast trying to get to Salamaua or Finschhafen. On the 18th, Captain Proctors company of the 15ht battalion were at Labu when they saw a group of 30 armed Japanese trying to escape in folding boats across the Labu lagoon. His company fired upon them forcing the Japanese to quickly row away and flee into the jungle. At 5:10am the next day the Japanese returned to attack Proctors company, trying to break out of what had become an encirclement. Three consecutive attacks were made, with the third reaching the edge of Proctors defensive perimeter when the fighting fell into hand to hand combat. The Japanese were driven off after they had 13 deaths, including their commanding officer. The rest of the Japanese would disperse into the jungle or die to future mop up operations. The next day Boana was taken and now the 2/14th were being held up by a Japanese rearguard on the upper reaches of the Busu. On September 20th, Nakano's first echelon finally crossed the Busu river and by the 22nd the other 3 echelons did likewise. In pursuit, a platoon of the 2/24th began to hit the Japanese at Kwapsanek, but Wootten's forces ultimately failed to catch the Japanese rearguard. In the end the Australians prepared to launch a new offensive against the Ramu valley and Finschhafen, the pursuit units were gradually called back allowing Naknao's men to reach the north coast almost unmolested. General Blamey predicted the remnants of the enemy would need “to escape the hardship of the mountain tracks”. I believe he was quite right on that one. The men of Colonel Watanabe's 14th field artillery regiment continued their march going up the range carrying their single mountain gun towards Lumbaip and then Kemen. Kane Yoshihara noted the officers and men “clung on to the rocks with truly formidable spirit”. General Nakano recalled “I was deeply stirred by their sense of responsibility but could not overlook their suffering”. Nakano ordered the last of the regiments guns to be abandoned. He recalled “the gunners with tears in their eyes, bade a formal farewell as they did so”. Colonel Watanabe would survive the trek alongside 280 of his men. There was a saying amongst the Japanese armed forces that “Java is heaven, Burma is Hell, but you never come back alive from New Guinea”. An American soldier once referred to New Guinea as ‘a green hell on earth”. The conditions were so horrible a veteran of the 32nd division went on the record to say “If I owned New Guinea and I owned hell, I would live in hell and rent out New Guinea”. Vasey and Blamey decided the next objective would be Kaiapit as they believed Naknao was retreating through the Markham and Ramy valleys. They earmarked Captain Gordon King's 2/6th independent company to quickly capture the village before the Japanese could get there. On september 17th, King's company flew over from Port Moresby landed at Sangan on the western bank of the Leron River. Two platoons from Captain John Chalf's Papuan infantry battalion company also reached the western bank of the leron that day coming overland from Chivasing. They would act as a screen ahead of King's men. Kings men began their march for Kaiapit and against them would be Major General Nakai Masutaro who had departed from Bogadjim with the 78th regiment on september 7th. He dispatched the 3rd battalion and Morisada company towards Kaiapit while the bulk of his forces advanced towards Nadzab where they planned to hit its airfield. The Takano Platoon, a reconnaissance unit were the only ones able to reach Kaiapit by September 19th just as the Australians were approaching. King have strict orders to the men that no movement was to be on the track to the village itself as it was believed the enemy would be covering such an approach. Instead the men came through kunai patches, bringing their 2 inch mortars close in to hit the enemy. The mortars began to smash the enemy forward positions sending Japanese fleeing or dying at their posts. The Australians then began to pin down the defenders using grenades and rushed their positions. Japanese treetop snipers unleashed hell, but soon the Australians began firing upon the treelines and village huts where they were hiding. The storming of the village was intense and fast seeing 30 dead Japanese and the rest fleeing. King lost 3 men dead with 7 wounded for the assault. The Australians quickly went to work creating a defensive perimeter placing booby traps everywhere they could. Vasey's decision to swiftly hit the village had paid off big time. The following morning, 300 men led by Major Yonekura Tsuneo arrived to Kaiapit, under the belief it was still in Japanese hands. Just before dawn of September 20th, the Australian commando's saw the incoming Japanese column and immediately opened fire upon them. The Japanese erupted into pure chaos as men of all ranks bunched up and milled about in confusion. Some of the men could be heard screaming in Japanese “we are Japanese let us through!”. Others soon realized Kaiapit was in Australian hands. Thousand of rounds were fired back at the Australians, but their positions were well concealed. King watched as the confused enemy did exactly what he taught his men not to do, shooting at shadows, wasting ammunition and firing high “In all that enormous activity of firing, nobody got hit nobody got hurt at all”. The situation came as a shock to King as well, because the sheer volume of return fire indicated it was a considerably large force. Some of  King's men wanted to advance, but he advised caution. Platoon leader Watson waited for King's signal for when he could advance and King recalled “each second seeming like a minute as the Japanese gathered in the half light. Watson was standing up there, looking back to me waiting”. When King dropped his arm, Watson blew his whistle and his men charged. Lt Bob Scott of section 7 recalled “we killed over a hundred Japanese in the first 100 yards”. Scotts group had cut down Yonekura and his command group in the first wave of Australian fire. Lt Bob Balderstone of section 9 sent his men into the right flank as Lt Jack Elsworthy's section 9 took up the left flank. The Australians had seized the moment and inflicted hellish pain on the Japanese. Watson's platoon lost 8 men killed, 14 wounded. King tossed another platoon through the right flank to grab Mission Hill which dominated the battlefield. As the men advanced, they drove off Japanese in their path and would seize the deserted hill. Once it was captured the Australians had a bird's eye view that allowed them to better direct their forces. Seeing the hill secured, Watson judged the time was ripe to continue the advance so he ordered Balderstone and Elsworthy's sections forward. Balderstone was hiding behind a coconut palm when a bullet nicked his right arm prompting him to scream out “who did that!”. It was not a serious wound, but he was fired up and he yelled to his men to surge forward. Balderstone personally tackled a Japanese machinegunner afterwards. After clearing some machinegun positions below mission hill, the enemy was becoming surrounded. The casualties had become so severe the Japanese began to rout in disorder towards Antiragen and Narawapum. It was an incredible victory for King, they buried 214 Japanese and believed many more were dying or wounded. General Vasey arrived around midday and walked over the corpse strewn battlefield to Mission hill stating ‘My God, my God, my God,'. The scale of the carnage and size of the force against a single Australian company was incredible. Gordon King was resting a wounded leg on a shady spot atop the hill when Vasey approached him. King struggled to get to his feet and Vasey said ‘No, no, sit down,' But King stood up to talk nonetheless. Vasey told him to get the first available aircraft out before adding, ‘Gordon, I promise that you'll never be left out on a limb like this again.' Vasey then returned to his plane, which headed back down the Markham Valley. Some months later, Vasey told King, ‘We were lucky, we were very lucky.' King replied, ‘Well, if you're inferring that what we did was luck, I don't agree with you, Sir. Because I think we weren't lucky, we were just bloody good.' For this victory King had lost 14 men dead, 23 wounded, it was something out of a Rambo film. Brigadier Dougherty's 21st brigade were beginning to land at Kaiapit on september 21st. Kings victory allowed Vasey to bring a fresh bridge into position to keep the advance going against Markham and Ramu valleys. The Yonekura battalion had nearly been wiped out to a man, thus General Nakai ordered the 1st battalion to rescue the battered force. Most of the Morisada company were unscathed as they did not engage in the battle at Kaiapit, alongside them were some stragglers left behind and around 40 men who managed to escape the carnage. Aided by the rescue battalion they managed to withdrew back towards Marawasa by September 24th. A volunteer unit was formed under Captain Morisada named the Saito unit, which consisted of around 80 men from the 10th company 78th regiment. They would work as a special infiltration unit who would begin raiding operations. Back over at Lae, Generals, Blamey, Herring and Wootten began to plan their offensive against Finschhafen. Towards midnight on the 17th, Herring arrived to Lae by PT boat for a meeting with Wootten. Wootten had warned Blamey and Herring that he might be required to carry out an attack on Finschhafen at short notice, leading Wooten to order Brigadier Windeyer to look at Finschhafen on the map because it might be of interest to him soon. Before Herrings arrival, plans were already being formed. At 9am of the 18th, Windeyer and his staff attended a 9th division conference at the HQ on the Bunga river. There Herring outlined a plan for the capture of the Finschhafen-Langemak Bay-dreger Harbor area with a quick swoop which would gain control over the eastern coast of the Huon peninsula and thereby Vitiaz strait. Windeyers 20th brigade would be join General Heavy's 532nd engineer boat and shore regiment and Admiral Brbey's landing craft armada to perform an amphibious assault against Scarlet Beach. Scarlet beach was on the southern part of the Song River just due north of Finschhafen where it was believed the Japanese would not be expecting a landing. From there it was possible they would be able to cut off the Japanese supply lines. Wootten and Blamey tossed up an additional brigade, but the available crafts: 4 destroyer transports, 15 LCI's and 3 LSTs were only capable of lifting a single brigade. In the end the decision was made that after the landings, the 22nd battalion would advance round the south coast of the Huon Peninsula to try and deceive the Japanese as to where the real direction of the threat was coming from. Windeyer planned to hit the beachhead with two battalions, the 2/17ths on the right and the 2/13th on the left. Once the beachhead was secured, the 2/15th would advance south along the main road towards Finschhafen. Additionally an expedition would be launched from G Beach on the night of September 21sst to also land at Scarlet Beach the following morning. To support the landings a large air armada of both American and Australian planes would protect the convoy during the daylight. General Kenney would be tossing air strikes against Cape Gloucester with Liberators, while the RAAF hit Gasmata with Kittyhawks and Bostons and Mitchells against Finschhafen. All of the key airfields and supply points between Wewak and Finschhafen would get smashed. Barbeys destroyers likewise would bombardment Finschhafen as well. To meet the boys coming to the beaches was Major General Yamada Eizo commanding the 1st shipping detachment, a naval force based around the 85th naval garrison. Around 1200 men were stationed at Finschhafen, many of them however were barge operators and mechanics. But there were some combat units; Major Shigeru Tashiros 2 battalion, 238th regiment had companies 7 and 8 at Finschhafen with company 5 at Tami islands. Additionally there was the bulk of the 80th regiment coming over from Madang via the coastal road that would arrive just in time to meet the Australian offensive. In the end Yamada's combat strength would be roughly 4000 men strong. On September 10th, after the allies landings at Lae and Nadzab, General Katagiri marched the rest of his forces from Madang to Finschhafen in a grueling advance along the coast. The first elements of his 79th regiment assembled at Gali by September 21st. Because of all of this, Madang was left pretty much undefended. The 239th regiment was chosen to reinforce the base, departing Wewak on October 3rd. Over in Finschhafen, Yamada began deploying the bulk of his forces at Logaweng; with 4 companies holding the Mongi river's mouth and two mixed companies of about 50 engineers and 300 naval personnel holding the Bumi river. To the north, Yamada could only deploy company 9th company of the 80th regiment towards the Song River to secure Sattelberg. Looking at it all on paper it seemed the Australians were set to face little resistance. On the afternoon of September 21st, Barbey's force of 8 LCM's and 15 LCV's departed Lae for Scarlet Beach.  Windeyer's landing plan called for two companies of th 2/17th battalion were going to land on the right beach while two companies from the 2/13th would land on the left. While the rest of the brigade landed, the right companies would hit North Hill and the left companies would hit Arndt Point. Barbey's convoy arrived off Scarlett Beach at 4:45am and the barges began to lower. After an 11 minute bombardment by destroyers Perkins, Drayton, Smith, Lamson and Flusser the barges began to speed over to the shore. However due to the darkness of the night, the whole wave landed a bit further south than intended and as a result the 4 assaulting companies were landed not only on the wrong beaches but also got mixed with other groups. This caused a fit of confusion as a platoon of the 2/13th drew fire from some machine gun nests near the mouth of the Song River. They quickly engaged the enemy with grenades and small arms, gradually silencing the two enemy posts. When the 2/17th battalion began to become organized in the area the platoon moved further south to rejoin its company. This all resulted in a failure to secure Scarlet Beach, forcing the second wave to veer further left and beach near Siki Cove under heavy enemy fire. But the LCI's of the 2nd and 3rd waves responded to the heavy fire with their 20 mm guns sending the Japanese fleeing. After that Scarlet beach was secured. Funny enough, if it was not for the misstep landing further south, the operation would have seen more casualties amongst the Australians, as the Japanese machine guns proved to be sited in a deadly position to hit Scarlet Beach. As the remaining waves disembarked, Lt Gibb's platoon of the 2/17th advanced inland and were soon met by some machine gun nests. Within half an hour of combat, the platoon killed 7 Japanese and sent the rest fleeing. Other platoons of the 2/17th began to advance up the Song River fighting only limited skirmishes. The 2/13th meanwhile were sending two companies towards Siki Cove where they had to clear a few pillboxes taking some Japanese prisoners. Windeyers forces then launched an attack against Katika. Makes me think of the show Vikings haha (do a Floki thing). A company led by Lt Pike passed through Katika at 6:45am, heading for some high ground beyond. There Pike's men ran into some strong resistance. Another platoon led by Lt Birmingham ran into a Japanese position who tossed a ton of well directed grenades their way killing 3 men and wounding 7. Pike's platoon stormed some huts seeing the Japanese begin a encirclement maneuver against him. Luckily the encirclement was thwarted with the help of another platoon led by Lt Cribb. Companies of the 2/17th and 2/13th were led by Pike and Cribb respectively and both found themselves close against one another. Cribb informed Pike he would launch a bombardment upon the enemy holding some high grounds allowing Pikes men to make a hook maneuver to hit the enemy. Under the cover of 15 3 inch mortars they hit the Japanese, ultimately taking the village at the cost of many men.  While Scarlet Beaches defensive perimeter was being consolidated, the 2/13th advanced south towards Heldsbac and Tareko as Barbey's destroyers were attacked by an air strike. 20 bombers, 10 torpedo bombs and 40 fighters had come over from Rabaul to hit the landing beach. Three American fighter squadrons were waiting to intercept them, successfully shooting down 10 bombers and 29 fighters, while losing 3 lightnings. Likewise the destroyers anti aircraft fire managed to take down 9 torpedo bombers, without receiving any significant hits back. Scarlet Beach was now in allied hands. 5300 troops, 180 vehicles, 32 guns and 180 tons of supplies had been landed successfully. The cost amounted to 20 dead australians, 65 wounded and 9 men missing. For the Americans 8 engineers were killed with 42 wounded. Yet again the rapid pace of the allies had caught the Japanese off guard upsetting their plans to reinforce Finschhafen. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. The landing at Scarlet beach was a large success. The Japanese had planned to reinforce Finschhafen with 5000 troops, but now they had been caught completely off guard and would only have a fraction of the troops they wanted to support the area. In New Guinea, when it rains it pours.   

Stéphane Bern raconte une figure incontournable du siècle des Lumières, l'un des hommes d'Etat les plus importants de son temps, à la fois tout-puissant et cible privilégiée de nombreux intrigants. Ou la véritable histoire du principal ministre de Louis XV, le duc de Choiseul et son goût du pouvoir… Choiseul a-t-il fait des choix seul ? A-t-il été un sauveur ou un fossoyeur de la monarchie ? Pourquoi a-t-il été lâché après tant d'années aux côtés du Roi ?Pour en parler, Stéphane Bern reçoit l'historien David Feutry, auteur d'une nouvelle biographie 'Le duc de Choiseul, l'orgueil au pouvoir' (Perrin)

Stéphane Bern, s'amuse avec l'Histoire – la grande, la petite, la moyenne… - et retrace les destins extraordinaires de personnalités qui n'auraient jamais pu se croiser, pour deux heures où le savoir et l'humour avancent main dans la main. Aujourd'hui, le duc de Choiseul.

Stéphane Bern, s'amuse avec l'Histoire – la grande, la petite, la moyenne… - et retrace les destins extraordinaires de personnalités qui n'auraient jamais pu se croiser, pour deux heures où le savoir et l'humour avancent main dans la main. Aujourd'hui, le duc de Choiseul.

Samedi 2 septembre, Emmanuel Lechypre a reçu a reçu Pascal Lorot, président de l'institut Choiseul ; Maxence Brischoux, enseignant en relations internationales à Paris II Panthéon-Assa ; Vincent Charlet, délégué général de la fabrique de l'industrie et Florence Verzelen, directrice générale adjointe de Dassault Systèmes, dans l'émission la librairie de l'éco sur BFM Business. Retrouvez l'émission le vendredi et réécoutez la en podcast.

Last time we spoke about the Komiatum Offensive in New Guinea. The drive to Lae and Salamaua was raging on New Guinea. Mount Tambu was assaulted and the allies received hellish casualties trying to take it. The legendary Bull Allen saved countless lives during this action, but Mount Tambu simply couldn't be captured. The allies chose to isolate and surround mount Tambu instead. The allies secured took the sugarcane knoll, the timbered knoll and then found a path heading to Komiatum. Nakano ordered his men to hold Komiatum ridge, but their situation became more and more desperate. Allied artillery and aerial bombardment alongside the enveloping maneuvers were taking a toll, the Japanese had suffered 900 casualties since July 23rd. With more men dying minute by minute, Nakano ordered a withdrawal from Komiatum still believing the primary target of the allies was Salamaua. This episode is the Fall of Kiska & Battle of Vella Lavella  Welcome to the Pacific War Podcast Week by Week, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about world war two? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on world war two and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel you can find a few videos all the way from the Opium Wars of the 1800's until the end of the Pacific War in 1945.  So before venturing back to the frigid northern aleutians, we have a lot of action to talk about in the south Pacific. On August 3rd, General Sasaki was forced to order a withdrawal from Munda. General Griswold sent a message over to Admiral Hasley declaring “Our ground forces today wrested Munda from the Japs and present it to you as sole owner”. Halsey in his typical fashion replied “keep ‘em dying”. Despite the blood, sweat and tears taking Munda, as a whole, operation cartwheel had fallen a month behind schedule. As Griswold noted “the months fighting had not been the Americans' finest hour in the Solomon islands campaign”. Halsey would add to it “the smoke of charred reputations still makes me cough”. Now just because Munda had fallen did not mean the work was all done, there was to be cleanup operations of course. General Sasaki ordered his forces to retreat northwards, most were enroute to the Kure 6th farm; the 13th regiment and Sasaki's HQ were going to Bairoko; the 3rd battalion, 23rd regiment and Yokosuka 7th guns were heading to Baanga island. The Americans would be in hot pursuit. General Griswold divided the cleanup operations, giving the 25th division the task of advancing across New Georgia to seize Bairoko Harbor and the Piru Plantation. General Hodge 's 43rd division was given the task of seizing the islands of Arundel and Baanga. General Collins would deploy the 1st battalion, 27th regiment and Colonel Dalton's 161st regiment to advance up the Bairoko trail; the rest of Colonel Douglas Sugg's 27th would advance along the Zieta Trail towards the Piru plantation. General Sasaki learnt on August 6th, the American navy had scored a small but conclusive victory when 6 US destroyers sunk 3 IJN destroyers, the Arashi, Kawakaze and Hagikaze during the Naval battle of Vella Gulf. This of course meant the Japanese reinforcement convoy had failed, thus Sasaki wasted no time ordered a general withdrawal to Kolombangara by the way of Baanga Island. Sasaki needed to give the men more time, so he reinforced the Yano battalion with the 12th company of the 3rd battalion, 23rd regiment who were left to defend the Kure 6th farm. Major Yano Keiji, a veteran of Guadalcanal, selected a rough terrain east and south of Zieta village and the Kure 6th farm to dig in. The Americans would later refer to it as “Zieta Garden”. The garden was to be Yano's first line of defense across the Zieta river. There was a bit of high ground due north of Zieta Village which would have been easier to defend, but he needed his men to protect the trail running to Lulu Channel and Baanga, his only line of communications. The 3rd battalion, 23rd regiment in the meantime were securing Baanga. General Sasaki radioed his plans to the 8th Fleet, but to his surprise was told to hold onto New Georgia until late September for “future operations”. Sasaki was bewildered by this, but understood Admiral Samejima then commanding the 8th fleet was trying to direct a land battle, and obviously he was not experienced in such things. What Sasaki did not know at the time was Samejima was being instructed by General headquarters to do this. On August 7th, the Army and Navy had agreed to pull out of the Central Solomons and would cooperate to bolster Bougainville's defenses. A revisión later on August 13th would instruct Koga, Kusaka and Imamura to hold onto as much of New Georgia as possible while Bougainville was being reinforced. Full evacuation of New Georgia was set for late September to early October, but the actual dates were dependent on the Bougainville progress. On August 8th Sugg's 2nd battalion advanced through a deep ravine going roughly 2 miles up the trail when his men were met with heavy machine gun fire. The Yano battalion was defending the barge supply route through the Lulu channel as their comrades and supplies made their way to Baanga. On August 9th, the 27th began their assault upon the Kure 6th Farm, employing a envelopment maneuver. The Yano battalion was holding them at bay, but gradually the allied forces were confining the Japanese into a smaller and smaller pocket. Meanwhile the 1st battalion was advancing north along the Munda-Bairoko trail where they joined Colonel Liversedge's men. On the 10th, Hodge ordered the 169th regiment to hit Baanga and on the 11th patrols from their 3rd battalion had located the Japanese strongpoint on its southwest tip. By nightfall, the American assault of the Kure 6th Farm forced Colonel Yano to withdraw back across the Zieta River to form a new defensive perimeter. His men performed a fighting withdrawal throughout the night seeing many Japanese scream and throw rocks at the Americans. The usual night time activities that kept the allied forces miserable.  On the 12th the Americans unleashed an artillery bombardment upon the Kure 6th Farm positions not realizing they had already been abandoned. The 89th had fired 2700 rounds, the heaviest concentration of the operation on completely empty positions. The Americans advanced over Yano's old positions, crossed the river and fell upon Yano's new defensive perimeter. On that day General Barker assumed command of the 43rd division as General Hodge returned to his command of the Americal Division. Barker began by sending L Company of the 169th regiment to occupy Baanga. L Company were met with unexpectedly heavy Japanese fire suffering 28 casualties before they were forced to pull back.    Meanwhile on August 13th, Sugg's 3rd battalion with E company managed to launch their main assault against the Yano battalion. They were attempting a envelopment maneuver against Yano's flanks, but heavy resistance saw Yano's right flank repel the attack. On the left there was a marshy plain that hindered the American advance forcing them to go too far left and thus failing to apply enough pressure. Although the assault failed, the unexpected left advance saw some gain. A patrol from H company stumbled across a heavily used trail leading to the Lulu channel. They established a roadblock that night allowing ambush efforts to hit the trail. The roadblock convinced Yano he was soon to be cut off, so he immediately prepared a withdrawal to Baanga.    In the meantime, Barker decided to use Vela Cela island as a launching point for an assault against Maanga. On August the 14th, the 3rd battalion, 169th regiment began occupying the small island before using it as a springboard to land at Baanga. However the Americans quickly found themselves surrounded by a mangrove swamp and the Japanese began tossing counter attacks until night fell.  Yano's forces repelled numerous American attacks from the 3rd battalion throughout the day, afternoon and night. The Japanese threw back one attack led by four marine tanks, which had crossed the river on a bridge engineers built. While doing this his men also began their retreat westwards. H Company met a brief exchange with Yano's men, but Yano decided not to seriously clash with them and withdrew his battalion to Baanga by the 15th.  The 27th occupied Zieta village, making contact with Schultz 3rd battalion, 148th infantry over on Zieta Hill to the north. After this the 27th would advance upon Piru plantation and Sunday Inlet, too which they also ran into mangrove swamps greatly hindering them. The fight for the Zieta area had cost them 168 casualties, the americans were seeing a continuous flow of fierce counterattacks at Baanga, prompting Barker to decided he would reinforce the beachhead with the 2nd battalion 169th regiment and the 1st and 3rd battalions of the 172nd regiment.   At this point General Griswold and Admirals Halsey and Wilkinson were trying to figure out what to do next. Halsey's original plan after the taking of Munda was to attack Kolombangara, but the recent performance of the Japanese defenders made the Americans quite skittish about performing an amphibious invasion. The battle for Munda point was one of the fiercest defenses the Japanese had put up. More than 30,000 troops had been brought over to face 5000 Japanese defenders within their network of entrenchments. As pointed out by the commander in chief of the US Navy planning memorandum “If we are going to require such overwhelming superiority at every point where we attack the Japanese, it is time for radical change in the estimate of the forces that will be required to defeat the Japanese now in the Southwest and Central Pacific.” Munda Point airfield would become a landmark victory because of the 6000 foot runway it would soon provide, alongside taxiways and its capacity as a base of operations. Halsey would later declare its airfield “to be the finest in the south pacific” and the Seabees would be awarded with a citation for their great efforts. Commander Doane would receive a special mention “by virtue of his planning, leadership, industry, and working ‘round the clock' to make serviceable the Munda Airfield on August 14th, 1943, a good four days ahead of the original schedule.” The seabees work was a testament not only to their morale and organization, but also the fact they held superior equipment. Admiral Nimitz would go on the record to state “one of the outstanding features of the war in both the North and South Pacific areas has been the ability of US forces to build and use airfields, on a terrain and with a speed which would have been considered fantastically impossible in our pre-war days.” Overall the Georgia campaign would go on the be an essential component in the strangulation of Rabaul, as pointed out by historian Eliot Morison “The Central Solomons ranks with Guadalcanal and Buna-Gona for intensity of human tribulation. We had Munda and we needed it for the next move, toward Rabaul; but we certainly took it the hard way. The strategy and tactics of the New Georgia campaign were among the least successful of any allied campaign in the Pacific”.   Allied intelligence indicated Kolombangara had roughly 10,000 Japanese defenders, thus Halsey was inclined to seek an alternative method rather than slugging it out. He thought perhaps they could bypass Kolombangara completely and instead land on Vella Lavella. If they managed to pull that off, it would cut off the Japanese supply line to Kolombangara which was basically surviving on fishing boats and barges based out of Buin. Halsey noted “Kolombangara was 35 miles nearer the Shortlands and Kahili. According to coast-watchers, its garrison numbered not more than 250, and its shoreline would offer at least one airstrip.” A reconnaissance carried out back on July 22nd reported very few enemy troops on the island and that it held a feasible airfield site at Barakoma which also had beaches capable for LST's to land at. Thus Halsey approved the plan and Griswold formed the Northern Landing Force, placed under the command of Brigadier General Robert McClure. The force consisted of the recently arrived 35th regiment of the 25th division attached to the 25th cavalry reconnaissance troops, all led by Colonel Everett Brown; the 4th defense battalion, the 58th naval construction battalion and the Naval base group.  To hit Vella Lavella they would require air supremacy and artillery planted upon Piru Plantation and the Enogai-Bairoko area. General Twinnings AirSols had 161 fighters back on July 31st, but by August 18th they would have 129 functioning. Twining had sufficient strength in bombers as the number of light and medium bombers had dropped by less than a dozen, at around 129. For heavy bombers his increased from 48 to 61. It was critical Munda airfields be fully operational by mid august, sothe Seabees of the 73rd and 24th naval construction battalions went to work. Admiral Fitch's plan for Munda airfield called for a 6000 long foot runway with a minimum 8 inch coral surface and taxiways and revetments ready for over 200 fighters by September 25th. Eventually this would also include 48 heavy bombers. The immediate job was the fighter strip as always, you prepare your defenses against air attacks before you bring in the heavy bombers. He had a week to make the field operational. Commander Doane of the 73rd Seabees had two critical assets. The first was Munda was by far the best airfield site in the Solomons. Beneath one to 3 feet of topsoil was solid coral and there was a plentiful supply of live coral which hardened like concrete, great for the surfacing. Second the 73rd was the best equipped battalion yet to arrive to the solomons with D-7 and D-8 bulldozers, ¾ yard power shovels, 8 yard carryalls and 7 ton rollers. Weather was good and the moon was bright for the week permitting night time work without lights. The immediate threat would have been a 12cm of the Yokosuka 7th SNLF at Baanga, but they never fired upon them. Again, wars are won by logistics and it can't be expressed enough what a colossal amount the Seabees did for the Pacific War. By August 14th, Mulcahy flew over to set up his HQ and the VMF-123 and VMF-124 flew into the base with a R4D carrying their gear and personnel. For the incoming invasion P-40s would be coming from Segi while Corsairs would be launched from Munda.  Admiral Kusaka had reformed his 1st Base air force thanks to the arrival of his long-sought reinforcements. In mid July reinforcements arrived to the Solomons in the form of the 201st Kokutai Aerial Bomb group and carrier Division 2's naval bombers from Ryujo. The overall strength of the 1st base air force was now at around 230 aircraft of various types. The land-based bombers would go to Rear Admiral Ueno Keizo's 25th air flotilla over in Rabaul. They were tasked with night bombing raids against Guadalcanal and New Georgia now. Naval fights and bombers would be merged into the 1st combined air attack force, later reformed into the 26th air flotilla led by Rear Admiral Sakamaki Munetake. There job was to destroy any enemy shipping in New Georgia and to conduct interceptions over the Munda-Buin areas. It was understood the Americans held numerical superiority, but the Japanese were willing to take them on hoping their fighting spirit would prevail. Meanwhile, back on the night of August 12th, Admiral Wilkinson deployed an advance party of 14 men led by Captain George Kriner to perform a reconnaissance of Vella Lavella. They would be reinforced by Companies E and G of the 103rd regiment when the scouts found 40 Japanese around Biloa and another 100 5 miles north of Barakoma. They had reached the island secretly using 4 PT boats, though Japanese floatplanes would made to bomb one of them. After the successful arrival of the advance party at Barakoma, F Company of the 103rd landed on August 14th to reinforce the beachhead.  The main invasión force designated Task Force 31 led by Admiral Wilkinson  would consist of 10 destroyers, 5 destroyer transports, 12 LCI's, 3 LST's and two subchasers. At 3:05am  the 1st transport group of the force departed consisting of the destroyer transports with 6 escort destroyers were carrying the 1st and 2nd battalions of the 35th regiment. Captain Ryan led the group aboard Nicholas while Wilkinson was aboard Cony. The second transport group made up of the smaller vessels carried the Seabees and support personally following an hour behind with 4 destroyer escorts led by Captain William Cooke. After the force departed Guadalcanal they were to approach the Gizo Strait around midnight, before beginning to unload in the early hours of august 15th, under the cover of fighters.  However Wilkinson would not be aware his force was spotted by a G3M Betty bomber which reported back to Admiral Samaki who immediately launched a strike force. By 8am, the 1st and 2nd battalions of the 35th regiment had landed. While the 3rd battalion began their unloading process enemy aircraft appeared. 48 Zeros and 6 Vals were intercepted by American fighters. By 9:15 all the troops were landed, now the equipment began to be unloaded. The Japanese launched two waves from Buin, the first appeared at 12:30, made up of 48 Zero's and 11 Vals. They were intercepted leading to no damage being done to the landing forces. 7 Zeros came in low to strafe the beach but were turned away by fire from 65 automatic weapons aboard the LST's. LST's in the past lacked adequate anti aircraft protection, thus 20 20mm guns were borrowed from Guadalcanal and set to use. At 5:30 32 Zero's and 8 Vals showed up but they too were intercepted. By 6pm the LSTs were beginning to retract. The strikes had amounted to 12 men killed on the beach and 40 wounded, it could have been much worse. The Japanese reported losing 9 Zeros and 8 Vals for the day while the Americans would claim to have lost a total of 5 fighters. Without any real land battle the amphibious invasion of Vella Lavella was a resounding success. After darkness settled in, Admiral Ueno's 5th air attack force over in Rabaul launched their final attempt against the American convoys. At 5:30pm, 3 Betty's that had launched out of Vunakanau were spotting the convoy and reporting their movements. They came across the LCI's southeast of Gatukai and the LSTs as they were approaching the Gizo strait. 23 Bettys in 3 Chutai's, one armed with torpedoes the other two with bombs approached. The torpedo armed Betty's attacked the LCI's while the bombers went for the LST's. The American destroyers tossed up a lot of anti aircraft fire as the torpedoes and bombs failed to hit targets. 4 Betty's would be damaged badly for their efforts. The Japanese reaction to the terrible results was to form an unrealistic plan to wipe out the American invasion by sending a single battalion to the island. When the landings became known, officers of the 8th fleet and 17th army formed a conference. They estimated, with accuracy surprisingly, that the landing force was around a brigade in strength. One officer proposed the idea to send a battalion to counterland. General Imamura's HQ calmly pointed out that sending a single battalion against a brigade would be like “pouring water on a hot stone”. The men were desperately more needed for the defense of Bougainville. The Japanese knew they were vastly outnumbered in the Solomons and that the fight for the central solomons was pretty much lost. They believed their only chance to successfully defend the rest of the solomons was to carry out a slow retreat in order to build up forces in Bougainville and Rabaul.  It was decided that two rifle companies of the Miktami battalion and a platoon from the Yokosuka 7th SNLF would be sent to Horaniu on the northeast corner of Vella Lavella. These forces would establish a barge staging base between Kolombangara and the Shortlands. Alongside this Rekata bay would be evacuated and its 7th Kure SNLF would set up a relay base at Choiseul. Imamura nad Kusaka planned to hold Horaniu for as long as possible, trying to establish a new supply route along the west coast of Choiseul.  For the Horaniu operation, Admiral Ijuins destroyer squadron of Sazanami, Shigure, Hamakaze and Isokaze were going to escort 22 barges, supported by 3 torpedo boats and two subchasers. The small armada departed Rabaul on August 17th, but Ijuin's destroyers were spotted quickly by an allied search plane 100 miles out of Rabaul. In fact, Wilkinson was anticipating the Japanese heading for Kolombangara or perhaps Barakoma. He sent 4 destroyers, the Nicholas, O'Bannon, Taylor and Chevalier under Captain Thomas Ryan. Ryan had been an ensign in Yokohama during the 1923 Great Kanto earthquake, where he saved the love of one Mrs. Slack from the burning Grand Hotel. This earned him the medal of honor making him 1 of 18 men to receive the medal of honor during the interwar period of 1920-1940. Ryans force departed Tulagi while the other American convoy, the 2nd echelon led by Cooke were landing equipment at Barakoma. By nightfall Ryans squadron were coming up the slot while the enemy convoy was being harassed by 4 Avengers. The Avengers failed to score hits, but the anti aircraft gunfire alerted Ryan, as the Japanese were reversing course heading in his direction. At 12:29am on August 18th O'Bannon made radar contact and a few minutes later the Americans could see the Japanese ships. At 12:32 the Japanese spotted Ryans force, prompting Ijuin to order a 45 degree turn northwest to try and lure the enemy away from the convoy. As his ruse succeeded there would be a pretty ineffective long range gun and torpedo duel seeing Hamakaze and Isokaze taking slight damage. Meanwhile the Japanese barges were racing to the coast. Ryan believed he had foiled the reinforcement when he engaged the destroyers . But because Chevalier was facing some mechanical failures and could not keep up speed to chase the Japanese destroyers, Ryan decided to turn back to engage the already landed reinforcements at Horaniu. However they managed to escape north too quickly, thus the Horaniu operation was quite a bit of success, with a lot of luck at play. Now we are shifting over to the frigid north waters of the Aleutians. The fall of Attu and Munda were pivotal moments of the Pacific war that completely changed the course of their respective campaigns. When Munda was taken, the Japanese realized the central solomons were a lost cause and began to move all resources and men they could to Bougainville. When Attu was taken, the Japanese realized the Aleutian islands campaign was a lost cause and decided to evacuate the forces on Kiska. The battle of the pips and miraculous evacuation of Kiska was completed by the end of July. Kiska was pummeled on July 26th and 27th under clear sunny weather. 104 tons of bombs hit Kiska's installation on the 26th in a large attack consisting of 32 B-24's, 24 P-38 lightnings and 38 P-40's. On the 27th it was hit with 22 tons of bombs. On August 1st Lt Bernard O'Donnel conducted the first reconnaissance sweep since the July 27th bombing and observed no Japanese fights, no anti aircraft fire and no ships at harbor. Meanwhile the blockade was being performed by Giffen and Griffen's task force who bombarded Kiska. Intelligence crews working on aerial photographs of the island and its installations noted a number of odd features. Practically all the buildings around 23 in all appeared destroyed, but with rubble patterns suggesting demolition rather than bombing. The Japanese also appeared to have done no repair work on the craters in the north head runway, which was very odd, it was around the clock kind of work for them. All the garrisons trucks seemed to be parked on the beach in clusters and it seemed they were not moving day to day. Some pilots reported a bit of activity, like narrowly missing flak and some vehicles and ships seen moving below, but Kinkaids HQ noted all these reports were coming from green pilots. Experienced fliers were not reporting such things. Radio traffic had vanished, some wondering if the bombing was so tremendous it destroyed all the radios. Generals Butler and DeWitt believed the Green pilots, but Generals Buckner and Holland Smith were very suspicious, pointing out that the Japanese had already carried out a secret massive evacuation at Guadalcanal. In fact Buckner and Smith kept asking Kinkaid to toss some Alaskan scouts ashore in rubber boats at night prior to an invasion to report if the island was abandoned or not. But Kinkaid had the last say in the matter and declined to do so. Kinkaid's decision was to go ahead with a full scale invasion of the island. In his words “if the enemy had evacuated the island, the troop landings would be a good training exercises, a super dress rehearsal, excellent for training purposes”.  On August 12th, Captain George Ruddel, leading a squadron of 4 fighters circled low over the anti aircraft gun positions on Kiska, received no flak so he landed on her North head runway dodging nearly 30 craters. The 3 other fighters followed suit and the pilots performed a tiny expedition for some time. They found no sign of people, just destroyed buildings and abandoned equipment. Nonetheless Ruddels report would not stop Kinkaid, only some scolding for doing something so dangerous. The invasion of Kiska, codenamed operation cottage, was set for August 15th. The invasion force was 30,000 Americans and 5300 Canadians under the overall command of Major General Charles Harrison Corlet. It consisted of Brigadier General Archibald Arnolds 7th division; Buckner's 4th regiment; Colonel Roy Victor Rickards 87th mountain infantry regiment, the 13th Canadian Brigade known as the Greenlight Force which consisted of the Canadian Fusiliers regiment, the 1st Battalion of Winnipeg Grenadiers, the Rocky Mountain Rangers regiment and Le Regiment de Hull led by Major General George Pearkers; there was also Colonel Robert Fredericks 1st Special Service force consisting of 2500 paratroops of elite American-Canadian commandos. Kiska marked the first time Canadian conscripts were sent to a combat zone in WW2. The men were equipped in Arctic gear, trained mostly at Adak, practicing amphibious landings using LCI's and LCT's. The naval forces were commanded by Admiral Rockwell were more than 100 warships strong, with Admiral Baker leading a group to bombard Kiska with over 60 tons on August 14th. The journey to the abandoned island was pretty uneventful. On August 15th, Admiral Rockwell dispatched the transports to gather off Kiska during a period of light fog. Major General Corlett's plan was to stage a diversionary landing using a detachment of Alaskan Scout led by Colonel Verbeck to hit Gertrude Cove which was assumed to be heavily fortified. While this occurred an advance force of the 1st, 2nd and provisional battalions of the 1st regiment, 1st special service force would secure the western side of the island, known as Quisling cove. The main force would land at a beach on the north near the Kiska volcano. Colonel Verbecks scouts and Colonel Robert Fredericks commands were the first to come ashore. They were met by empty machine gun nests as they climbed Lard Hill, Larry Hill and Lawson Hill, interesting names. They investigated caves and ravines only to find destroyed equipment. But perhaps the enemy was simply further up in the hills saving their ammunition to ambush them. During the morning the main force landed on Kiskas northern side whereupon they immediately began climbing some cliffs to reach objectives. In the process each battalion of the 87th mountain regiment captured Robber Hill, Riot Hill and Rose Hill. US Army Lt George Earle recalled this of the unique landscapes of Kiska “At one end was a perfectly shaped steaming volcano, cloudcushioned, well- wrapped […] all around were cliff-walled shores and, when visible, a bright green matting of waist-high tundra scrub and deep lush mosses – a great green sponge of slopes rising to a rocky knife-edge crest nearly eight hundred feet above the shore up in the fog, and zigzagging its ridge-line backbone toward the […] four-thousand foot cone of the volcano”. Lt Earle also noted the incessant rain and fog, Kiska saw roughly 250 days of rain per year on average and held a ton of clouds blotting out sunshine. On the day the allied force landed the island was blanketed with a thick fog. As the allied forces advanced they ran into a variety of booby traps the Japanese had taken a lot of time to leave behind, these included; typical land mines, improvised 155m shells with trigger wires, M-93 mine's laid upside down wired to blocks of TNT, timed bombs, candle bombs, and the classic grenades with trip wire. There was to be several casualties from booby traps. In the fog as timed bombs or other traps went off, allied forces opened fire towards noises believing the enemy was upon them. There was some friendly fire incidents amongst the Americans and Canadians, but not as much that has been perpetuated by quite a few videos on Youtube mind you. Its actually a myth thats been perpetuated in many books, in fact the main source I have been using for the Aleutian islands campaign is guilty of it sad to say. The friendly fire incidents on Kiska was not a large skirmish between American and Canadian forces that resulted in many deaths or wounded, no that was pretty much summed up to booby traps, a lot of them. If you want to know more about this, I did a podcast interview on my youtube channel, the Pacific War channel with Brad St.Croix, a historian focused on Canadian military history. The episode is titled the Canadian experience during the Pacific War, and Brad had a lot of, going to admit, vented anger about debunking this myth haha. Please go check it out, I have to admit of all my podcast episodes it has not received many views and I am sad at this because there's a lot of interesting stuff, like how Canada was going to be part of Operation Downfall. Anyways. The Americans and Canadians suspected the Japanese might be retreating into the interior or hiding in fight pits, so they were tense the entire time, after the stories from Attu who could blame them. The crack of a single rifle fire, would be met with more, but it always died down quickly. Corlett's forces continued to climb uphill towards Link Hill and Ranger Hill in the direction of the main enemy camp at Kiska harbor. They found all the fortifications they came across abandoned. The second wave of the main force were brought over consisted of the 1st regiment, 1st special service force who landed at Little Kiska Island unopposed. By August 18th Corlett was confident the enemy was not on Kiska, but he continued the search nonetheless, into the caves and ravine, until August 22nd. To quote Ian Toll's 2nd book of his pacific war trilogy  “Considering the expenditure of naval ordnance and aerial bombs on an island that had been vacated by the enemy, and the tremendous investment of shipping and troops in a bloodless invasion, the Kiska operation had been slightly farcical. In Pearl Harbor, the news was received in good humor. Nimitz liked to tell visitors how advance elements of the huge invasion force, creeping inland with weapons at the ready, were warmly greeted by a single affable dog that trotted out to beg for food” Indeed the capture of Kiska which ushered the end to the Aleutians campaign, was kind of a enormous blunder when you consider the amount of resources allocated to it. You always have to consider these resources could have been brought to the south pacific, but hindsight is hindsight. After the battle of Attu, the allies expected an absolute bloodbath on Kiska. For Corlett's men, the americans suffered 18 deaths, 170 wounded, the Canadians 4 killed and 4 wounded, 130 men also got trench foot. The destroyer Abner Read struck a Japanese mine on August 18th, suffering 70 dead and 47 wounded to bring the total casualties to 313. Generals Buckner and DeWitt sought an invasion of Paramushiro, but the joint chiefs of staff would gradually reject the idea because it was simply seen to be easier to drive through the central or south pacific to Japan. But I would like to point out, if the south and central pacific campaigns did not go well, the idea of hitting the Japanese home islands from the Aleutians could have been a very real thing. Kinkaid, Butler, Eareckson amongst many others would leave the north pacific to deploy in other theaters. It was only really Buckner who remained, DeWitt returned to the west coast, as did the majority of forces. Wanted a feel good end to this one. So the allied forces on Kiska found more than just booby traps, turns out the Japanese had abandoned a number of dogs on the island, so the allied troops adopted many of them and turned them into unit mascots and pets. Surviving photos of the soldiers and the dogs are abundant and cute. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. The amphibious assault of Vella Lavella was a huge success, though now the battle for the small island was on. The farcical battle of Kiska had ushered in the end of the Aleutian islands campaign, birthing a long persisting myth to this very day of an incredible friendly fire battle. 

Aujourd'hui, je reçois dans les locaux de BlueBirds, Pascal Lorot, Président de l'Institut Choiseul. L'Institut Choiseul est à la fois peu connu du grand public mais incontournable dans le monde des affaires et de la politique. J'ai donc voulu vous faire découvrir cette pépite avec l'accord de Pascal. L'institut Choiseul est aujourd'hui un ovni – ce sont les mots de Pascal – où s'organisent des rencontres avec des leaders issus de tous horizons : économiques, politiques, artistiques ou autres encore. De ces rencontres devenus des événements, des liens se tissent, des affaires se créent, de nombreuses publications sur notre monde en perpétuel changement sortent. L'Institut Choiseul édite également des classements annuels où pour être parmi les 100 lauréats, il faut que par votre activité ou votre expertise, vous jouiez ou soyez appelés à jouer un rôle majeur dans l'économie française. Et accessoirement avoir moins de 40 ans.  Comme je suis heureux d'avoir fait la connaissance de Pascal Lorot. Il fait partie de ces personnes qui pensent le monde, et humblement mais sans discontinuer, le changent avec un savant mélange d'intelligence, de bienveillance et osons le mot, d'amour des autres.  Venez découvrir avec Pascal et moi les coulisses de l'Institut Choiseul. Peut-être cela  vous donnera-t-il envie de faire partie un jour des 100 qui prennent la lumière. L'actu : le prochain livre de Pascal Lorot ''Le Choc des Souverainetés'' qui sort le 6 juillet Pour suivre Pascal sur LinkedIn  Si cette nouvelle interview vous a plu, parlez-en autour de vous, notez 5 ⭐ le podcast (Spotify, Deezer, ApplePodcast) et rédigez un avis. N'hésitez pas à m'écrire sur LinkedIn si vous avez envie de passer sur le podcast ➡️ LinkedIn/MartinVidelaine  Toutes les Histoires d'Entreprises sont également disponibles sur le site de bluebirds.partners, site de la communauté d'indépendants que j'anime et qui conseille ou remplace des dirigeants. Un podcast co-réalisé avec Agnès Guillard. 

Parmi toutes les favorites royales, Mme de Pompadour est sans doute celle qui laisse la trace la plus durable dans notre Histoire.Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson naît en 1721, dans un milieu de financiers. Commissaire aux vivres, son père est compromis dans divers trafics, et doit quitter la France. Avant de partir, il confie sa fille aux ursulines du couvent de Poissy, qui lui donnent une excellente éducation.En 1741, Jeanne-Antoinette épouse un financier et devient Mme Le Normant d'Étiolles. Quatre ans plus tard, la vie de la jeune femme bascule. Introduite à la Cour, en 1745, elle subjugue le Roi à l'occasion d'un bal masqué. Durant six années, jusqu'en 1751, elle demeure la maîtresse en titre de Louis XV.Entre autres titres, le Roi donne à sa favorite celui de marquise de Pompadour, par lequel elle est le plus souvent désignée. Il l'installe au Petit Trianon, construit pour elle. Mme de Pompadour était belle, bien sûr, et tenait le Roi par les sens.Mais elle eut une influence beaucoup plus large sur le souverain, même quand elle ne fut plus sa maîtresse. Jusqu'à sa mort, en 1764, elle demeure dans l'entourage immédiat du Roi, dont elle devient la confidente et l'amie la plus appréciée. Elle lui fait connaître les arts et l'intéresse à l'architecture, tout en organisant de nombreuses fêtes pour le souverain.Car la marquise de Pompadour est une femme de goût, qui fait décorer le palais d'Évreux, notre Élysée, et fait aménager la place Louis XV, actuelle place de la Concorde.La marquise soutient également des écrivains qui ne sont pas en cour, comme Voltaire, Diderot ou Montesquieu. Mais Mme de Pompadour est également une femme de pouvoir. Elle patronne ainsi la carrière du duc de Choiseul, qui est le principal ministre de Louis XV entre 1758 et 1770.Elle joue aussi un rôle dans ce que l'Histoire a retenu sous le nom de "renversement des alliances". Il s'agit de la conclusion, en 1756, d'un traité avec l'Autriche qui, jusque là, faisait figure d'ennemi principal de la France. Hébergé par Acast. Visitez acast.com/privacy pour plus d'informations.

Parmi toutes les favorites royales, Mme de Pompadour est sans doute celle qui laisse la trace la plus durable dans notre Histoire. Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson naît en 1721, dans un milieu de financiers. Commissaire aux vivres, son père est compromis dans divers trafics, et doit quitter la France. Avant de partir, il confie sa fille aux ursulines du couvent de Poissy, qui lui donnent une excellente éducation. En 1741, Jeanne-Antoinette épouse un financier et devient Mme Le Normant d'Étiolles. Quatre ans plus tard, la vie de la jeune femme bascule. Introduite à la Cour, en 1745, elle subjugue le Roi à l'occasion d'un bal masqué. Durant six années, jusqu'en 1751, elle demeure la maîtresse en titre de Louis XV. Entre autres titres, le Roi donne à sa favorite celui de marquise de Pompadour, par lequel elle est le plus souvent désignée. Il l'installe au Petit Trianon, construit pour elle. Mme de Pompadour était belle, bien sûr, et tenait le Roi par les sens. Mais elle eut une influence beaucoup plus large sur le souverain, même quand elle ne fut plus sa maîtresse. Jusqu'à sa mort, en 1764, elle demeure dans l'entourage immédiat du Roi, dont elle devient la confidente et l'amie la plus appréciée. Elle lui fait connaître les arts et l'intéresse à l'architecture, tout en organisant de nombreuses fêtes pour le souverain. Car la marquise de Pompadour est une femme de goût, qui fait décorer le palais d'Évreux, notre Élysée, et fait aménager la place Louis XV, actuelle place de la Concorde. La marquise soutient également des écrivains qui ne sont pas en cour, comme Voltaire, Diderot ou Montesquieu. Mais Mme de Pompadour est également une femme de pouvoir. Elle patronne ainsi la carrière du duc de Choiseul, qui est le principal ministre de Louis XV entre 1758 et 1770. Elle joue aussi un rôle dans ce que l'Histoire a retenu sous le nom de "renversement des alliances". Il s'agit de la conclusion, en 1756, d'un traité avec l'Autriche qui, jusque là, faisait figure d'ennemi principal de la France. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  /Last time we spoke about the fall of Attu. The Americans had to fight both the Japanese and a very cruel mother nature to claim the frigid island of Attu. The Americans gradually seized every hill, ridge and razer edge crest as the pushed the Japanese into Chichagof Harbor. Once the Japanese had their backs to the sea and nowhere left to withdraw, Colonel Yamasaki decided they would go out in ablaze of glory. Nearly 1000 screaming Japanese performed a suicidal Banzai charge towards the American artillery positions, hoping to unleash the enemies guns upon them. Yamasaki received an M1 Garand Bullet as the rest of his men killed themselves en masse clutching grenades to their chests. It was a horrifying conclusion fit to make the last Samurai Saigo Takamori proud. Now the Americans turned their gaze back east upon the isolated Kiska.  This episode is the Rice Bowl Campaign Welcome to the Pacific War Podcast Week by Week, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about world war two? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on world war two and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel you can find a few videos all the way from the Opium Wars of the 1800's until the end of the Pacific War in 1945.  We left off with the fall of Attu to the Americans. Colonel Yamasaki's doomed garrison made one last banzai charge into oblivion, leaving piles of their dead over the island. The Americans had suffered substantial casualties, making the battle of Attu the costliest ground battle as of now fought in the Pacific. In the words of General Bucker “[The Japanese proved to be a] tough fighter, with great physical endurance and fortitude. He was not afraid to die.”  A number of lessons were learnt from the battle, including new landing techniques, and the necessity for rubberized, thoroughly waterproofed boots. The men on Attu had been given expensive, thick and insulated leather hunting boots, but these became absolutely useless once soaked in water. After Attu, improved winter kits emerged, and cases of hypothermia, frostbite or trench foot would become very rare among American soldiers even during bitterly cold campaigns in Italy and France. The Americans also learnt how masterful the Japanese were at creating concealed defensive works and at infiltration tactics. The American forces got to see first hand how weather and terrain could pose the greatest threat to success. The Hourglass Division, owing to its initial desert training, was not prepared for Attu conditions, which demanded cold weather and mountain warfare expertise, clothing and equipment. In addition to being inadequately clothed, they failed to take care of themselves on the battlefield. The 7th Provisional Scout Battalion was only able to muster 40 men to walk after five days of action. In contrast, the 30-man detachment of Alaska Scouts, recruited because of their outdoors skills and experienced in Alaska conditions, lost one man killed in action, two wounded and one man with a slight case of trench foot. These type of lessons would prove very useful in future operations, to point out two, the future Italian and France campaigns which held some cold territories.  As the battle of Attu was coming to a close, Tokyo issued a directive on May 21st for the evacuation of Kiska's 6000 man garrison led by Rear-Admiral Akiyama Monzo. The evacuation was going to be done using 13 I-class submarines from the1st submarine squadron of Rear-Admiral Kouda Takeo. But by early June Takeo would already realize the danger of using his force for such a task as one of his submarines would be sunk at Attu. There was a call to use surface ships if the weather permitted it and continuous calls to rush over to evacuate the Attu garrison, but the American naval blockade put an end to that idea and worse now it seemed the Northern Kuriles were in danger. Now Tokyo sought the deployment of fighters and anti-aircraft units to provide air defense and shore batteries to thwart an amphibious invasion of the Kuriles. The Japanese had a daunting task laid before to them. In contrast to the relatively weak American naval forces deployed at the battle of the Komondorski islands, Admiral Kinkaids blockade and bombardment forces included the a trio of older battleships; the Mississippi, Idaho and New Mexico, a quintet of cruisers; Louisville, Portland, San Francisco, Santa Fe and Wichita and 9 destroyers. This powerful fleet showed up on July 19th under the joint command of Rear Admirals Robert C Giffen and Robert M Griffen, very close names there lol. Other destroyers and submarine chasers were operating in separate smaller commands within the region. Admiral Kawase Shiro took over IJN operations in the Aleutians and North Pacific following Hosogaya's removal from command and thus found himself stuck with rescuing Kiska's garrison from the teeth of a very powerful American blockade. Lacking the fleet strength to punch a hole in the blockade, thus Kawase had turned to submarines. The 12 submarines under Takeo were Type C's, heavily armed with torpedoes, deck guns and measured 358 feet long. Kawase's first plan was to try and slip submarines through the blockade, but despite being large, the submarines could barely carry 150 men each, thus it would require 40 successful journeys to remove the entire garrison. With most American warships now equipped with sonar, this represented a hell of a risk, forcing Kawase to look towards other options. While the submarines would make runs as soon as possible, Kawase had to plan a surface evacuation. The Japanese submarine evacuation of Kiska began on May 27th with the first submarine, the I-7 arriving at Kiska with food, ammunition and a radio beacon. She could only carry 60 passengers, which was reserved for the sick and wounded alongside 28 boxes of ashes for those who had died on the island and 4 tons of spent shell cartridges. A few more submarines managed to make the trek and evacuated a few hundred men from Kiska, but then the Japanese luck changed for the worse. The I-24 captained by Hanabusa Hiroshi, entered Kiska harbor in early June taking aboard 150 soldiers. On the night of the 10th, she was trying to slip away but as she was passing 40 miles north of Shemya Island, American sonar aboard the USS Larchmont, A pc-461 Class Submarine chaser pinged. Lt Wallace Cornell ordered is crew to depth charge the enemy submarine tossing 5 of them into the water. The Americans blasted the I-24 to the surface. Then Cornell ordered the Larchmont to put the pedal to the metal flooring the 450 ton sub chaser to ram the 2554 ton I-24. Larchmont rode up and over the submarine splashing into the sea on the far side. Upon seeing they failed to ram her, Cornell's men began pounding the vulnerable I-24 with shells, before turning around to try ramming her again. This time the Larchmouth smashing into the I-24's conning tower, fatally damaging the submarine. She sank stern-first into the black, frigid sea killing her 104 man crew and the 150 soldiers she was bearing. Three days later, the destroyer USS Frazier sank the I-31 taking down her entire crew and the 150 soldiers she was evacuating. Out of 800 total men the submarine forces got off the island, 300 of them died to American attacks. As the summer would continue, combat and operational losses would see the destruction of 8 out of the original 13 submarines, leaving Takeo with 5. Kawase recognized the futility of the submarine operation and was forced to turn to his surface plan which would unfold in late july. While all of this was going on, the Americans invaded the islands of Shemya and Agattu. Brigadier General John Copeland led elements of General Buckner's 4th regiment and Colonel Talley's 18th Engineers to land on Shemya during a tough storm. The Americans quickly surveyed the island to see if they could construct an airfield to accommodate a brand new experimental aircraft, the most iconic one of the Pacific War, the B-29 Superfortress heavy bomber. She had been in the works since 1938 and her objective would soon be long range bombing missions against the Japanese home islands. With their usual blinding speed, the American Engineers made the Attu air station operational by June 8th, then Shemya's two weeks later. Alongside this the 11th air force would be reinforced with squadrons of the new PV-1 Ventura bomber, equipped with the latest airborne radar, which was capable of giving a clear picture of topographical contours that would be extremely useful while flying through the arctic weather and at night. Admiral Kinkaid would likewise shuffle his ships around to improve the blockade and General Butler's airforce would spend most of June smashing Kiska with bombs. They would fly a total of 407 bombing sorties, though the Japanese arsenal of 70 anti-air batteries would give them a hell of a time doing so. Completely uncontested the Americans would make unopposed landings on Semisopochmoi and the Rat Islands, covered only by PT boats. With these newly acquired airfields such as Attu and Shemya and the new aircraft on hand, the Americans were in sufficient range to bomb Paramushiro, Japan's Gibraltar-like base guarded its northern approach. The first raid against Paramushiro would occur on July 10, with 6 B-24's launching from Attu, but suddenly getting redirected to hit 4 Japanese wooden transports trying to breakthrough the naval blockade for Kiska. Although the American pilots successfully sunk 2 of them, they would not have enough fuel to continue on to hit Paramushiro. Another attempt would be made on Jul 18th seeing 6 B-24's inflicting minimal damage upon Paramushiro, but it showed the Japanese their home soil was no longer safe from American bombers. Tokyo was forced to reinforce the Kuriles and Hokkaido taking up valuable resources in men, guns, ships, aircraft and such from other places they were needed like the Solomons. Because of their large success, Buckner and Kinkaid saw significant budget increases and now the Joint Chiefs were seriously thinking about invading the Japanese home islands from the Aleutians. They went as far as to create plans with 1945 designated as the year they would invade Japan. Now we are shifting away from the north pacific to dive back into the situation of the second sino-japanese war. The last time we were in China, the battle of West Hubei was raging on, with the 11th army of General Yokoyama invading south of the Yangtze River. Now Yokoyama would press on against the southwest portion of Yichang where the Chinese 11th division was defending Shipai Fortress; the 18th division was at Changyang and the 24th and 36th independent engineer battalions were at Yuyangkuan. The Chinese 11th division was led by General Hu Lien who held a considerably well defended fortress at Shipai, but also its approach which was the dangerous Xiling gorge. All combined, these defended the approach to Chongqing and Sichuan. Because of its vital importance, Commander Chen Cheng ordered Hu Lien to defend Shipai fortress to the death. By May 18th, the second phase of the IJA operation came to its conclusion, thus Yokoyama decided to concentrate his 13th division near Quanshuiwan, and his 3rd division backed by the Nozoe detachment near Shuangjingsi. This was in preparation for the third phase of the operation, a final drive against the Chinese defenses between Yichang and Yidu. The IJA 13th Division began to move north while the 3rd and Nozoe detachment advanced south of Yichang to cross the Qingjiang river. The Japanese found many Chinese defensive positions along the way, but by this point the Chinese had been so brutally battered over the past month, they were still dazed and confused, thus easily brushed aside. The 18th army would manage to hinder the Japanese advance, forcing Yokoyama to redirect 3 battalions of the 39th division to join the offensive. By May 22nd, the 39th forded the Yangtze and joined up with the 3rd and Nozoe detachment to assault Changyang. As the Japanese forces approached Shipai Fortress from three directions, Commander Chen Cheng and General Sun Lianzhong tossed the 94th and 32nd armies to try and stop the Japanese advance at Yuyangkuan. Chen Cheng's plan was to box in Yokoyama's forward units at Yuyuangkuan, but instead the Japanese began dispersing and clashing with the Chinese 18th army at Changyang alongside Yuyangkuan by May 23rd. The defenders still jarred from the offensives were routing left right and center. Fortunately the Chinese would manage to pull themselves together to reorganize a new defensive position to the right of the Shipai Fortress. Their last line of defense was to be at Muchiaochi, in front of Congqing and Sichuan, held by the 34th division. The Japanese were relentless as they continued their advance and by the end of May 26th they reached the defensive line. At this point Yokoyama had achieved his objectives as the vessels at Yichang could now advance towards Yueyang without facing resistance. He quickly ordered 53 steamers to navigate the river on the 27th, but then they were met with an expected enemy, the Major General Chennault's Flying Tigers. During May of 1943, as we have seen, the Japanese launched a ground offensive targeting areas like DongDongting Lake and the Yangtze River region. The objectives were clear to the allies, the Japanese were seizing the colloquially called “rice bowl” region, right during harvest season. As the ground fighting intensified it became clear that the CHinese land forces desperately needed aerial support. To counter the Japanese, the recently created 14th airforce as of march 10th 1943 led by Chennault and the Chinese 4th air group tossed P-40E's and P-43's to try and support the Chinese ground forces. On MAy 14th, Japanese reconnaissance covered Kweilin and Lingling, estimating the US order of battle was 24 P-40s, 8 B-24's, 3 B-25's, 1 P-38 and 1 P-43. It was also noted that the Chinese had advanced to Liangshan where their 4th air group was located.  The 4th air group went into action by May 19th with 8 P-40E's, 4 P-43's, alongside some A-29 Hudson bombers. The Chinese bombed the Japanese ground forces meeting some intense anti-aircraft gunfire back. Deputy group commander Xu Baoyun, flying a P-40E was shot down by Japanese anti-aircraft gunfire in the process. The next morning the Japanese bombed Liangshan by surprise giving the 4th air group no chance to retaliate. From May 19th-June 6th, the Chinese Air Forces would fly 336 fighter and 88 bomber sorties over the battle zone claiming to have shot down 31 Japanese aircraft. The 4th air group missing their chance to confront the Japanese on May 29th, when they fly from Liangshan to cover Chongqing due to a false alarm. While they were absent, 10 Japanese fighters strafed the field followed an hour later by 9 Japanese bombers with fighter escorts. On May 31st, 9 P-43's escorted 5 A-29s to attack the ferry crossing between Yichang and Yidu, but in doing so they would miss the most intense action of the campaign. On the same day Lt Colonel John Alison, an American ace alongside 2 USAAF wingmen led 7 P-40s from the 4th air group to escort 9 B-24 bombers over to Yichang. It was Alison's last mission in China and the ace hoped to add to his record of kills. The allied airforce bombed and strafed Japanese ground forces but also got into dogfights with Japanese air forces. Alison's aircraft was badly shot up by Captain Ohtsubo Yasuto the leader of the 1st Chutai squadron of the 33rd. Lt Tsang Hsu-Lan nicknamed “Bulldog” took his No.2304 P-40 to swing behind Ohtsubo as he was firing upon Alison and managed to shot his aircraft down, saving Alison's life. Tsang was awarded a American Silver Star and the highest medals China could offer. On June 6th the 14 K-43's and 8 light bombers attacked Liangshan. 13 Chinese P-40's led by COlonel Li Hsiang-Yang were returning from a mission to Liangshan and were landing as the Japanese approached. Captain Chow Chin-kai, commander of the 23rd squadron and a veteran of many years of combat, directed the ground crews to take defensive measures and then apparently climbed into a P-66 Vanguard. Without time to adjust his parachute, check his fuel nor even buckle his seatbelt he gunned the engine. While the Japanese strafed the field, Chow went directly for the bombers, claiming 3 destroyed. Chow received the Blue Sky White Sun award personally from Chiang Kai-shek for this action. Yet despite his heroism, 12 P-40's and a fleet trainer were destroyed on the grounds of Liangshan. What became known as the Rice Bowl Campaign took a heavy toll on the CAF. In addition to their loses in combat and on the ground suffered most by P-40's, many other aircraft suffered from operational damage. After the campaign the operational CAF aircrafts would number 6 out of 7 A -29s, 5 out of 10 SB-3s, 3 out of 5 P-40E's, 6 out of 9 P-43s and 39 out of 46 P-66's. The 14th airforce played a small role overall in the Rice Bowl campaign and thus their losses were quite minimal. Meanwhile at the Shipai Fortress, Hu Lien faced direct attacks from the IJA 68th regiment on May 28th. Told to fight to the death, the defenders managed to repel each enemy assault inflicting significant casualties upon the invaders. Hu Lien would personally led the troops at all times in their efforts to dig in and build fortifications. To the right flank the 3rd and 39th divisions charged against new positions manned by exhausted soldiers of the 18th army, who resisted as much as they could. However they were simply no match for the full might of two Japanese divisions and soon two Chinese companies were annihilated as the rest pulled back. General Luo Guangwen of the 18th Chinese division boldly decided to counterattack, launching a rain of grenade and mortar fire over the 3rd and 39ht divisions halting their advance. Although aided by artillery and aerial bombardment, the Japanese were still pressing hard against the defenders. The Chinese 94th and 32nd armies then arrived to the scene, and the 94th army went to work successfully blocking the advance of the 13th division near Dayanxiang. This forced the Japanese to cross the dangerous Tianzhu Mountain which would claim much of their equipment. Further down the road, the 13th division was also ambushed by concealed forces of the 32nd army, managing to inflict hundreds of casualties upon them. Because of the increased losses, Yokoyama ordered the Noji detachment at Yichang to cross the Yangtze to assault Shipai Fortress frontally in a last ditch effort to break Hu Lien's lines. On the 29th, the Noji detachment launched its attack, breaking through Hu Lien's line at Qiuqianping, inflicting sever casualties upon the 11th division which was forced to retreat towards the bay. By the end of the 29th, the 18th Army's other units were also withdrawing, leaving Hu Lien alone to face the brunt of the enemies advance. But by the point the Japanese had suffered tremendous losses and the steamers at Yichang had already arrived to Shishou, thus Yokoyama feared he was overstretched and that his forces might get trapped by Chinese units moving to Changyang. Thus not wanting to see things fall apart, Yokoyama ordered an end to the operation on the 29th and preparing his forces for a withdrawal. But the next day the 13th division decided to press an attack upon Muchiaochi, not knowing the 32nd Army had set up another ambush for them there. The Chinese unleashed artillery on the Japanese inflicting more casualties on the already battered division. Meanwhile the isolated 11th division was repealed the combined attacks of the 3rd and 39th divisions, repelling 10 consecutive attacks throughout the day, leaving the bay area full of dead Japanese. on the 31th the Japanese began their withdrawal as more and more Chinese reinforcements were arriving for a massive counterattack. While the 3rd and 39th divisions managed to avoid battles as they crossed the Yangtze at Yichang, the battered 13th division was heading towards Yidu and was trapped by the 32nd army at Changyang by June 3rd. The 13th division would manage to break free and flee towards Gongan, but the division which was earmarked to depart for the Pacific, lost so many men they would be forced to remain in China. Yokoyama was forced to send the 17th independent mixed brigade who had already managed to withdraw to Shishou to rescue the 13th division. They arrived to Gongan on June 5th, and fight a long series of battles to help the remnants of the 13th division to limp back to Shishou by June 8th. With the Japanese operation concluded, Commander Chen Cheng and General Sun Lianzhong would successfully recapture most of the lost territory and begin rebuilding defensive lines as they did. The Japanese claimed to have suffered 3500 casualties with 771 dead and 2746 wounded, though it should be noted other sources claim their losses were considerably higher, as the 13th division was practically destroyed, the 17th mixed brigade, 3rd and 39th divisions were also severely damaged indicating losses possibly in the tens of thousands. The losses were so grave, the Japanese would not be able to start another offensive in China until the end of the year. Thus the gateway to Chongqing and Sichuan were held, paraded as a grand victory by the Chinese. As I indicated in a previous episode however,  Historians such as Barbara W. Tuchman suggest "the Japanese withdrew without pursuit from what appeared to have been a training and foraging offensive to collect rice and river shipping." In other words, the Rice Bowl campaign as it became known, basically saw the Japanese stealing the bowl of rice for 1943.  Now we are not done just yet, there is some action going on in the Solomons. The Japanese had just conducted Operation I-Go and despite their pilots extremely overexaggerated claims, it truly was a lackluster offensive. Alongside this the legendary Admiral, Isoroku Yamamoto had been assassinated on April 18th, shattering Japanese morale. Nonetheless the show had to go on as they say and now Admiral Kusaka would need to reorganize, repair and reinforce his air forces in preparation for the next expected American offensive in the Solomons. Kusaka was reinforced with the 12th Air Fleet; consisting of the 24th and 27th Air Flotillas. The 11th Air Fleet meanwhile, would be reinforced with the 25th Air Flotilla  holding 60 Zeros, 10 J1N1s and 50 G4Ms. Kusaka's 26th Air Flotilla, who should have been relieved, would be forced to fight on for the duration of the campaign against Rabaul; but the 21st Air Flotilla would be sent to Saipan for rehabilitation. Now since the evacuation of Guadalcanal, the Japanese had created a new defensive line with Rekata bay being the hub for the Santa Isabel defense line and Munda the hub for New Georgia with its forward post at Wickham anchorage. This meant forward bases needed to be reinforced, so Santa Isabel received the 7th Combined Special Naval Landing Force of Rear-Admiral Katsuno Minoru, consisting of the Kure 7th SNLF and the 3rd Battalion, 23rd Regiment. New Georgia received the 2nd battalion, 229th regiment of Captain Iwabuchi Sanji, the 41st antiaircraft battalion, the 4th, 10th and 22nd construction units who went to Munda, the 1st battalion, 229th regiment and 1st machine-gun company who would go to Wickham anchorage. Kusaka envisioned the main defense force to be Rear Admiral Ota Minoru's 8th combined SNLF. This consisted of the Kure 6th and Yokosuka 7th who had recently been converted into heavy artillery units originally set to for hitting the Americans on Guadalcanal. Other support, rifle companies and heavy weapons compies made up the rest of the SNLF force. By late January Ota's force began its movement to New Georgia, arrived to Munda by the end of the month, though a large air strike rocked them on January 29th sinking 75 barge loads of valuable cargo. The Japanese sent various forces to occupy Vila and Rekata Bay in January where bases would be developed.  On February 27, Choiseul coast watchers spotted Kirikawa Maru carrying two 14cm guns, four 8cm dual-purpose guns, 600 tons of ammunition and supplies, and SNLF personnel as the ship and its two escorts cleared the Shortlands. A PBY and the coast watchers reported their course, and a COMAIRSOLS strike force of fourteen SBDs, with an escort of twenty-four fighters, caught them three miles off the northeast tip of Vella Lavella. The escort took on the thirteen Zeros and two F1Ms flying cover, and in the fight that followed each side lost two aircraft. The SBDs went about their business with deadly effect; a surviving Japanese medical officer later wrote that the bombs were exploding in the ship like a fireworks exhibition at Ryōgoku Bridge in Tokyo. This would force the Japanese to yet again rely on the good ol Tokyo express much to their dismay. Alongside that the battle of Blackett strait on March 6th forced the Japanese to avoid the Kula gulf and instead op for the Fergusson passage. Through march to May the Japanese would suffer only one loss, the sea truck Gisho Maru, thus the new route seemed to be successful. However with all of the shuffling by both sides it seemed evident, a new bloody campaign was about to be unleashed in the Solomons.   I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. The Japanese struck hard into the heart of China's Rice Bowl Region. Both the Chinese and Japanese lost significant amounts of men to the bloody campaign, Chongqing and Sichuan were safe, but in the end the Japanese had secured their objectives.  

Sign up here for updates on impactinvestor.ioThanks to all the Causeartist Partners - Check them out here.Subscribe to our Causeartist newsletter here.----------------------------------------In Episode 55 of the Investing in Impact podcast, we speak with Kevin Tayebaly, Co-Founder of ChangeNow, on building one of the largest impact events in the world, attended by 40,000 people, including 1,200 impact investors!About KevinAfter spending his early career in strategy consulting, Kevin founded his first social venture in Mumbai, India in 2008. The venture aimed to democratize the cultural space in the city by offering local activities targeted towards underprivileged populations. In 2012, inspired by the tech wave, he returned to Europe to work with several tech startups undergoing exponential and global growth.During his time at INSEAD in 2014-2015, Kevin reflected on his career experiences and began exploring the concept of mission-driven companies that combine purpose with a scalable business model. He went on to found his second impact venture, an e-commerce platform supporting local independent retailers in large cities. His efforts earned him the BCG Young Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2016.In 2017, Kevin co-founded ChangeNOW, the world's largest event for the planet, with the goal of promoting a new, virtuous, and responsible business culture globally. His achievements and leadership in the field earned him a place on the Choiseul 100 list in 2023, recognizing top French economic leaders under 40 years old.About ChangeNowChangeNOW 2023 is a three-day summit that brings together the most innovative solutions and impactful changemakers tackling our planet's biggest challenges, to take action, together. ChangeNOW builds bridges between the entrepreneurs, business leaders and policy-makers to accelerate change.The 2023 edition of the ChangeNow Summit was held in the heart of Paris, at the Grand Palais, from May 25th to May 27st. The event attracts over 40,000 attendees, including entrepreneurs, investors, academics, and policymakers, from more than 120 countries.One of the highlights of the summit was the exhibition area, which featured over 1,000 projects and solutions from around the world. Attendees had the opportunity to interact with the exhibitors, learn about their products and services, and network with like-minded individuals. The exhibition area was divided into several zones, including Energy & Mobility, Food & Agriculture, Circular Economy, and Social & Inclusive Business.In addition to the exhibition area, the summit featured a series of keynote speeches, panel discussions, and workshops on various topics related to sustainability and innovation. Speakers included business leaders, policymakers, and social entrepreneurs who shared their experiences, insights, and visions for a better future. Some of the key themes that emerged from the discussions were the importance of collaboration, innovation, and the role of technology in driving positive change. ----------------------------------------Sign up here for updates on impactinvestor.ioThanks to all the Causeartist Partners - Check them out here.Subscribe to our Causeartist newsletter here.

Voici l'enregistrement de la conférence inaugurale des Salons de Choiseul le 29 mars 2023. Désolé pour la qualité médiocre du son, on n'a pas pu faire mieux malgré tous les efforts de Gabriel Macé (que je remercie encore). Si la forme pêche un peu, le fond mérite l'écoute

In today's headlines: Invest Saint Lucia has successfully relocated eight informal occupants in Choiseul; and Chief Executive Officer of the Millennium Heights Medical Complex announces changes in operations for 2023.

In today's headlines: An XCD $22.9 Million grant agreement with Japan for redevelopment of Choiseul fishing port has been finalized; and the Minister for Sustainable Development advocates for climate financing at COP 27.

A kormány 250 milliárdot adott Tiborcz István közelébe befektetésre, most kezdene vele valamit G7     2022-11-08 04:34:19     Gazdaság Orbán Viktor Tiborcz István A hat magántőkealapba csatornázott közpénzt olyan üzletemberek vállalkozásai kezelik, akik üzleti kapcsolatban állnak Orbán Viktor vejével. Az állami oldalon változások várhatók. Listán Rákay Philip milliárdos ingatlanvagyona 24.hu     2022-11-08 05:54:09     Belföld Balaton NER Rákay Philip Fél Margit-szigetnyi ipari terület Rácalmáson, több mint másfél milliárdért eladó étterem a Káli-medencében, ikonikus villa a Balaton-felvidéken, bombaüzlet a Széchenyi-hegyen. Feltérképeztük a NER-közeli üzletember ingatlanbirodalmának látható részét. Amerikai szuperfegyver érkezett Ukrajnába, vallott Putyin szakácsa – Háborús híreink kedden Portfolio     2022-11-08 06:07:00     Külföld Ukrajna háború USA Vlagyimir Putyin Kijev Twitter Ukrajna megkapta az amerikai NASAMS és az Aspide légvédelmi rendszerek első szállítmányát - közölte hétfőn Olekszij Reznyikov ukrán védelmi miniszter Twitteren. Az ukrán hadsereg azzal vádolja Oroszországot, hogy a Dnyeper folyó partján, a megszállt déli Herszon régióban, amelyet a kijevi erők megpróbálnak elfoglalni, nagymértékben megsemmisítette A világ legmagasabb kamata erősíti most épp a forintot – meddig tarthat a lendület? Forbes     2022-11-08 05:51:02     Gazdaság Kamat Árfolyam Rég látott erősödést produkált a forint, ma már az euró árfolyama a 400-as szint alá kukkantott be. Hogyan tovább? Drasztikus változások jönnek a biztosítási szektorban Fintech     2022-11-08 04:06:00     Modern Gazdaság Trend 70 millió dollárhoz jutott egy innovatív biztosítási szereplő. A tengerentúli vállalat a jövő egyik fontos biztosítási trendjének hírnöke. Müller Cecília: változott az influenza egyik vírusa és jönnek az új koronavírus-variánsok Infostart     2022-11-08 06:00:00     Belföld Koronavírus Influenza Tisztifőorvos Müller Cecília Szezonális lett a koronavírus, télen így biztosan több megbetegedés lesz - mondta az InfoRádiónak az országos tisztifőorvos. Müller Cecília arra is felhívta a figyelmet, hogy emellett idén az influenzajárvány is a megszokottnál jóval komolyabb lehet. Elon Musk elárulta, hogy kire fog szavazni 168.hu     2022-11-08 06:24:04     Külföld USA Twitter Elon Musk A republikánus jelöltek támogatására buzdította az amerikai választókat a kiegyensúlyozott hatalommegosztással érvelve Elon Musk milliárdos üzletember, a Twitter új tulajdonosa hétfőn. Zöldséghiány Belgiumban? Magyar Mezőgazdaság     2022-11-08 04:31:00     Mezőgazdaság Gazdaság Belgium "Idén télen a szokásoshoz képest a belga üvegházi zöldségkészlet körülbelül tíz százaléka lesz elérhető" – hívta fel a figyelmet Barry Michiels, a Gebroeders Michiels exportőre hozzátéve: „a helyi ellátást tekintve olyan, mintha tíz évet mentünk volna vissza az időben." Különös módon akar megszerezni a Louvre egy híres szelencét Startlap Utazás     2022-11-07 23:07:45     Utazás Életmód Párizs Adomány Salamon-szigetek Immár tizenharmadik alkalommal szervez adománygyűjtést Mindenki mecénás elnevezésű kezdeményezése keretében a Louvre, ezúttal Choiseul herceg, XV. Lajos egyik leghíresebb minisztere tubákos szelencéjének megszerzése érdekében. Virágzik a feketeturizmus Erdélyben napi.hu     2022-11-08 06:33:00     Külföld Románia Turizmus A hivatalos statisztikai adatok alapján kiderül, hogy Romániában, ezen belül Erdélyben igen magas lehet a fekete, azaz be nem jelentett turizmus aránya. Szakértők szerint a pihenőhelyek 40 százalékos kihasználtsága a nyereségesség előfeltétele. Félidős amerikai választások: a végeredményre néhány napot kell majd várni Magyar Hírlap     2022-11-08 06:25:03     Külföld USA Ma választ Amerika, ezzel kapcsolatban Karine Jean-Pierre, a Fehér Ház szóvivője azt közölte, hogy minden érvényes szavazatot jogszerű és megfelelő módon összesítenek. Kézi-Eb: nagyon megverték Romániát 24.hu     2022-11-08 03:33:47     Sport Románia Kézilabda Két kiütéses győzelmet, és két izgalmas összecsapást tartogatott a hétfő a tornán. Elvesztette veretlenségét a Real Madrid, a tabella élére ugrott a Barcelona Eurosport     2022-11-07 23:22:08     Foci Spanyolország Real Madrid La Liga A címvédő és eddig veretlen Real Madrid 3-2-re kikapott a Rayo Vallecano otthonában a spanyol labdarúgó-bajnokság 13. fordulójának hétfői zárómérkőzésén. Lássuk, mikor kell legközelebb esőre számítani Kiderül     2022-11-08 05:05:31     Időjárás A hét első felében alapvetően száraz időre van kilátás, legfeljebb ködszitálás fordulhat elő. Csütörtökön újabb hidegfront vonul át hazánk felett, amelyből többfelé számíthatunk esőre hazánk területén.

A kormány 250 milliárdot adott Tiborcz István közelébe befektetésre, most kezdene vele valamit G7     2022-11-08 04:34:19     Gazdaság Orbán Viktor Tiborcz István A hat magántőkealapba csatornázott közpénzt olyan üzletemberek vállalkozásai kezelik, akik üzleti kapcsolatban állnak Orbán Viktor vejével. Az állami oldalon változások várhatók. Listán Rákay Philip milliárdos ingatlanvagyona 24.hu     2022-11-08 05:54:09     Belföld Balaton NER Rákay Philip Fél Margit-szigetnyi ipari terület Rácalmáson, több mint másfél milliárdért eladó étterem a Káli-medencében, ikonikus villa a Balaton-felvidéken, bombaüzlet a Széchenyi-hegyen. Feltérképeztük a NER-közeli üzletember ingatlanbirodalmának látható részét. Amerikai szuperfegyver érkezett Ukrajnába, vallott Putyin szakácsa – Háborús híreink kedden Portfolio     2022-11-08 06:07:00     Külföld Ukrajna háború USA Vlagyimir Putyin Kijev Twitter Ukrajna megkapta az amerikai NASAMS és az Aspide légvédelmi rendszerek első szállítmányát - közölte hétfőn Olekszij Reznyikov ukrán védelmi miniszter Twitteren. Az ukrán hadsereg azzal vádolja Oroszországot, hogy a Dnyeper folyó partján, a megszállt déli Herszon régióban, amelyet a kijevi erők megpróbálnak elfoglalni, nagymértékben megsemmisítette A világ legmagasabb kamata erősíti most épp a forintot – meddig tarthat a lendület? Forbes     2022-11-08 05:51:02     Gazdaság Kamat Árfolyam Rég látott erősödést produkált a forint, ma már az euró árfolyama a 400-as szint alá kukkantott be. Hogyan tovább? Drasztikus változások jönnek a biztosítási szektorban Fintech     2022-11-08 04:06:00     Modern Gazdaság Trend 70 millió dollárhoz jutott egy innovatív biztosítási szereplő. A tengerentúli vállalat a jövő egyik fontos biztosítási trendjének hírnöke. Müller Cecília: változott az influenza egyik vírusa és jönnek az új koronavírus-variánsok Infostart     2022-11-08 06:00:00     Belföld Koronavírus Influenza Tisztifőorvos Müller Cecília Szezonális lett a koronavírus, télen így biztosan több megbetegedés lesz - mondta az InfoRádiónak az országos tisztifőorvos. Müller Cecília arra is felhívta a figyelmet, hogy emellett idén az influenzajárvány is a megszokottnál jóval komolyabb lehet. Elon Musk elárulta, hogy kire fog szavazni 168.hu     2022-11-08 06:24:04     Külföld USA Twitter Elon Musk A republikánus jelöltek támogatására buzdította az amerikai választókat a kiegyensúlyozott hatalommegosztással érvelve Elon Musk milliárdos üzletember, a Twitter új tulajdonosa hétfőn. Zöldséghiány Belgiumban? Magyar Mezőgazdaság     2022-11-08 04:31:00     Mezőgazdaság Gazdaság Belgium "Idén télen a szokásoshoz képest a belga üvegházi zöldségkészlet körülbelül tíz százaléka lesz elérhető" – hívta fel a figyelmet Barry Michiels, a Gebroeders Michiels exportőre hozzátéve: „a helyi ellátást tekintve olyan, mintha tíz évet mentünk volna vissza az időben." Különös módon akar megszerezni a Louvre egy híres szelencét Startlap Utazás     2022-11-07 23:07:45     Utazás Életmód Párizs Adomány Salamon-szigetek Immár tizenharmadik alkalommal szervez adománygyűjtést Mindenki mecénás elnevezésű kezdeményezése keretében a Louvre, ezúttal Choiseul herceg, XV. Lajos egyik leghíresebb minisztere tubákos szelencéjének megszerzése érdekében. Virágzik a feketeturizmus Erdélyben napi.hu     2022-11-08 06:33:00     Külföld Románia Turizmus A hivatalos statisztikai adatok alapján kiderül, hogy Romániában, ezen belül Erdélyben igen magas lehet a fekete, azaz be nem jelentett turizmus aránya. Szakértők szerint a pihenőhelyek 40 százalékos kihasználtsága a nyereségesség előfeltétele. Félidős amerikai választások: a végeredményre néhány napot kell majd várni Magyar Hírlap     2022-11-08 06:25:03     Külföld USA Ma választ Amerika, ezzel kapcsolatban Karine Jean-Pierre, a Fehér Ház szóvivője azt közölte, hogy minden érvényes szavazatot jogszerű és megfelelő módon összesítenek. Kézi-Eb: nagyon megverték Romániát 24.hu     2022-11-08 03:33:47     Sport Románia Kézilabda Két kiütéses győzelmet, és két izgalmas összecsapást tartogatott a hétfő a tornán. Elvesztette veretlenségét a Real Madrid, a tabella élére ugrott a Barcelona Eurosport     2022-11-07 23:22:08     Foci Spanyolország Real Madrid La Liga A címvédő és eddig veretlen Real Madrid 3-2-re kikapott a Rayo Vallecano otthonában a spanyol labdarúgó-bajnokság 13. fordulójának hétfői zárómérkőzésén. Lássuk, mikor kell legközelebb esőre számítani Kiderül     2022-11-08 05:05:31     Időjárás A hét első felében alapvetően száraz időre van kilátás, legfeljebb ködszitálás fordulhat elő. Csütörtökön újabb hidegfront vonul át hazánk felett, amelyből többfelé számíthatunk esőre hazánk területén.

We start off the & Years war with a look at some of the major leaders, William Pitt the elder, Choiseul, Frederick the Great and Maria Teresa and the Diplomatic Revolution. Then we turn to North America, where this war was known as the French and Indian War and take the war from the small forces with obscure commanders like George Washington through the deportation of the Acadians and then look at Wolfe and Montcalm covering the dramatic seizure of Quebec.  There is also a long look at the failed campaign in upper New York under Abercromby starring Duncan Campbell and the ghost who haunts him.

The Bureau of Health Education within the Ministry of Health, Wellness and Elderly Affairs has received support through UNICEF to ensure continued efforts at COVID-19 infection prevention and control in communities. One component of this support entails conducting a series of training seminars with key partners in communities. One of the targeted partners are the Home Help Caregivers. The Choiseul Caregivers were recently provided with this training. For complete details, visit: https://www.govt.lc/news/ipc-training-for-choiseul-caregivers

durée : 01:15:00 - Les Nuits de France Culture - par : Albane Penaranda - Le premier itinéraire de la série parcourt Clichy où Louis-Ferdinand Céline s'installe comme médecin pendant qu'il rédige “Voyage au bout de la nuit”, puis Montmartre où il vit jusqu'à son départ de Paris en juillet 1944 en passant par le passage Choiseul de son enfance où sa mère était dentelière. - invités : Philippe Sollers écrivain

Aujourd'hui j'ai le plaisir de faire témoigner à mon micro Ludovic Donati, Directeur de la Transformation et de la Performance Numérique du Groupe Eramet. Depuis 2017, Ludovic porte le programme de transformation numérique du Groupe et vient d'intégrer le classement Choiseul 100 qui met en avant les 100 leaders économiques de demain.      Avec Ludovic, nous partons décrypter les dessous de la transformation numérique et environnementale d'Eramet. Pour suivre les actualités de Ludovic, rendez-vous sur son LinkedIn :  https://www.linkedin.com/in/ludovic-donati/ Pour approfondir la stratégie du Groupe Eramet : https://www.eramet.com/fr/groupe/strategie

Aujourd'hui j'ai le plaisir de faire témoigner à mon micro Ludovic Donati, Directeur de la Transformation et de la Performance Numérique du Groupe Eramet. Depuis 2017, Ludovic porte le programme de transformation numérique du Groupe et vient d'intégrer le classement Choiseul 100 qui met en avant les 100 leaders économiques de demain.   Avec Ludovic, nous partons décrypter les dessous de la transformation numérique et environnementale d'Eramet. Pour suivre les actualités de Ludovic, rendez-vous sur son LinkedIn :  https://www.linkedin.com/in/ludovic-donati/ Pour approfondir la stratégie du Groupe Eramet : https://www.eramet.com/fr/groupe/strategie

ESSENTIEL, le rendez-vous culture présenté par Sandrine Sebbane qui reçoit Tristane de Choiseul et Douha Al Maari pour leur livre « La rebelle d'Alep » paru chez Albin Michel À propos du livre : «La rebelle d'Alep» paru aux éditions Albin Michel Douha Al Maari, syrienne, réfugiée politique en 2015, raconte le parcours tragique qui l'a amenée à émigrer, mais aussi le destin d'une femme qui se veut libre et indépendante : une enfance heureuse dans une famille progressiste, un mariage précoce à un mari qui se révèle violent, un divorce courageux avec deux enfants, des études entreprises avec détermination pour acquérir son indépendance financière, son refus des contraintes imposées aux femmes et du voile qui tombe sur elles en Syrie, son arrestation pour le simple fait d'avoir manifesté et finalement le difficile choix de l'exil, l'exode à travers le Liban, l'Égypte, la Turquie, la Grèce, l'Italie... et enfin la solitude et le long parcours de l'intégration en France. Derrière ce récit, s'incarnent cinquante ans de l'histoire de la Syrie, d'Hafez à Bachar al-Assad, la surveillance accrue et de plus en plus ouverte, la corruption, les arrestations, la torture...

Ol stori long program: PNG National Kot igivim tok orait long Oil Search kampani i bung wantaim Santos kampani; New Caledonia bai vout gen long weeken sapos em bai kamap independent or nogat; Choiseul province blong Solomon Islands i laik long ol pi;ol yet i tekim ownaship long tingting blong state gavman na; toktok long social media long heve blong mental health long PNG.

durée : 00:51:28 - Le Cours de l'histoire - par : Xavier Mauduit - L'espionnage prend une tournure inédite au siècle des Lumières avec l'émergence de la diplomatie européenne et les avancées technologiques. La pratique du renseignement se structure avec les réseaux d'espionnages, comme celui de Louis XV, le Secret du Roi. - invités : Stéphane Genêt Docteur en histoire, professeur d'histoire-géographie au lycée Choiseul de Tours; Évelyne Lever Historienne spécialiste de l'histoire du XVIIIe siècle

Le monde des affaires, c'est souvent une question de relations personnelles et donc de réseau. Avoir un bon réseau est une condition de réussite pour les cadres et les chefs d'entreprise africains. Depuis 2014, l'institut Choiseul, laboratoire d'idées à la philosophie libérale, crée un vaste réseau entre les jeunes dirigeants économiques venus d'Afrique. C'est l'African business forum qui tient sa rencontre annuelle à Nice ce mercredi 24 et ce jeudi 25 novembre. « En fait aujourd'hui, le capital d'un homme d'affaires, c'est son réseau, ce n'est pas l'argent. L'argent, on peut le trouver partout. Les bailleurs de fonds et les banques sont là. Mais le réseau c'est notre capital. » Walid Loukil est le directeur général adjoint du conglomérat tunisien fondé par son père, Loukil Groupe. Il est aussi l'un des premiers de la promotion de l'African Business forum de Choiseul, lancé en 2014. Et en ces temps de crise, il mesure l'importance du réseau : « Qu'on le veuille ou pas, avec la crise du Covid-19, mon réseau d'avant est de retour, car aujourd'hui les gens font davantage confiance à l'ancien réseautage qu'à celui d'aujourd'hui. »   Aguibou Ly a créé une société de services dans le secteur minier en Guinée, et le réseau est pour lui un investissement sur le long terme : « Le networking n'est pas quelque chose qui se fait de façon immédiate. On crée des relations aujourd'hui qui peuvent vous être bénéfiques dans vingt ans. » L'entrepreneur cite un exemple simple : « Dans d'autres conférences, nous avons eu à rencontrer des personnes avec lesquelles nous avons fait des affaires six ans plus tard. Le but, c'est vraiment de rencontrer des gens, et de savoir si vous avez les mêmes valeurs, pouvoir développer des relations qui vous permettront un jour, au besoin, de pouvoir travailler ensemble. » Brakissa Bamba, directrice générale adjointe chez l'ivoirien PetroCI a, quant à elle, une vision plus prédatrice du réseau : « C'est de savoir qui fait quoi ailleurs et qu'est-ce que ces personnes pourraient faire chez nous. » « Œuvrer à l'Afrique de demain » Ali Amahdar, directeur de la Stratégie et du développement de Choiseul souhaite, lui, faire émerger une nouvelle classe de dirigeants économiques africains : « On navigue un peu sans visibilité, et donc on a besoin d'être rassuré. C'est mieux en groupe qu'individuellement. On va peut-être plus lentement, mais on va plus loin. » Et de conclure que « l'idée de Choiseul, c'est de mettre dans un cadre privilégié et bienveillant des intelligences qui peuvent œuvrer à l'Afrique de demain. C'est vraiment des profils assez rares qui ont envie de faire bouger les lignes à l'échelle continentale. » Tous insistent sur un point : il ne faut pas hésiter à multiplier les réseaux et à les croiser. Qu'ils soient universitaires, scolaires, professionnels, voire même confessionnels.

Depuis quelques mois, nous découpons nos podcasts en séries de 4 ou 5 épisodes, notamment pour vous aider à naviguer parmi les sujets parfois très divers que nous traitons avec nos intervenants et intervenantes. Depuis ces découpages, nous recevons pas mal de retours d'auditeurs et d'auditrices qui regrettent de devoir cliquer sur l'épisode suivant pour passer d'un épisode à un autre. Si c'est votre cas, sachez que ce n'est pas normal et que vous pouvez changer le passage automatique d'un épisode à un autre dans vos réglages. Mais, pour faire plus simple, on s'est aussi dit que nous pouvions vous partager les versions complètes. Alors, cet été, nous rediffusons nos derniers épisodes en version complète. Pour cet épisode, nous vous proposons un voyage. Jean-Michel Onillon et Quentin Franque sont allés à la rencontre de Eric La Bonnardière, le cofondateur et CEO de Evaneos, une plateforme en ligne qui vous permet de concevoir vos voyages sur mesure avec des agences locales. En 2009, Evaneos a vu le jour grâce à la rencontre entre Yvan et Eric. Au fil des années, la scale-up a accumulé les éloges et les preuves d'amour, tant de la part de leurs clients que des investisseurs. Après une première levée de 18 millions en 2016, Evaneos a en effet levé près de 70 millions d'euros en 2019. D'ailleurs, si on se réfère au classement Choiseul 100 2021, Eric fait partie des 25 jeunes dirigeants français les plus prometteurs. C'est la classe non ?  Avec lui, vous découvrirez une série d'épisodes peut-être moins techniques que les précédents, en tout cas moins tournés vers nos sujets habituels du marketing, de la communication et de l'expérience client.  Dans la première partie, nous abordons le début de l'aventure Evaneos et leur nouvelle vision du tourisme  : - La rencontre avec son associé Yvan Wibaux, qui a fait naître leur projet en 2 ou 3 rencontres - Leur vision du voyage tournée vers la liberté de donner place à l'inconnu - La création de leur marketplace, qui, au départ, n'était pas une évidence..  - Obtenir un taux de satisfaction à 97% qui a normalisé leur présence sur le secteur  Ensuite, Eric nous explique leur stratégie pour embarquer leur communauté grâce au contenu et à la data : - Leur contenu a pour but d'aider les voyageurs, sans objectif de devenir un média - Comment Evaneos a utilisé un mix contenu/data pour plus de personnalisation de voyage  - La vision itérative des cofondateurs ancrée dans les valeurs d'Evaneos Nous avons également parlé des conséquences de la crise du Covid19 sur leur activité : - “Un de nos investisseurs nous a dit “essayez de réfléchir à un scénario où il n'y aurait plus de compagnie aérienne qui fonctionnent”, je lui ai dit “t'es complètement fou, ça n'arrivera jamais”, et un mois après c'était le cas”, comment Evaneos a fait face à la première vague du Covid-19.  - Comment Eric et Yvan ont surmonté les prises de décisions dans l'urgence, comme la réorganisation de leur équipe - Travailler à 70% au lieu de bénéficier du chômage partiel à 100%, c'est le choix d'Evaneos pour préparer leur futur de manière optimiste - “On s'est tellement habitué maintenant à faire des visioconférences, et ne pas prendre un avion pour une réunion de 2h, qu'à mon avis, toute la partie voyage business ça va être impacté à très long terme”, les perspectives d'Eric sur le tourisme de demain et les nouvelles habitudes de voyager Et enfin, une partie plus personnelle : - Comment Eric respire face à la situation sanitaire, grâce à sa famille et ses passions pour le sport, la montagne et le voyage (surtout quand il n'y a pas de touristes)   - Leurs conseils aux nouveaux arrivants chez Evaneos : être libre, créatif et innovant - Son talent pour Excel dévoilé lors de leurs premières levées de fonds - Une folle rencontre qui l'a marqué : Alex Honnold, grimpeur professionnel américain, connu pour avoir monté le film Free Solo qui raconte son histoire

Oleg Kivokurtsev is Co-Founder and Director of Development at Promobot company, manufacturer of autonomous service robots. He was born and raised in Perm, Russia. He became interested in robotics in 2012, three years later he founded Promobot together with partners. Their first robot was built in the garage. In four years, the startup grew from the orders for local shopping centers to the production of batches of robots for customers around the world. Last year, about two hundred promobots were collected, and the geography of their deliveries expanded to 36 countries. The revenue of Promobot exceeds 3 million dollars a year, investors value the company more than 30 million dollars.Awards and titles:Member in the international list "Forbes under 30" among entrepreneurs under 30 years oldMember of the "Choiseul 100 Russia" list - a rating of the brightest and most talented representatives of modern Russians under 40, whose potential "contributes to the modernization of the country's economy"Winner of the "GenerationS 2014" competition in the "Industrial" categoryWinner of "Startup Village2015" in the category "Robotics"Entered the TOP-100 of the international competition "Slush 2015" (Helsinki)Resident of the Skolkovo FoundationSilver medalist of the Startup of the Year 2016 award in the Global Company nominationWinner of the "Exporter of the Year" award (Perm Territory) in the "High-tech export" nominationWinner of the Kommersant Publishing House Prize in the "Fast Growth" nomination (For success in export)FIND OLEG ON SOCIAL MEDIALinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter================================PODCAST INFO:Podcast website: https://www.uhnwidata.com/podcastApple podcast: https://apple.co/3kqOA7QSpotify: https://spoti.fi/2UOtE1AGoogle podcast: https://bit.ly/3jmA7ulSUPPORT & CONNECT:Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/denofrichTwitter: https://www.instagram.com/denofrich/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/denofrich/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/denofrich

Government Notebook (June 22, 2021) The Central Statistical Office of Saint Lucia gears up for the quarterly Labour Force Survey; and the district of Choiseul soon to solidify its place as Saint Lucia's craft mecca. For details on these updates and more, visit: www.govt.lc/news www.facebook.com/SaintLuciaGovernment www.youtube.com/SaintLuciaGovernment www.twitter.com/SaintLuciaGov www.instagram.com/saintluciagovernment/ www.pod.co/government-of-saint-lucia

Aujourd’hui, nous vous proposons un voyage pour le 20e épisode de notre podcast Flashback. Jean-Michel Onillon et Quentin Franque sont allés à la rencontre de Eric La Bonnardière, le cofondateur et CEO de Evaneos, une plateforme en ligne qui vous permet de concevoir vos voyages sur mesure avec des agences locales. En 2009, Evaneos a vu le jour grâce à la rencontre entre Yvan et Eric. Au fil des années, la scale-up a accumulé les éloges et les preuves d’amour, tant de la part de leurs clients que des investisseurs. Après une première levée de 18 millions en 2016, Evaneos a en effet levé près de 70 millions d’euros en 2019. D’ailleurs, si on se réfère au classement Choiseul 100 2021, Eric fait partie des 25 jeunes dirigeants français les plus prometteurs. C’est la classe non ?  Avec lui, vous découvrirez une série de 4 épisodes peut-être moins techniques que les précédents, en tout cas moins tournés vers nos sujets habituels du marketing, de la communication et de l'expérience client. Mais, à travers son expérience nous avons voulu vous offrir au moins trois choses : 1 - des clés pour mieux comprendre votre marché 2 - une vision sur ce que c'est de porter un projet, avec mesure et contrôle 3 - une plongée au coeur des aspects plus difficiles de la conduite d'une aventure quand les choses tournent soudainement mal et qu’il faut réagir (et on remercie Eric d'avoir accepté de s'ouvrir sur ces sujets alors que dans 90% des cas, nous nous serions pris une veste... ou un très beau discours de communication éloigné des réalités)

Dans cet épisode, je vous emmène dans un monde de plus de 300.000 sites marchands, celui d’une plateforme e-commerce, j’ai nommé Prestashop ! Acteur bien connu de la FrenchTech, Prestashop est leader sur le marché des solutions e-commerce pour développer un site marchand, l’entreprise a créé tout un écosystème autour de ses fonctionnalités natives. Et pour en parler, qui de mieux que son CEO, Alexandre Eruimy. Trentenaire reconnu par ses pairs, listé dans le classement Choiseul 2021 comme leader économique de demain, avec lui nous revenons sur cette célèbre solution Front. Mais avant cela, nous profitons de l’occasion d’avoir Alexandre avec nous pour prendre un peu de hauteur. L'ordre du jour habituel est maintenu : Nous vivons une époque des plus singulières, beaucoup de paradigmes changent, les attentes des consommateurs se modifient. Bref, qu’en est-il du marché, quels sont les besoins nouveaux et les tendances qui se dessinent  ? C’est par ces questions que nous ouvrons notre conversation. Nous poursuivons par un focus sur Presta. Carrefour vient d’annoncer le lancement d’un site dédié au jardin avec la solution Prestashop. En 2021, quelle est la proposition de valeur de l’éditeur ? Comment l’entreprise accompagne-t-elle ses clients dans les changements ? Et ils sont nombreux ! Par exemple, la DSP2 ou encore la nouvelle réglementation autour de la TVA sont des enjeux pas toujours faciles à appréhender pour un e-commerçant. Enfin nous terminerons notre échange par un exercice de projections. En effet, je demande à notre invité d’imaginer le visage du e-commerce dans les prochaines années. Bonne écoute, toujours sans coupure !

The list of mistresses of the kings of France is long. For Louis XV, sandwiched between two of the most famous kings might be best known for his many lovers than for the man himself. After Madame de Pompadour who we have also talked about, Madame du Barry definitely left her mark on Versailles and a very young Marie Antoinette. Jeanne Bécu was born on August 19, 1743, in Vaucouleurs in the northeast of France. Her mother Anne Bécu who was known for her beauty and her father was unknown.  It is thought that her father could be a Franciscan monk, Jean-Jacques Baptiste de Vaubernier. Anne had worked as a seamstress at the local convent and could be where the scandalous act occurred. Finding a job as an apprentice to a hairdresser, Lametz who she also was in a relationship until she obtained all of his money and moved on. Later working in a perfume shop and as an assistant to a hatmaker, picking up one odd job after another until one day she met a man at a Paris casino. Jean-Baptiste du Barry owned a casino and also a brothel. He was instantly struck by her beauty and knew he must have her. The two became an item but he also convinced her to work as a prostitute and courtesan for him. She was instantly popular with the elite and men at court. Frequent trips to Versailles to see the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Duc de Choiseul who was a very loyal customer. In 1768, while leaving Versailles she was spotted by Louis XV who was still mourning the death of Madame de Pompadour, but the beautiful young lady intrigued him. Listen to the newest episode of La Vie Creative - Paris History Avec A Hemingway today. More info and photos: https://www.claudinehemingway.com/paris-history-avec-a-hemingway-podcast-1Support Claudine on Patreon and get more of Paris and all her stories and benefits like discounts on her tours, custom history and exclusive content  https://www.patreon.com/bleublonderougeFacebook https://www.facebook.com/BleuBlondeRougeInstagram https://www.instagram.com/claudinebleublonderouge/Sign up for the weekly Blue Blonde Rouge newsletter  https://view.flodesk.com/pages/5e8f6d73375c490028be6a76Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/join/Laviecreative)

Les femmes de Louis XV Nous sommes au début de l’été 1769, à Versailles. Louis XV, dans un courrier, réagit à l’aversion que son chef de gouvernement, le duc de Choiseul témoigne à l’égard de la favorite, Madame du Barry. Le roi écrit : « … Vous faites bien mes affaires, je suis content de vous ; mais gardez-vous des entours et des donneurs d’avis ; c’est ce que j’ai toujours haï et que je déteste plus que jamais. Vous connaissez Madame du Barry (…) Elle est jolie, j’en suis content, et je lui recommande tous les jours de prendre garde aussi à ses entours et donneurs d’avis : car vous croyez bien qu’elle n’en manque pas. Elle n’a nulle haine contre vous ; elle connaît votre esprit et ne vous veut point de mal. Le déchaînement contre elle a été affreux, à tort pour la plus grande partie. L’on serait à ses pieds si … Ainsi va le monde… » Madame du Barry est une des femmes de Louis XV qui les aimait beaucoup. Dans son entourage, on trouve, bien sûr, la reine Marie Leszczynska, ses filles, ses petites maîtresses et les favorites. Qu’ont-elles en commun ? Quel rôle ont-elles joué dans le long règne du roi que l’on surnommait « le Bien aimé » ? Invitée : Cécile Berly, historienne, spécialiste du XVIIIe siècle. Auteure de « Les femmes de Louis XV » aux éditions Perrin

Je suis très content d'avoir découvert cette marque que je ne connaissais pas et qui grâce au classement Choiseul des Hauts de France (Les cent jeunes leaders économiques français de moins de 40 ans), m'a permis de découvrir Clémence Yon, la co-fondatrice de la marque d'accessoires qui porte le nom "Le Colonel". Une marque dont les produits et notamment le fameux nœud papillon sont fabriqués à Lille, dans un atelier où tout est réuni pour être réactif, agile et proche de leurs clients. Au début de leur aventure entrepreneuriale, il y avait comme une tendance à rire à l'idée de produire des nœuds papillons et puis avec beaucoup de travail et de pugnacité, Le Colonel, c'est 2 millions d'euros, une production made in France, des emplois et des perspectives encourageantes. Belle découverte et belle écoute

Quels sont les visages de l’Afrique de demain ? Voilà la question à laquelle tente de répondre l’Institut Choiseul. Le laboratoire d’idées vient de publier pour la septième année consécutive son classement des 100 jeunes leaders économiques du continent, baptisé « le Choiseul 100 Africa ». Un classement qui fait la part belle à ces jeunes managers, chefs d’entreprise ou créateurs de moins de 40 ans qui inventent le capitalisme africain.  Ingrid Etoke est camerounaise, elle figure en 34e position dans l’édition 2020 du classement des 100 jeunes leaders économiques africains : « Je suis dans le classement Choiseul depuis 2015. À cette époque, j’ai 34 ans et je suis directrice générale d’une très grande multinationale sur le continent. Et effectivement, j’ai beaucoup d’influence, et une équipe de 200 personnes. » Pour être sélectionné, il faut avoir moins de 40 ans, posséder une influence économique ou sociale, occuper ce que l’on appelle une position de leader. Mais pas seulement. L’Institut Choiseul mesure aussi l’évolution des parcours. Ainsi Ingrid Etoke, qui a travaillé quinze ans dans l’industrie pharmaceutique en Afrique, s’occupe aujourd’hui d’une organisation à but non lucratif impliqué dans la santé publique. De l’intérêt privé, elle est passée à l’intérêt collectif : « Je travaille beaucoup sur l’industrialisation. Un des grands challenges de l’Afrique de demain, c’est l’industrialisation. Il faut comprendre comment mettre en place des modèles industriels durable, surtout dans le domaine de la santé qui est un domaine très compliqué. » C’est en fait une radioscopie qu’effectue depuis sept ans le laboratoire d’idées, ce qui permet de mettre en lumière des tendances de fond. Ali Amahdar est le directeur international de l’Institut Choiseul : « La première tendance, ça va être la représentation des femmes qui comptent pour 40% des lauréats cette année. C’est une tendance à la hausse, cette année. La deuxième tendance, ça va être la représentativité des territoires. En 2020, nous avons 31 pays représenté sur le top 100. Et enfin, la dernière tendance, ça va être l’augmentation du nombre de secteurs d’activité représentés dans le classement. Nous passons de quatorze à seize. Ce qui en dit beaucoup sur le dynamisme du contient. » Et justement l’analyse des domaines d’activité permet de comprendre que le secteur privé africain ressemble de plus en plus à ce qui se fait ailleurs. Ali Amahdar : « Comme vous le savez, nous constatons dans le monde une financiarisation croissante de l’économie, et l’Afrique n’échappe pas à cette dynamique. De nombreux chantiers ont été lancés en matière de réglementation et d’amélioration du climat des affaires qui permettent à l’Afrique de libérer son potentiel. Et nos lauréats viennent sanctionner cette tendance de fond. Après, nous allons avoir d’autres secteurs également très représentés. L’agroalimentaire, l’industrie. Et enfin, également les représentants des institutions qui prennent une part active aux organes de gouvernance et d’investissement sur le continent qui sont absolument fondamentaux pour la stabilité et le financement de la croissance africaine. » Le Choiseul 100 Africa n’est pas seulement un classement, c’est aussi un réseau de jeunes leaders qui se réunissent chaque année et produisent leur vision du développement du capitalisme africain.   

The Ministry of Health on Sunday, January 10, 2021 received confirmation of twenty four new cases of COVID-19. This brings the total number of cases diagnosed in country to 462. All twenty four cases are Saint Lucian nationals ranging in age from 11 years to 47 years. They are from the Castries, Gros-Islet, Anse La Raye, Dennery, Babonneau and Choiseul districts. For details, visit: http://www.govt.lc/news/saint-lucia-records-cases-439-to-462-of-covid-19

Ol stori long program: Vanuatu gavman igat plan blong salim citizenship blong kantri longol pipol we inogat kantri blong ol; ol staff na student blong University blong South Pacific i hamamas long oli putim bek Vice Chancellor blong USP long wok blongen; wanpla grup blong ol meri long Choiseul long Solomon Islands i agensim tingting blong gavman long kamapim maining wok long provins na; Papua New Guinea igat nambawan meri dokta o vet blong ol animol.

Ol stori long program: Vanuatu gavman igat plan blong salim citizenship blong kantri longol pipol we inogat kantri blong ol; ol staff na student blong University blong South Pacific i hamamas long oli putim bek Vice Chancellor blong USP long wok blongen; wanpla grup blong ol meri long Choiseul long Solomon Islands i agensim tingting blong gavman long kamapim maining wok long provins na; Papua New Guinea igat nambawan meri dokta o vet blong ol animol.

In today's headlines- The Governments of Saint Lucia and the Republic of China Taiwan continue to strengthen diplomatic ties And Invest Saint Lucia breaks ground on the La Fargue Development in Choiseul

Dans une période où beaucoup de Français ont déjà décidé d'abandonner les grandes villes pour vivre à la campagne, délaissant les appartements exigus pour des maisons avec jardin, je voudrais aujourd'hui faire un clin d'œil à l'un des Gentlemen Farmer du Rock les plus connus au monde, je veux parler de Mick Jagger. Depuis qu'il a 40 ans, Mick Jagger, ce chanteur mondialement connu de tous les excès, a pourtant pris soin de se pré-confiner bien avant l'heure, au château de Fourchette, en Touraine, dans l'ancien logis du Duc de Choiseul, premier ministre de Louis XV...

In today's headlines- Fishers of Choiseul to benefit from continued support by the Government of Japan And The First Farmers Market of 2020 hosted in Dennery 

El pasado martes, 14 de enero, en "El Que Avisa No Es Traidor”. Entrevistamos a Eduardo Olier, Presidente y CEO del Instituto Choiseul España. Además, tuvimos en el estudio a Miguel Caballero, CEO de Tutellus para presentarnos su libro "Bitcoin, Blockchain y tokenización para inquietos" E Ignacio Echenagusía, nos trajo como siempre, sus canciones en su sección de #música. Programa presentado y dirigido por Luis Vega con la producción de Conchi Burgos. De lunes a jueves en directo de 10.30 a 12.30 y en #redifusion de 19.30 a 21.30.

El pasado martes, 14 de enero, en "El Que Avisa No Es Traidor”. Entrevistamos a Eduardo Olier, Presidente y CEO del Instituto Choiseul España. Además, tuvimos en el estudio a Miguel Caballero, CEO de Tutellus para presentarnos su libro "Bitcoin, Blockchain y tokenización para inquietos" E Ignacio Echenagusía, nos trajo como siempre, sus canciones en su sección de #música. Programa presentado y dirigido por Luis Vega con la producción de Conchi Burgos. De lunes a jueves en directo de 10.30 a 12.30 y en #redifusion de 19.30 a 21.30.

Premier épisode du podcast Slow Mornings,Entrevue avec Alexandre Nahoun co-fondateur de Alma Chimney Cake.Alma Chimney Cake Factory c'est aujourd'hui deux coffee shops Parisiens, qui proposent des brioches hongroises dites "Kurtoskalacs". Alexandre nous parle de ses débuts, de leur nouveau local au passage Choiseul, de la vie d'entrepreneur, du café de spécialité, du zéro déchet, de l'avocado toast et de bien d'autres choses.Une personne touchante, inspirante et dynamique.Je n'ai pas vu le temps passer et j'espère que ça sera le cas pour vous aussi.Je vous souhaite une bonne écoute.Pour tester leurs brioches hongroises :59 Boulevard Beaumarchais, 75003 Paris, FrancePour tester leurs brioches et bien plus :72 passage Choiseul, 75002 ParisPour les suivre sur Instagram et leur faire un coucou virtuel :https://www.instagram.com/almachimneycake/Alma Chimney Cake Factory est fondé par Alexandre et Norma, sa soeur. Elle ne pouvait pas être présente ce jour de l'interview mais je pense bien à elle en publiant ce premier podcast .. !Ce podcast est tout le premier, il y a donc des imperfections sonores . :) Voir Acast.com/privacy pour les informations sur la vie privée et l'opt-out.

A travers les destins comparés de grandes familles juives russe et ottomane, mais aussi du ministre des affaires étrangères de Louis XV, le duc de Choiseul, nous voyons que, même loin des peuples, des grandes figures contribuent à modeler l'Histoire.

Elizabeth A. Fraser's Mediterranean Encounters: Artists Between Europe and the Ottoman Empire, 1774–1839 (Penn State University Press, 2017) takes its readers on a journey through six illustrated travel albums covering territories held by the Ottomans in the Mediterranean basin and produced between 1774-1839. By decentring the importance of Europe, Elisabeth Fraser instead highlights the entangled histories and intercultural nature of the Ottoman Empire. Through six intertextual although very distinct travel albums, the book challenges its readers to look very closely at and engage with images in the works of Choiseul, Cassas, Mouradgea d’Ohsson, Melling, Louis Dupré and Delacroix, underscoring multidirectional viewing. In this podcast, we talk about the six travel albums and their imagery, about the markedness of translating ‘foreign’ images and about how viewing is culturally determined; we also discuss the notion of a single master author and the collaborative enterprise of producing travel books, as well as many other fascinating aspects the book covers. Ricarda Brosch is a curatorial trainee at the Asian Art Museum Berlin (Museum fur Asiatische Kunst Berlin – Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz), which is due to reopen as part of the Humboldt Forum in 2019. You can find out more about her work by following her on Twitter @RicardaBeatrix. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Elizabeth A. Fraser's Mediterranean Encounters: Artists Between Europe and the Ottoman Empire, 1774–1839 (Penn State University Press, 2017) takes its readers on a journey through six illustrated travel albums covering territories held by the Ottomans in the Mediterranean basin and produced between 1774-1839. By decentring the importance of Europe, Elisabeth Fraser instead highlights the entangled histories and intercultural nature of the Ottoman Empire. Through six intertextual although very distinct travel albums, the book challenges its readers to look very closely at and engage with images in the works of Choiseul, Cassas, Mouradgea d’Ohsson, Melling, Louis Dupré and Delacroix, underscoring multidirectional viewing. In this podcast, we talk about the six travel albums and their imagery, about the markedness of translating ‘foreign’ images and about how viewing is culturally determined; we also discuss the notion of a single master author and the collaborative enterprise of producing travel books, as well as many other fascinating aspects the book covers. Ricarda Brosch is a curatorial trainee at the Asian Art Museum Berlin (Museum fur Asiatische Kunst Berlin – Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz), which is due to reopen as part of the Humboldt Forum in 2019. You can find out more about her work by following her on Twitter @RicardaBeatrix. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Elizabeth A. Fraser's Mediterranean Encounters: Artists Between Europe and the Ottoman Empire, 1774–1839 (Penn State University Press, 2017) takes its readers on a journey through six illustrated travel albums covering territories held by the Ottomans in the Mediterranean basin and produced between 1774-1839. By decentring the importance of Europe, Elisabeth Fraser instead highlights the entangled histories and intercultural nature of the Ottoman Empire. Through six intertextual although very distinct travel albums, the book challenges its readers to look very closely at and engage with images in the works of Choiseul, Cassas, Mouradgea d’Ohsson, Melling, Louis Dupré and Delacroix, underscoring multidirectional viewing. In this podcast, we talk about the six travel albums and their imagery, about the markedness of translating ‘foreign’ images and about how viewing is culturally determined; we also discuss the notion of a single master author and the collaborative enterprise of producing travel books, as well as many other fascinating aspects the book covers. Ricarda Brosch is a curatorial trainee at the Asian Art Museum Berlin (Museum fur Asiatische Kunst Berlin – Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz), which is due to reopen as part of the Humboldt Forum in 2019. You can find out more about her work by following her on Twitter @RicardaBeatrix. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Elizabeth A. Fraser's Mediterranean Encounters: Artists Between Europe and the Ottoman Empire, 1774–1839 (Penn State University Press, 2017) takes its readers on a journey through six illustrated travel albums covering territories held by the Ottomans in the Mediterranean basin and produced between 1774-1839. By decentring the importance of Europe, Elisabeth Fraser instead highlights the entangled histories and intercultural nature of the Ottoman Empire. Through six intertextual although very distinct travel albums, the book challenges its readers to look very closely at and engage with images in the works of Choiseul, Cassas, Mouradgea d’Ohsson, Melling, Louis Dupré and Delacroix, underscoring multidirectional viewing. In this podcast, we talk about the six travel albums and their imagery, about the markedness of translating ‘foreign’ images and about how viewing is culturally determined; we also discuss the notion of a single master author and the collaborative enterprise of producing travel books, as well as many other fascinating aspects the book covers. Ricarda Brosch is a curatorial trainee at the Asian Art Museum Berlin (Museum fur Asiatische Kunst Berlin – Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz), which is due to reopen as part of the Humboldt Forum in 2019. You can find out more about her work by following her on Twitter @RicardaBeatrix. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Elizabeth A. Fraser's Mediterranean Encounters: Artists Between Europe and the Ottoman Empire, 1774–1839 (Penn State University Press, 2017) takes its readers on a journey through six illustrated travel albums covering territories held by the Ottomans in the Mediterranean basin and produced between 1774-1839. By decentring the importance of Europe, Elisabeth Fraser instead highlights the entangled histories and intercultural nature of the Ottoman Empire. Through six intertextual although very distinct travel albums, the book challenges its readers to look very closely at and engage with images in the works of Choiseul, Cassas, Mouradgea d’Ohsson, Melling, Louis Dupré and Delacroix, underscoring multidirectional viewing. In this podcast, we talk about the six travel albums and their imagery, about the markedness of translating ‘foreign’ images and about how viewing is culturally determined; we also discuss the notion of a single master author and the collaborative enterprise of producing travel books, as well as many other fascinating aspects the book covers. Ricarda Brosch is a curatorial trainee at the Asian Art Museum Berlin (Museum fur Asiatische Kunst Berlin – Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz), which is due to reopen as part of the Humboldt Forum in 2019. You can find out more about her work by following her on Twitter @RicardaBeatrix. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Madame de Pompadour l’appelait l’Excellence bleue. Il fut secrétaire d’Etat aux Affaires étrangères, ministre d’Etat, lieutenant général des armées du roi. Mais aussi gouverneur de Touraine, secrétaire d’Etat à la guerre puis à la Marine, colonel général des Suisses et enfin secrétaire d’Etat aux Affaires étrangères. Le nom de Choiseul raisonne dans l’histoire du XVIIIe siècle au même titre que ceux du cardinal de Bernis ou encore de Vergennes. Choiseul vécut à une époque de bouleversements européens, mais aussi intérieures, dont il fut un des acteurs aux côtés du roi Louis XV et de madame de Pompadour, tant et si bien que l’on parlera à leur endroit d’un véritable triumvirat. Interrogée par Christophe Dickès, Monique Cottret présente pour les auditeurs de Storiavoce ce personnage fascinant qu'était Etienne François, duc de Choiseul, fils aîné de la famille de Stainville. Notre invité: Disciple de Robert Mandrou et Jean Delumeau, Monique Cottret est spécialiste des phénomènes politiques, religieux et culturels à l’époque moderne. Professeur émérite à l’université de Paris-Nanterre, elle a consacré de nombreux ouvrages au XVIIIe siècle dont Culture et politique dans la France des Lumières, 1715-1792 (2002) et Jean-Jacques Rousseau en son temps (avec Bernard Cottret, Perrin, 2004). Son Histoire du jansénisme (2016) a reçu le prix Madeleine Laurain-Portemer de l’Académie des sciences morales et politiques. Elle vient de publier une biographie de Choiseul aux éditions Tallandier. _____________________________ - Retrouvez nous sur www.storiavoce.com/ - Notre compte Twitter: twitter.com/Storiavoce - Notre page Facebook: www.facebook.com/storiavoce/

Sieste et saveur

Paris et Londres verront d'un oeil très différent la guerre de la Conquête qui va se jouer chez nous. Au coeur de cette bataille, qui décidera du sort de l'Amérique française, s'opposeront les visions de deux hommes : William Pitt et le Duc de Choiseul. L'historien Éric Bédard nous raconte ce moment de notre histoire.

If you wished you could do all the things the Count of Saint Germain could do, meet all the people he had met, and learn all the secrets of life he seemed to possess, and on top of it all, have several lifetimes to employ your skills, what then? The question is, what would you do with these gifts? Would you be content to merely be the life of the party, or would you try and make a difference in the affairs of nations and enlighten humanity, even if it cost you your freedom or your once immortal life? Depending on your answer, the bigger question might be, does it take the right person to seek the mysteries, or do the mysteries seek the right person? Tonight's Quote: “I thought, with all due respect to Madame la Comtesse, that the devil had long since made a mantle out of the skin of this personage.” — Madame d’Adhemar’s maid, as she explained that the Count of Saint Germain was waiting to see her. From d’Adhemar’s book, “Souvenirs de la Marie Antoinette” published in 1836. Show Links: We've found that some sites are not showing these links as clickable unless they are URLs, so until those outlets improve their show notes section, we are providing actual URLs next to the clickable description of each link to make things easier for our listeners! Jessie Desmond's Timeline of the Count's appearances on her blog, Finding Count St. Germain http://bit.ly/2jhyNas Extraordinary savant, Daniel Tammett http://bit.ly/2jhuoEt The Oldest People in the World http://bit.ly/2ka0FgS Emma Morano, last person alive born in 1800s, turns 117 http://bit.ly/2ka1XIx Travis J. Dow's collection of podcasts on Podcastnik, with Pete Collman http://www.podcastnik.com/ Direct to: Travis J. Dow & Pete Collman's History of Alchemy podcast http://bit.ly/2jym9Fe Jessie Desmond's Finding Count St. Germain blog http://bit.ly/2j9GX5p The Elixir of Life http://bit.ly/2ka0Cle The Philosopher's Stone http://bit.ly/2iLkr5U The Count of St. Germain, on Wikipedia http://bit.ly/2jtpbK6 Is the fantastic American actor and comedian Kevin Pollak The Count? - He kinda looks like him! http://bit.ly/2iLrbRq François-Marie Arouet, the man known as Voltaire http://bit.ly/1L0hapB The alchemy website on levity.com http://bit.ly/2kbMCvs Alchemy on Wikipedia http://bit.ly/2j9Bdc3 Thomas Sleman's book, Strange but True: Mysterious and Bizarre People, Who Were They and Where Did They Go http://a.co/d8ZQoBz Other books by Thomas Sleman http://amzn.to/2kbPqZi Jacobite rising of 1745 http://bit.ly/2j4iY9B Major-General, Lord Robert Clive, aka "Clive of India" http://bit.ly/2ka14A2 Seven Years' War on Wikipedia http://bit.ly/1Mm2WCo The Seven Years' War on The History Channel http://bit.ly/1LF0QLj Prince Charles "Karl" of Hesse-Kassel http://bit.ly/2iLJ9Dh Rosicrucianism on Wikipedia http://bit.ly/2jOiTbp Étienne François, duc de Choiseul http://bit.ly/2ka4oea Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp http://bit.ly/2jhvuQR Catherine the Great http://bit.ly/1qaT3gM Biography of Catherine II, aka Catherine the Great http://bit.ly/1ELdg0B Peter III of Russia http://bit.ly/2jhAWmp Hotel de Ville, Paris http://bit.ly/1RW2U0W Napoleon III http://bit.ly/1FIvTFD Francis Rákóczi II, possible father of The Count of St. Germain? http://bit.ly/2jhwT9X The Bilderberg Group http://bit.ly/1N4LbqD Bilderberg Meetings' official website http://bilderbergmeetings.org/ Bohemian Grove http://bit.ly/1HZRwBF List of Bohemian Club members http://bit.ly/2ahiw5U Ambrose Bierce's An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge http://bit.ly/2iLFg16 The Ambrose Bierce Project http://bit.ly/1uoJBkH PBS Documentary: Uranium - Twisting the Dragon's Tail http://to.pbs.org/2jII66j Manhattan Project http://bit.ly/1K0ca3P Harry Shearer's film, Teddy Bear's Picnic http://imdb.to/2kahsQG Casebook on the Men In Black, by Jim Keith http://bit.ly/2jXmXmT Vlad III, aka "Vlad the Impaler" or "Vlad Dracula" http://bit.ly/1nkAxP0 Principality of Wallachia http://bit.ly/2j4sF7I Zuul the Gatekee...

Ce matin du 10 février, le duc de Choiseul observe le duc de Bedford signer le fameux traité par lequel la France cède, à la Grande-Bretagne, le Canada et diverses autres possessions à travers le monde. Il s'y prépare depuis trois ans. Cette guerre qui a duré sept ans a coûté trop cher à la France. Il a bien hâte de croiser Voltaire qui lui écrivait quelques mois plus tôt : « Je suis comme le public, j'aime mieux la paix que le Canada et je crois que la France peut être heureuse sans