Qualla: Battle of Arundel Island

Battle of Arundel Island: Introduction

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit United States Army, Public domain. What was supposed to be a mopping-up operation turned into the worst fighting of the New Georgia campaign. The commander of the 43rd Infantry Division would say so himself. The Americans came ashore on Arundel Island on 27 August 1943 expecting a garrison of 200 tired defenders. They left twenty-five days later after reinforcing a single regiment into eight battalions - with Marine tanks, 155mm howitzers, chemical mortars, and a 345-man Japanese body count behind them. The island the planners thought was almost empty had absorbed nearly a month of intensifying combat, and the Japanese on it had bought time for a larger withdrawal from Kolombangara that would, in turn, buy time for the defense of Rabaul and Bougainville. The value of Arundel was not the island itself. It was the dates on the calendar.

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Image: United States Army | Public domain

Battle of Arundel Island: A Map of Choke Points

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit United States Marine Corps, Public domain. Arundel lies off the western coast of New Georgia, separated from it by Hathorn Sound and the Diamond Narrows - a water passage narrow enough that artillery on one side can reach the other. North of Arundel across the Blackett Strait sits Kolombangara, a cloud-wrapped volcanic co...

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Image: United States Marine Corps | Public domain

Battle of Arundel Island: The 172nd Goes In

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit United States Army, Public domain. The 172nd Infantry Regiment landed unopposed on Arundel's southeastern tip on 27 August 1943, three battalions wading through mangrove and reef. Once ashore, the regiment split and pushed two columns north - one up the eastern coast toward Stima Lagoon, one up the western coast t...

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Image: United States Army | Public domain

Battle of Arundel Island: Tanks in the Mangroves

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit United States Army, Public domain. The turning point was armor. Thirteen Marine tanks - a platoon from each of the 9th, 10th, and 11th Defense Battalions - came ashore with Colonel Douglas Sugg on 15 September to break the deadlock. On the night of 16-17 September, five tanks from the 11th Defense Battalion moved ...

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Image: United States Army | Public domain

Battle of Arundel Island: The Cost of a Delay

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit United States Army, Public domain. The official numbers: 44 Americans killed and 256 wounded. 345 Japanese killed and 500 wounded. Among the dead were the Japanese regimental commander, Colonel Satoshi Tomonari, and two of his battalion commanders, killed by American artillery fire as they tried to cross from Kolo...

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Image: United States Army | Public domain

Battle of Arundel Island: What the Island Carries Now

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit United States Army, Public domain. Arundel today is quiet. The mangroves have reclaimed most of the fighting ground. The Stima Peninsula and Bustling Point - names that meant something terrible in 1943 - appear on no tourist map. The coral reefs around the island are what draws outsiders now, divers staging from n...

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Image: United States Army | Public domain